Farming

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This article is about farming skill. For fertilizers and seeds, see Gardening. For gardening tools, see Tools.

Farming is one of the skills, added to Project Zomboid in RC2.9, allowing the player to sow seeds and create a sustainable way to gather food. Farming is also influenced by the seasons system, meaning crops will yield more in summer than in winter.

Farming skill benefits

Increasing the farming skill provides additional information about the crop status when the crop info is viewed (right-click -> Info).

At skill level 0, the player cannot discern much useful information about the crop they just planted, and rookie farmers have to rely on visual cues about the plant status.

Farming level	Benefit
1
2	Current growth phase shows the name. Crop health becomes color coded.
3
4	Water level becomes color coded and shows a bar graphic. Disease (if present) shows the name. Hovering the mouse cursor over the crop shows the water level.
5	Current growth phase shows the number/7. Health shows a number/100. The water level shows a number/100 including mouse cursor.
6	Disease (if present) shows a number/100.
7
8	Next growth phase shown in number of hours.
9
10

Increasing farming skill

You only gain farming skill XP when the player successfully harvests a crop they planted. No other actions (watering, checking, digging, or planting) give any farming XP.

Farming experience is gained based upon the crop's health divided by 2, +25 if the crop is in good condition, -15 if it's in bad condition, up to a maximum of 100 XP.

From CFarmingSystem.lua (Project Zomboid directory/media/lua/client/Farming/):

-- add xp, depending on the health of the plant
function CFarmingSystem:gainXp(player, luaObject)
	local xp = luaObject.health / 2
	if luaObject.badCare == true then
		xp = xp - 15
	else
		xp = xp + 25
	end
	if xp > 100 then
		xp = 100
	elseif xp < 0 then
		xp = 0
	end
	player:getXp():AddXP(Perks.Farming, xp)
end

Farming guide

The crop growth stages of Tomato plants

Why farm?

No matter how good you are at scavenging, eventually all the food on the map will be exhausted. Once the power fails, a significant portion of the usable food will rot and become inedible. You cannot continue to survive without finding new, sustainable sources of food. Currently, in Project Zomboid, you have four options: 1) Farming, 2) Fishing, 3) Foraging, and, 4) Trapping. Of these, farming requires the most work, but also appears to give the most rewards. Combining your harvested crops with fish or trapped animals can make significant meals that will replenish hunger, thirst, and unhappiness simultaneously.

Step 1: character creation

This step can often be skipped, however choosing the right occupation and traits can rapidly increase the rate at which it takes to level up the farming skill. There is only one of each occupation and trait that will help with farming. The farmer occupation will give the player 3 farming skill levels, but it will also give an experience boost to that skill. This bonus cannot be gained after the character is created. This is the same for every major skill.

Starting skill level and experience boost

Level 0 - 25% (Default for all skills)

Level 1 - 75%

Level 2 - 100%

Level 3+ - 125%

Therefore, the farmer occupation will give a major advantage if the player wishes to live their life on a farm.

Occupations

Name	Starting points	Major skills	Description	Notes
Farmer	2	+3 farming	Can make Mildew Spray and Insecticide Spray.	Usually not the obvious choice when creating a new character, but picking this occupation will certainly make farming more rewarding.

Traits

Name	Cost	Description	Notes
Gardener	-4	+1 Farming	Able to make the Mildew Spray and Insecticide Spray without reading The Farming Magazine.

Step 2: collecting materials

To start farming at all, you will need:

A tool with Dig Plow tag.
Seeds (the more seeds and the larger the variety, the better).
Something that can hold water.

Additional items that will help to sustain a farm over long periods are:

Step 3: preparing your garden

Example of ideally spaced crops, grown in a specific pattern to prevent the spread of plant diseases

Choose a good location for your farm

Zombies can trample your crops. This will damage or kill them.
- Players can safely walk over crops without trampling them.
You must plant in a place where zombies can't get to them while still allowing sunlight in.
- One option is to build walls around the area you will plant in.
- Another option is to plant on top of a second story where zombies cannot access easily.

Moving dirt (optional)

To move dirt to your chosen location, you need to have a shovel and sacks.
Equip the shovel in both hands
Put the sacks in your main inventory.
Right-click on an area with dirt (grass is a safe bet, but there is only one layer of usable dirt per tile)
Click "Take some dirt -> Sack." Each sack can hold four (4) tiles of dirt.
Right-click on the tile you want to drop the dirt on.
Click "Spill dirt -> Dirt bag."

Repeat until you have enough tiles for the amount of crops you want to plant.

Note: It is advised to space farming plots one tile in each direction to prevent the spread of disease. More information about the various types of plant diseases and their treatments is listed below, which can remove the need for spacing crops if utilized properly.

Preparing the dirt tiles

Make sure the plowing tool is in the main inventory.
Right click on a nearby section of land, and then select "Dig".
A patch of dirt with three furrows should appear.

Product	Ingredients	Tools	Requirements	Workstation	XP
Plowed Land	One of: Trowel ×1 Hand Fork ×1 Garden Fork ×1 Garden Hoe ×1 Shovel ×1 Shovel ×1 Snow Shovel ×1 Each of: Grass ×1	none	none	none	none

Step 4: planting crops

Seed packets

If you found seed packets, you will need to open them. This will give you the loose seeds that you will plant.

Put a seed packet in your main inventory.
Right click on the seed packet and select "Open Packet of…"
Make sure your loose seeds are in your main inventory and not any bags.

Product	Ingredients	Tools	Requirements	Workstation	XP
Broccoli Seeds ×50	Broccoli Seeds Packet ×1	none	none	none	none
Cabbage Seeds ×50	Cabbage Seeds Packet ×1	none	none	none	none
Carrot Seeds ×50	Carrot Seeds Packet ×1	none	none	none	none
Potato Seeds ×50	Potato Seeds Packet ×1	none	none	none	none
Radish Seeds ×50	Radish Seeds Packet ×1	none	none	none	none
Strawberry Seeds ×50	Strawberry Seeds Packet ×1	none	none	none	none
Tomato Seeds ×50	Tomato Seeds Packet ×1	none	none	none	none

Planting seeds

Verify you have some sort of water in your inventory to water your seeds with. You will generally need 50+ units of water per tile.
Right click on a tile you've tilled (a tile with three furrows).
Click "Sow Seed -> <Crop Name>"
Right click on the newly planted seeds and select "Info." Leave this window open to the side so you can see how well watered your crops are.
Immediately water the crop by right-clicking and choosing "Water -> <Number>". It is recommended to water all crops with at least 50 units of water. Alternatively, players can sow fresh seeds while it is already raining.
Continue watering in 5-10 unit increments until the crop info box says, "Well Watered."

Product	Ingredients	Tools	Requirements	Workstation	XP
Broccoli (crop)	Plowed Land ×1 Broccoli Seeds ×6 Water ×70 unit(s)	none	none	none	none
Cabbage (crop)	Plowed Land ×1 Cabbage Seeds ×9 Water ×85 unit(s)	none	none	none	none
Carrots (crop)	Plowed Land ×1 Carrot Seeds ×12 Water ×65 unit(s)	none	none	none	none
Potato (crop)	Plowed Land ×1 Potato Seeds ×4 Water ×65 unit(s)	none	none	none	none
Radish (crop)	Plowed Land ×1 Radish Seeds ×6 Water ×75 unit(s)	none	none	none	none
Strawberry (crop)	Plowed Land ×1 Strawberry Seeds ×12 Water ×85 unit(s)	none	none	none	none
Tomato (crop)	Plowed Land ×1 Tomato Seeds ×4 Water ×75 unit(s)	none	none	none	none

Step 5: growing crops

Watering

Remember to keep your crops in the "Well Watered" state. You will need to check them at least once per day, unless it is raining. A watering can will speed up this process significantly.

If you're low on water, you will have to hope that it rains often enough to keep your crops watered. Placing Rain Collector Barrels around your garden to collect rain will be necessary to make sure you don't lose a harvest of crops and starve. Place them near your garden so you don't have to walk far to fill up your watering can. If you haven't got a high enough carpentry skill, a variety of water storage containers have a rain factor, which allows them to be filled when placed in the rain.

Rain also waters crops outdoors 3 units every 10 minutes. It is recommended for most crops to plant them outside on a rainy day so that you don't have to water them at the beginning.

Growing time

Crops will take different lengths of time to grow depending on what seeds are planted. The growing phases in the game are divided into 7. The current phase's numerical value is visible from farming level 5 onwards. Crops can be harvested in growing phase 6 or 7, except for Strawberries and Tomatoes, which can only be harvested in phase 7. Seeds are only acquired when harvesting a crop in phase 7. Once a crop reaches phase 7, the next phase is actually "rotten", with the hours remaining visible in the info window with sufficient farming skill level. See the table below for estimates on this duration.

Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and radishes share the same progress through basic stages of growth:

Seedling (Phases 1 to 2)
Young (Phases 3 to 5)
Ready to Harvest (Phase 6)
Seed-bearing (Phase 7)

Potatoes and Strawberries differ slightly through their stages:

Seedling (Phases 1 to 2)
Young (Phases 3 to 5)
Blooming (Phase 6)
Seed-bearing (Phase 7)

Tomatoes also have different stages:

Seedling (Phases 1 to 2)
Young (Phases 3 to 6)
Seed-bearing (Phase 7)

Crop specifications

Crop	Minimum water	Maximum water	Average days until harvest	Additional days for seeds	Required seeds	Days to rot
Carrots	35	85	11	2	12	10
Broccoli	70	-	23	5	6	10
Radish	45	85	12	3	6	9
Strawberries	85	-	24	5	12	10
Tomato	75	-	24	N/A	4	10
Potato	65	-	20	4	4	2
Cabbage	85	-	10	2	9	2

NOTE: Strawberries when harvested go back to stage 2 instead of being removed.

NOTE: Carrots and radishes need more water to start out: carrots min 80 in phase 1 and 70 in phase 2, radishes min 70 in phase 1.

The growing time per phase is configured as follows:

Carrots: 50-54h

Broccoli: 103-116h

Radishes: 56-61h

Strawberry: 103-130h

Tomatoes: 89-102h

Potatoes: 89-102h

Cabbage: 46-51h

Additionally, the water level and disease level of the plant may make the plant take longer to grow. If only slightly over or under watered, it will cause the plant to take a few more hours to go through the next growth phase. If fairly over or underwatered, the plant will fail to grow and the next growth stage check would happen in 30 hours to see if the plant is in favorable conditions to grow. If severely over or underwatered, the plant will fail to grow and the next growth phase check will be in 50 hours (inconsistent).

Mildew can cause the plant to grow more slowly. Below level 10, Mildew has no effect on the growth of the plant. Between levels 10 and 29, Mildew causes the plant's next growth stage to be a number of hours longer equal to the level of the Mildew. Between levels 30 and 59, the Mildew causes the plant to fail to grow and sets the next growth phase check to 30 hours later. At level 60 or above, when the plant checks for growth it will be killed by the Mildew.

Fertilizer

Fertilizing your crops will help them grow more quickly. If you use NPK Fertilizer , it will remove 20 hours off the current growth cycle of the plant. If there are less than 20 hours remaining on that growth cycle, it will immediately proceed to the next level and the extra hours will be lost. Generally, fertilizer is hard to come by for the large farms needed to sustain yourself, so it should only be used in an emergency to speed plant growth when food is getting scarce. Using too much fertilizer on a plant will kill it (4 or 5 uses).

You can make your own fertilizer as long as you have level 2 of carpentry and some rotten food. You'll need to build a composter. Once you have built it you can place perishable food that has gone rotten inside, usually it takes 2 weeks to get some fertilizer, you'll need a sack to get the fertilizer, and then you can use it on your plants.

Threats to crops

Trampled crops

Zombies

Your immediate problem is the constant threat of zombies. Zombies can trample your crops and force your hard work (and water) into waste. Keep zombies away from your crops.
Players can safely walk over crops without trampling them.
Try to plant in a secure location and always check for zombies in your crops before turning your back to the crops.
Crawlers (the zombies that crawl on the ground rather than walk around) may go unseen in almost-fully grown crops.
Contrary to popular belief, growing crops on patches with zombie blood does not currently cause the seedlings to become instantly "sickly". It is still highly recommended to clean blood from tiles using bleach and a mop, bath towel, or dish towel.

Plant diseases

There are currently three diseases in Project Zomboid: 1) Mildew, 2) Flies, and 3) Devil's Water Fungi (DWF). Whenever a plant grows a stage there is a chance for the plant to contract the diseases. Well cared for plants have a 1 in 99 chance each of contracting the three diseases. Underwatered plants have a slightly higher chance of getting diseased depending on how underwatered they are. Each of the diseases have a different affect on your plants:

Mildew can cause your plants to slow down in growth, stop growing until treated, or outright kill your plants. See Growing time for more.
Flies causes your plants to lose more water per interval (default is 5 hours) for every 10 levels. This means that a plant with 50 levels in Flies loses 6 water per interval instead of 1.
Devil's Water Fungi makes it so that plants when harvested have a reduced yield. For every 10 levels of DWF, the yield of the plant is reduced by 1 when harvested.

In the case of Mildew and Flies, you can make sprays to get rid of them. This is not the case for DWF as the only method to remove DWF from a plant is to lower the water of the plant to less than 90% the required amount (if plant requires 70 units of water, 70 × 0.9 = 63 -> 62 units or less is needed). As this can be challenging to do at times, it is recommended that when you see a plant with DWF to destroy it.

The disease level of your plants increases every 2 hours until cured. Mildew and Flies increases by 0.5 levels with well watered plants and by 1 level on underwatered plants. DWF increases by 1 level on watered plants and decreases by 2 levels on underwatered plants.

Contrary to popular belief, disease does not truly spread from plant to plant. When plants experience growth, they check for disease once again for every diseased plant (not including Flies) within a 1 tile radius (including diagonals). If nearby there is a case of Mildew and a case of DWF (can be same plant), then the main plant will check 3 times for disease instead of once. Ensuring your crops are spaced properly will help greatly in avoiding the spread of diseases, should they show up.

Making plant disease cures

Either the gardening trait, farmer profession or have read The Farming Magazine are needed to craft these items. Once a cure is depleted, an empty spray can is available again.

Product	Ingredients	Tools	Requirements	Workstation	XP
Insecticide Spray	Gardening Spray Can (Empty) ×1 Water ×3 unit(s) Cigarettes ×5	none	Farmer (or) The Farming Magazine	none	none
Mildew Spray	Gardening Spray Can (Empty) ×1 Milk ×1	none	Farmer (or) The Farming Magazine	none	none

Note: Even rotten milk can be used to make Mildew Spray.

Plant health

When you sow seeds to grow crops, the plant gets a starting health value around 50. The health is denoted as a number between 0 and 100 that slowly increases over time, unless affected by disease, temperature, or inappropriate water levels. Currently, radishes and carrots have a maximum water level and thus can be overwatered, causing them to lose health. It is recommended to grow these crops in an indoors/roofed farm area, so that rain doesn't cause them to lose health from overwatering.

Source	Effect on plant health
Sunny	+1
Not sunny	+0.25
Temperature below 10°C	-0.25
Ideal water	+0.4
Underwatered by 10% to 30%	-0.2
Underwatered by more than 30%	-0.5
Overwatered by 10% to 30% and plant health > 20	-0.2
Overwatered by more than 30% and plant health > 20	-0.5

Note: overwatered and underwatered amounts in table are relative to the minimum and maximum water of the plant. So broccoli with a water minimum of 70 would be considered severely underwatered when the water drops below 49. Additionally, a plant will die regardless of health if it is currently affected by Mildew and the value has exceeded 60 when it experiences a growth phase.

The health of a plant determines the size of the yield upon harvest. For every 10 health above 50 the plant will produce an extra vegetable. Seeds are given to the character when a plant is harvested during its seed-bearing phase; this is the last phase of a plant's life, and appears after the plant can be harvested solely for food.

Health levels from least to highest are: Stunted, Sickly, Healthy, Verdant, Flourishing

Water levels from driest to wettest are: Parched, Dry, Thirsty, Fine, Well watered

Farm equipment

Seed packets

Item	Description
Broccoli Seeds Packet	A packet of seeds opened to obtain 50 broccoli seeds.
Cabbage Seeds Packet	A packet of seeds opened to obtain 50 cabbage seeds.
Carrot Seeds Packet	A packet of seeds opened to obtain 50 carrot seeds.
Radish Seeds Packet	A packet of seeds opened to obtain 50 radish seeds.
Strawberry Seeds Packet	A packet of seeds opened to obtain 50 strawberry seeds.
Tomato Seeds Packet	A packet of seeds opened to obtain 50 tomato seeds.
Potato Seeds Packet	A packet of seeds opened to obtain 50 potato seeds.

Seeds

Item	Description
Broccoli Seeds	Some seeds that are used to grow and harvest broccoli at the cost of the character's water supply.
Cabbage Seeds	Some seeds that are used to grow and harvest cabbage at the cost of the character's water supply.
Carrot Seeds	Some seeds that are used to grow and harvest carrots at the cost of the character's water supply.
Radish Seeds	Some seeds that are used to grow and harvest radish at the cost of the character's water supply.
Strawberry Seeds	Some seeds that are used to grow and harvest strawberries at the cost of the character's water supply.
Tomato Seeds	Some seeds that are used to grow and harvest tomatoes at the cost of the character's water supply.
Potato Seeds	Some seeds that are used to grow and harvest potatoes at the cost of the character's water supply.

Farm tools

Item	Description
Gardening Spray Can	A can that can hold water. It is used to water the crops.
Watering Can	A container that can hold water. It can also be used to water the crops.
Trowel	A small metal shovel. It is used to till the soil.

Farming skill benefits

Increasing farming skill

Farming guide

Why farm?

Step 1: character creation

Step 2: collecting materials

Step 3: preparing your garden

Choose a good location for your farm

Moving dirt (optional)

Preparing the dirt tiles

Step 4: planting crops

Seed packets

Planting seeds

Step 5: growing crops

Watering

Growing time

Crop specifications

Fertilizer

Threats to crops

Zombies

Plant diseases

Making plant disease cures

Plant health

Farm equipment

Seed packets

Seeds

Farm tools

See also