Odd Planter Behaviour with Oak Saplings

[Magicthize]

So I've got my 25x25 automated tree farms running. My AE network feeds the planter via a precise export bus, the harvester sends the wood and saplings into an interface via buildcraft pipes and there's an ME Emitter set to turn the harvester off when the number of saplings reach a desired amount.

This seems to work well with my birch and spruce farms but oak seems completely incapable of sustaining itself. As the saplings grow and the field fills with more and more trees the planter seems to continue to plant saplings even though there should be nowhere for them to go.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of behaviour?

[Euphoreich]

No, in fact my oak farm produces a ton of saplings, needing less than 1/3rd of the space of the other types of trees. You don't have shear leaves on do you?

[Viktor_Berg]

I personally use spruce for my biofuel farm. Oak is too finicky and annoying to use, not least because it grows into those huge unwieldy branched trees that harvesters have more trouble with than it's worth. They also have the tendency to grow way too close to one another, in fact, so close that their trunks merge. That's loss of valuable leaf blocks right there.

[Magicthize]

I'm not shearing the leaves. The field just uses far more than it produces so it's always trying to play catch up. I think it might have something to do with the trunks merging. I might try adding some brick blocks between the saplings so they can only be planted in a chequerboard pattern. It'd effectively reduce the size of the crop but if it solves the problem it'd be worth it. Frankly as it is right now it's ugly as fuck - it just looks like a giant 25x25 bush with the odd bit of wood visible. If it wasn't for my completionist tendencies I'd fuck it right off and not bother but I want to have easy and automated access to all possible crops, dammit!

[Viktor_Berg]

I assume you use the predetermined planter pattern to plant different plants in different sectors of the planter? I think that was added in one of the newer MFR versions, and might not be available in Tekkit yet (DW20's spotlight shows the functionality).

[Euphoreich]

I assume you use the predetermined planter pattern to plant different plants in different sectors of the planter? I think that was added in one of the newer MFR versions, and might not be available in Tekkit yet (DW20's spotlight shows the functionality).

I've been doing that since tekkit's release, dont think it was in tekkit lite though.

[Magicthize]

Well each field only has 1 crop so no.

[Euphoreich]

Try not placing oak adjacent to oak on the grid, and fill the rest with anything else, carrots, potatoes, nether wart, spruce, birch, rubberwood, wheat.

[Magicthize]

Yeah that'd be fine if I was using the default 3x3 grid pattern but when you extend the range the planter will plant in blocks. So much choices are to make an assload more planters or mark out a pattern in dirt which will prevent the saplings from being planted next to each other.

[TokiWartooth]

yeah magic that won't work with oak because of the trunk merging, may just be better to have the harvester always on on that one. that should work fine.

[jakalth]

heard suggestions about having every other block sand, and planting cactus on them. but not sure of the cactus are completely harvested or if the harvester treats them the same as sugar cane. Also not sure how they react to being next to the solid block of a tree trunk.

If that works, the can be seperated, cooked in a powered furnace, and added to the bio reactor.

[weirleader]

heard suggestions about having every other block sand, and planting cactus on them. but not sure of the cactus are completely harvested or if the harvester treats them the same as sugar cane. Also not sure how they react to being next to the solid block of a tree trunk.

If that works, the can be seperated, cooked in a powered furnace, and added to the bio reactor.

I definitely use cactus (though I haven't tried it next to other crops); the harvester treats them like sugar cane but I couldn't seem to get the planter to plant them. Still, I planted them by hand (spaced apart from each other, on sand) and they're a great addition to my bioreactor. Between them and sugar cane, it's nice to not even have to transport/plant seeds.

Like jakalth said, don't forget to cook them to produce cactus green before adding to the bioreactor.

[Magicthize]

I've resolved the issue by creating a grid pattern to allow the trees to only be planted every few blocks. Here it is with my jungle tree farm.

It greatly reduces the speed and potential yield of the farm but this way they look better when idle and I've got more materials than I need so speed isn't an issue.

[jakalth]

yeah, that does actually look quite nice. And keeps those silly jungle trees from becoming giants as well.

I could see your setup going well in an urban setting. As a joint effort multiplayer game.

[Lethosos]

Actually, you do want giant jungle trees, as that gives you much more in one go and you wouldn't need to add an upgrade to your planter/harvester.

[Magicthize]

The problem with the big jungle trees is that the harvester often can't reach the top of them, so you're left with a floating tree platform. I'll stick with what I have. Like I said speed isn't an important factor and I'd rather have a uniform look for my farms.

[Michael101]

The problem with the big jungle trees is that the harvester often can't reach the top of them, so you're left with a floating tree platform. I'll stick with what I have. Like I said speed isn't an important factor and I'd rather have a uniform look for my farms.

And how freaking hard is it to go into the config and change the default harvester search distance?

And even on servers with default settings, a series of harvesters can be used to get a lot of materials from a redwood tree farm.

[Magicthize]

a) you're assuming I have config control on my server

I've already stated multiple times speed and resource gathering isn't my primary concern. I've already got more jungle wood than I'll probably ever use so I'd rather have a small, attractive looking farm than a large resource sink that looks like shit.