Using the Planter to grow Sugar Cane

[Silmenume]

Hello,

 

I've perused several wiki's and boards trying to find out if Sugar Cane cane be auto farmed using the Planter.  The Technic Forums indicate this is possible here.  It was tagged as updeated as recently as June 7, 2014.  Several other wiki's have all said this is possible.  My experience with 1.2.9e says otherwise.

 

I have just a minimal setup - 3x3 squares.  I am using sand.  The "farm" is surrounded by water.  The Planter is powered and under a block of sand.  I have 1 1/2 stacks of sugar cane in the inventory and have set the "planting pattern" to a ring pattern.  One is prohibited from planting a sugar cane anywhere unless it is directly adjacent to water.  I did this because I can't get water adjacent to the center square and wanted to forestall any potential problems.

 

The planter, showing a full energy supply, does not plant any sugar cane.

 

Am I doing something wrong?

 

Best

 

Update - the Harvester works and works intelligently.  It only takes the middle portion of the sugar cane.  It appears that sugar cane is not aided by the Fertilizer.  Given this arrangement I just have to hand plant the field once and the harvesting is automatic yet the growth cycle is not accelerated.

 

Still curious why my experience is in conflict with what's in the wiki's.  Anyone else able to use the Planter with Sugar Cane?

Edited August 14, 2014 by Silmenume

[Digdug83]

Planters aren't necessary for any plant that doesn't require re-planting after harvest. The harvesters are intelligent enough to recognize stuff like cactus, sugar cane and pumpkin/melons so you don't need planters for them. I'm not even sure if bone meal works on sugar cane. Typically anything you can bonemeal in vanilla you can use fertilizer on with MFR.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Digdug83

[EvilOwl]

If a planter doesn't suit your needs try some other way. Plant sugar cane by hand and set some block breaking machine (with adjacent chest) to the second block of the sugar cane. I always do this pre ME. After I have set AE I use a transition plane in the place of the block breaker. Force-load the chunk.

Edited August 14, 2014 by bochen415

[AetherPirate]

Steve's Carts has auto farming stuff too. Never messed with it. Worth checking out?

[AetherPirate]

Steve's Carts has auto farming stuff too. Never messed with it. Worth checking out?

[Silmenume]

As indicated above, after discovering that despite the ability recorded in many wiki's that appear to be up to date(-ish) that the Planter from MFR is supposed to plant Sugar Cane were all wrong, I did find a workable solution.  Don't use the Planter.  As Digdug indicated and I alluded to in my update there really isn't a need for the Planter for plants that don't need to be replanted after they are harvested.

 

...Plant sugar cane by hand and set some block breaking machine (with adjacent chest) to the second block of the sugar cane. I always do this pre ME. After I have set AE I use a transition plane in the place of the block breaker. Force-load the chunk.

 

I'm curious, why do you use multiple block breaking devices instead of a single MFR Harvester?  Does it have to do with energy?  IOW is using multiple pistons in early game much more feasable than an RF using machine like the Harvester?  Or is it just a matter of taste? 

 

All my farms, mob experience harvesting areas, reactors, home base factories are force chunk loaded already.  But I am always appreciative of solid, sound advise!  Thank you!

 

 

Steve's Carts has auto farming stuff too. Never messed with it. Worth checking out?

 

I've never looked at Steve's Carts.  As I already have a working solution there's no real need, but It might be interesting to take the time to learn about anyway.

 

Best

Edited August 14, 2014 by Silmenume

[EvilOwl]

I'm curious, why do you use multiple block breaking devices instead of a single MFR Harvester?  Does it have to do with energy?  IOW is using multiple pistons in early game much more feasable than an RF using machine like the Harvester?  Or is it just a matter of taste? 

 

All my farms, mob experience harvesting areas, reactors, home base factories are force chunk loaded already.  But I am always appreciative of solid, sound advise!  Thank you!

 

I don't remember the name without NEI in front of my eyes but there's one in tekkit that doesn't need energy. Just a redstone pulse, this can be automated with some kind of Project:Red clock/timer. This is done in the start game level of course. I think it's my personal early tekkit tradition.

 

Let me quote Curunir here:

 

Ultimately, there is no right and wrong, just a lot of choices.

[Curunir]

I think the block removal machine you meant to name is the TE Terrain Smasher. Good to know that it needs a Redstone pulse, so that is why they never worked for me. As usual, the utter absence of documentation is my only gripe with Thermal Expansion.

 

So, yes, a Terrain Smasher setup can produce the desired effect without any power, while the Harvester is a much simpler and cheaper alternative, (1 Harvester vs. n Smashers, where n is the number of Sugar Canes), as long as you have power for it.

[jakalth]

There is the MFR Harvester, steve's carts, pistons, block breakers, or the flowing water trick.

 

MFR Harvesters are the simplest to use and probably the cheapest to make for larger sugarcane fields.  but for a small field, this is not true.  They also require outside power to run.

 

Steve's Carts are interesting to use, but comparatively costly to make.  When used for trees, as you may know, they require coal or lava firing to keep them running.  But, for an open field, like sugarcane, they can be powered entirely by solar power making them entirely self powered.  but going fully solar does have drawbacks...

 

Piston method can be either simple or complex to use, depending on the size and design you go with.  For a small farm, it can be the most cost effective version.  Automation can be simple(clock, vanilla style or using other devices) or far more interesting using other methods.

 

For the flowing water method, you can use pistons as floodgates to create a flooded field type farm.  When you want to harvest, the pistons are opened releasing water over the entire farm, harvesting all the sugarcane.  The cane would need to be replanted afterwords.  This can be done automaticly using autonamous activators.  It is not a cheap method, but does scale quite well if you follow a tiered farm where the farm gradually gets lower every 6 or 7 blocks, starting at the flood gates.

 

Block breaker(aka: terrain smasher) method works just like the piston method except that the block breakers also collect the sugarcane, making it a simpler build.  But it is a bit more expensive to use then the piston method.

 

There are other ways of doing a sugarcane farm as well.  It is one of those plants that has many ways of doing the same task making it one of the more interesting plants to farm.

Edited August 14, 2014 by jakalth

[efflandt]

The harvester at ground level automatically leaves the ground level sugar cane and only harvests what grows above that. That is why it does not need a harvester. You manually plant it once, and then just auto harvest it.

 

Yes, I mean't planter in 2nd sentence.

Edited August 16, 2014 by efflandt

[Silmenume]

I don't remember the name without NEI in front of my eyes but there's one in tekkit that doesn't need energy. Just a redstone pulse, this can be automated with some kind of Project:Red clock/timer. This is done in the start game level of course. I think it's my personal early tekkit tradition.

 

Let me quote Curunir here:

    Ultimately, there is no right and wrong, just a lot of choices.

 

I did not mean to imply that you were doing anything wrong or foolish in my questions.  I apologize if I sounded that way - not me intent.  I was curious as to your reasoning in that I might gain insight.  That's all.  My "whys" were meant for learning purposes, not questions of motive.

 

@jakalth - Quite an illuminating response!  Thanks for enumerating so many possibilities.  You did mention that there are yet more ways to farming sugar cane that hinted at something rather exotic.  If you feel motivated I would be interested in learning about some of these other methods.

 

@efflandt - I assume you meant "Planter" where you typed "Harvester" in your second sentence.  You are correct in that one does not need a planter for sugar cane or cactus for that matter for the same reasons.  There is no need to replant when the crop is harvest by the Harvester. 

 

Yet, all the documentation says the ability exists.  I get it, its not needed if used with a Harvester.  But what if one used a flood harvesting technique and wanted to use the heavily documented ability of the Planter to plant Sugar Cane. 

 

It doesn't really matter in this case.  I just try and drop a big in the ear of the developers either to fix the problem or fix their documentation.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Best

[EvilOwl]

I did not mean to imply that you were doing anything wrong or foolish in my questions.  I apologize if I sounded that way - not me intent.  I was curious as to your reasoning in that I might gain insight.  That's all.  My "whys" were meant for learning purposes, not questions of motive.

 

Not offended in any way. Just tekkit discussion.

 

 

It doesn't really matter in this case.  I just try and drop a big in the ear of the developers either to fix the problem or fix their documentation.

 

MFR for 1.6.4 minecraft is not in development at this time. Only 1.7

Skyboy is busy with pointing out bugs in Forge and arguing with other devs.