Timberborn is a city-building survival game where you lead a colony of beavers, and food is what keeps them going. Most of that food comes from farms, where farmers grow and harvest crops at farmhouses. The crops are split between the two beaver factions, the Folktails and the Iron Teeth. Each faction has its own set and its own way of farming, so it helps to know how crops work before you plant.
Faction
Folktails
Carrot
A fast-growing Folktails field crop that gives early carrots for food.
- Faction
- Folktails
- Farm Building
- Efficient Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 4 days (2.8 with Beehives)
- Harvest
- 3 Carrots
- Harvest Use
- Eaten raw; Refinery + Water → Biofuel.
Sunflower
A Folktails field crop that produces sunflower seeds beavers can eat raw.
- Faction
- Folktails
- Farm Building
- Efficient Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 5 days (3.5 with Beehives)
- Harvest
- 2 Sunflower Seeds
- Harvest Use
- Eaten raw.
Potato
A Folktails crop with a small harvest that can be grilled into food or refined into Biofuel.
- Faction
- Folktails
- Farm Building
- Efficient Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 6 days (4.2 with Beehives)
- Harvest
- 1 Potato
- Harvest Use
- Grill → Grilled Potatoes; Refinery + Water → Biofuel.
Wheat
A Folktails field crop ground into flour for Bread or Maple Pastries.
- Faction
- Folktails
- Farm Building
- Efficient Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 10 days (7 with Beehives)
- Harvest
- 3 Wheat
- Harvest Use
- Gristmill → Wheat Flour → Bakery: Bread or Maple Pastries.
Cattail
An aquatic Folktails crop whose roots become flour for Cattail Crackers.
- Faction
- Folktails
- Farm Building
- Aquatic Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 8 days (5.6 with Beehives)
- Harvest
- 3 Cattail Roots
- Harvest Use
- Gristmill → Cattail Flour → Bakery: Cattail Crackers.
Spadderdock
An aquatic Folktails crop that can be grilled for food or refined into Biofuel.
- Faction
- Folktails
- Farm Building
- Aquatic Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 12 days (8.4 with Beehives)
- Harvest
- 3 Spadderdock
- Harvest Use
- Grill → Grilled Spadderdock; Refinery + Water → Biofuel.
Faction
Iron Teeth
Kohlrabi
The quick-growing Iron Teeth starter crop is eaten straight from the harvest.
- Faction
- Iron Teeth
- Farm Building
- Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 3 days
- Harvest
- 2 Kohlrabies
- Harvest Use
- Eaten raw.
Cassava
An Iron Teeth crop fermented into Fermented Cassava.
- Faction
- Iron Teeth
- Farm Building
- Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 5 days
- Harvest
- 1 Cassava
- Harvest Use
- Fermenter → Fermented Cassava.
Soybean
An Iron Teeth crop fermented with Canola Oil into food.
- Faction
- Iron Teeth
- Farm Building
- Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 8 days
- Harvest
- 2 Soybeans
- Harvest Use
- Fermenter + Canola Oil → Fermented Soybeans.
Canola
An Iron Teeth crop whose seeds make Canola Oil for food production.
- Faction
- Iron Teeth
- Farm Building
- Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 9 days
- Harvest
- 3 Canola Seeds
- Harvest Use
- Oil Press → Canola Oil; used to process Soybeans and Eggplants.
Corn
An Iron Teeth crop processed in a Food Factory into Corn Rations.
- Faction
- Iron Teeth
- Farm Building
- Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 10 days
- Harvest
- 2 Corn
- Harvest Use
- Food Factory → Corn Rations.
Eggplant
An Iron Teeth crop cooked with Canola Oil into Eggplant Rations.
- Faction
- Iron Teeth
- Farm Building
- Farmhouse
- Growth Time
- 12 days
- Harvest
- 3 Eggplants
- Harvest Use
- Food Factory + Canola Oil → Eggplant Rations.
How Timberborn Crops Grow and Get Harvested
Farmers plant and harvest crops at a farmhouse, and you decide where they work by marking empty ground for a particular crop. Once planted, a crop grows on its own, and growth times vary a lot from one crop to the next. You can also set one crop as a priority so farmers tend it first.
Mature crops wait in place until someone picks them. The harvest then has to be carried back to the farmhouse, and that trip is what slows a farm down most, since planting can move quickly from one block to the next. If the farmhouse has no room to store the yield, the crop stays on its block and keeps that space busy. When a block is still marked for the same crop, farmers replant it right away, which is the most efficient setup for a farm with a single farmhouse.
How Water Affects Timberborn Crops
Most crops need irrigated ground to survive, and every Iron Teeth crop is in that group. Each plant can only go so many days without water, and too little water makes it wither and die. Too much is just as dangerous, since a crop that gets flooded dies too. Contaminated Badwater kills plants as well, and it does so much faster than drying out.
Cattail and spadderdock work the other way around. They need to sit in clean, shallow water, so they're grown from an Aquatic Farmhouse set beside or over the water. If the water drops, they start to dry out, and if it rises too far over them, they can drown.
Folktails vs Iron Teeth Crops
The Folktails grow carrots, potatoes, wheat and sunflowers on land and cattail and spadderdock in the water. The Iron Teeth have their own crops: kohlrabi, cassava, corn, soybeans, canola and eggplant, all grown on land. Iron Teeth crops came with Update 4.
Folktails use the Efficient Farmhouse for land crops and the Aquatic Farmhouse for water crops, while Iron Teeth use the standard Farmhouse. The Efficient Farmhouse has three farmers, while the other two types have two each. Folktails also have Beehives, which speed up the growth of nearby crops whether they're on land or in water. Beavers who wander too close can get stung, which costs them a little well-being. Iron Teeth can't build Beehives, so their crops grow at their normal pace.
How Timberborn Crops Become Food
Some crops are ready to eat as soon as they're picked. Carrots and sunflower seeds fill that role for Folktails, and kohlrabi does the same for Iron Teeth. The rest go through a building first, and the building depends on the crop. Potatoes and spadderdock go to a grill, cattail and wheat get milled and baked, and cassava and soybeans go through a fermenter.
Corn and eggplant go to a food factory, while canola is pressed into oil at an oil press. That oil feeds other chains too, since soybeans and eggplant both need it as an ingredient and it also goes into machine grease. Most of these buildings need power, and the grill and bakery use logs, so plan for both before you build a chain.
Which Timberborn Crops to Plant First
Carrots are the easy place to start on the Folktails side, since they ripen quickly. Wheat is the one to plan toward, because it gives the most food per plot when land is tight. Potatoes take up a lot of room for what they return, so they're a lower priority when space is short.
Kohlrabi is the usual first crop for Iron Teeth, and it leaves early resources free for power and water. Cassava comes next, since it is simpler to run than soybeans. Corn is a good fit once a food factory is running, because it feeds a large population from modest farmland.
Canola needs the most planning. Soybeans, eggplant rations and grease all rely on its oil, so a shortage can slow several chains at once. Plant it once you can build an oil press, and build up a stock of oil early. Eggplant is worth adding too, since one harvest becomes more rations than any other Iron Teeth field crop.
Across both factions, variety tends to matter more than volume. Beavers feel better when they eat a mix of foods, so a few different crops usually beat one big field of the same thing.
FAQ
Can you grow crops underwater in Timberborn?
Yes. Cattail and spadderdock grow in water, and they're planted from an Aquatic Farmhouse. The farmhouse itself has to sit above the water, and its workers stop while the building is flooded. The crops only grow where the water is less than one unit deep, so keep an eye on the water level around the farm.
What is the fastest crop in Timberborn?
Kohlrabi is the fastest-growing crop in the game. Its short cycle lets Iron Teeth farmers harvest it several times in a single wet season. It also makes a good quick crop between droughts, when slower crops might not survive the dry spell.
Do crops spread on their own?
No. Crops don't spread naturally, so farmers have to plant every one. Only trees and bushes spread, and only onto empty, irrigated ground next to them.
What happens when a crop gets too dry or too wet?
A crop that is struggling stops growing but keeps the progress it has already made, so it can pick up again once the problem is fixed. A crop that dies is a bigger loss. It loses everything it would have yielded, and it has to be replanted and grown from the start.