Productive Farming in All the Mons

Productive Farming adds crops, flowers and farm blocks to the game. This pack includes version 1.21.1-0.5.3 of it. The quest book gives the crops, the Farm Controller and the animal troughs their own quests, so you can follow along as you build up a farm.^[1][2]

Where it sits in the quest book

The pack has a chapter called Productive Farming. Its three block quests, Auto-Farm ("Auto-Farm" quest), Watering Trough ("Watering Trough" quest) and Feeding Trough ("Feeding Trough" quest), each come after a quest named Productive Farming.^[2]

The crop quests come after one named Crops, for example Oats, Turnip and Quinoa. Flower quests such as Anemone and Balloon Flower come after one named FLOWERS. A few quests, like Orange Bell Pepper and Chocolate Pear Tomato, come after a quest named Mutations.^[2]

Automation: the Farm Controller

The Farm Controller is the heart of the Auto Farm, a multiblock machine. It grows, harvests and replants all crops inside the structure, and that covers Productive Farming, Mystical Agriculture and vanilla crops. Drops are collected in the controller, and you can take them out by hand or through pipes. The quest says the build is explained in the next quest.^[2]

Animal care blocks

• Feeding Trough: has 9 inventory slots, each holding a stack of animal feed that you pipe in. Anything used to breed two animals of the same species works.^[2]
• Watering Trough: takes water buckets instead of feed. Baby animals near it grow faster than babies that aren't, so keep it filled.^[2]

Mutations

Some crops come from mutation instead of direct planting. The quests say cherry tomatoes can randomly mutate into Chocolate Pear Tomato. They describe the orange bell pepper as a mix of red and yellow bell peppers.^[2]

Unverified Whether the ATM Star path uses Productive Farming is not shown by the sources here. Check the pack's quest book for that.

Productive Farming adds a huge crop catalogue, plus a few machines and blocks that automate it. In this pack the mod's quest chapter has quests for the Farm Controller, the Watering Trough and the Feeding Trough. Here is what each one does and the order I'd tackle them in.^[2][3]

Start with the Farm Controller

Begin with the Farm Controller. It is the heart of the Auto Farm, a multiblock machine that grows, harvests and replants every crop inside its structure. Productive Farming, Mystical Agriculture and vanilla crops can all be grown in it. Drops are collected in the controller, and you can take them out by hand or with pipes. The quest "Auto-Farm" quest covers this.^[2]

The farm needs a minimum size of 3x3, and the corners are optional. The inside can be any block your crops need, and the structure must include a Farm Controller. Crops growing on the farm also have a small chance to improve their traits.^[3]

Pick some crops

The pack changes the Botany Pots crop entries for Productive Farming crops. Seed-based crops such as Amaranth Seeds give back both the crop and more seeds. Here is the in-pack entry as an example.^[4]

Amaranth, Amaranth SeedsChanged by the pack

Crop (botanypots)

• Amaranth Seeds

Recipe id: productivefarming:botanypots/amaranth

Changed by the pack: Amaranth Seeds produce Amaranth and more Amaranth Seeds.

Some crops are mutations. For example, Cherry Tomato has a chance to randomly mutate into Chocolate Pear Tomato, so growing a few base crops early unlocks more later.^[2]

Add the animal helpers

Once crops are running, look at the animal blocks. The Feeding Trough makes nearby animals breed. It has 9 inventory slots, and you pipe in animal feed. Anything that breeds two animals of the same species works, so wheat is fine, and bamboo works if you plant bamboo near the animals. Its quest is "Feeding Trough" quest.^[2][3]

The Watering Trough takes water buckets instead of feed. Baby animals near it grow faster than babies that aren't, so keep refilling it with water. Its quest is "Watering Trough" quest.^[2][3]

Productive Farming is built around multiblock farms. You build a structure, give it a Farm Controller, plant crops inside and let the farm harvest them for you. Here is what the mod's own in-game text explains about how that works.^[3]

Building a farm

• The minimum size for a farm is 3x3, and the corners are optional.^[3]
• The inside of the farm can be any block your crops need.^[3]
• The farm multiblock must have a Farm Controller.^[3]

How crop farming works

Crops planted on the farm are harvested automatically. When crops grow, they have a small chance to improve their traits.^[3]

If you don't want to wait for chance, Pollen can be used on a fully grown crop to pollinate it by hand.^[3]

Farm Controller upgrades

The Farm Controller accepts upgrades. The in-game descriptions cover these ones.^[3]

• The stability upgrade strips stats from the crops the farm collects.^[3]
• The time upgrade decreases the time between harvesting attempts. The tooltip says to use it with care, and that multiple upgrades can be installed.^[3]
• The second-tier time upgrade is twice as good as the first one.^[3]

Fish farms and aquaponics

If you make the farm taller, you can use it as a fish farm. Creatures inside the farm boundaries are automatically bred and slaughtered.^[3]

Fish produce nutrient rich water, which can be pumped to a crop farm for increased growth. You can also combine the two farms to make an aquaponics system.^[3]

Troughs for animals

• The Feeding Trough makes nearby animals breed.^[3]
• The Watering Trough increases the growth speed of nearby animals.^[3]

Special crop rules

Some crops have placement rules, and you can read them in their tooltips. Double crops need two blocks of space to grow. Fencepost crops must be planted on a fence post. Mushroom crops have a chance of growing new shrooms on the side of the composter when you compost them.^[3]

Crates for storage

Harvested crops can be packed into crates to keep your storage tidy, and each crate can be unpacked back into the crop. Here is the pair for Agave and Agave Crate. Other crops in the pack follow the same pattern, such as Akebia Crate.^[4]

Agave CrateMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

9 × Agave

Recipe id: productivefarming:crates/agave

Packing Agave into a crate.

9× AgaveMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Agave Crate

Recipe id: productivefarming:crates/agave_unpack

Unpacking the crate back into Agave.

In this pack, Productive Farming progression follows the quest book rather than a set of numbered tiers. The chapter has three machine and animal quests, a long run of single-crop and flower quests, and a set of Mutations quests where one crop is bred from earlier ones.^[2]

Step 1: Crops and flowers

Most of the chapter is single-item quests listed after the Crops entry, like Oats, Turnip and Quinoa. The flower quests are listed after FLOWERS and work the same way, with quests for Anemone, Dahlia and Zinnia. Each of these quests has the crop or flower itself as its task, so you can collect them in any order.^[2]

The pack changed the Botany Pots crop recipes for these plants. Seed crops like Amaranth give back both the crop and its seeds, while others like Agave give back the plant itself. Here is one example of a seeded crop.^[4]

Amaranth, Amaranth SeedsChanged by the pack

Crop (botanypots)

• Amaranth Seeds

Recipe id: productivefarming:botanypots/amaranth

Pack-changed Botany Pots crop recipe: Amaranth Seeds in, Amaranth and Amaranth Seeds out.

Step 2: Mutation lines

The Mutations quests build on earlier crops, so you can follow each chain in order. These are the chains the quest text describes:^[2]

• Tomatoes, line one: Cherry Tomato can randomly mutate into Chocolate Pear Tomato. Combining those two gives Yellow Pear Tomato. Mixing Chocolate and Yellow Pear Tomatoes gives Sungold Tomato.^[2]
• Tomatoes, line two: Beefsteak Tomato can come from a random mutation with Roma Tomato. Combining Roma and Beefsteak gives Blue Beauty Tomato, which also has a chance of being 2 other tomatoes.^[2]
• Grapes: Green and Red Grapes (Green Grape and Red Grape) give Concord Grape. Green and Concord together give Cotton Candy Grape.^[2]
• Corn: Blue Jade Corn is made with Yellow Dent Corn and Cornflowers. Blue Jade plus Yellow Dent gives Black Aztec Corn, and Blue Jade plus Black Aztec gives Sugar Pearl Corn.^[2]
• Bell peppers: Red Bell Pepper and Yellow Bell Pepper give Orange Bell Pepper. Orange and Yellow give White Bell Pepper, and Orange and Green Bell Pepper give Black Bell Pepper.^[2]

Step 3: Automation and animal helpers

Three machine quests are listed after the Productive Farming entry. In "Auto-Farm" quest, the Farm Controller is the heart of the Auto Farm multiblock. It grows, harvests and replants every crop inside the structure, and it works with Productive Farming, Mystical Agriculture and vanilla crops. Drops collect in the controller, and you can take them out by hand or with pipes.^[2]

For animals, "Feeding Trough" quest covers the Feeding Trough. It has 9 inventory slots, and each slot holds a stack of animal feed that you pipe in. Anything that breeds two animals of the same species counts as feed. "Watering Trough" quest covers the Watering Trough, which takes water buckets. Baby animals near it grow faster than babies that aren't, so keep it filled.^[2]

All the quests for this mod live in one chapter called Productive Farming. It splits into a short starter group, a big Crops group, a FLOWERS group and a Mutations group. Most of it is collecting items, so it's quick to work through.^[2]

Starter quests: machines and troughs

• "Auto-Farm" quest (Auto-Farm) is for the Farm Controller. The quest calls it the heart of a multiblock Auto Farm that grows, harvests and replants every crop inside the structure. It handles Productive Farming, Mystical Agriculture and vanilla crops, and the drops collect in the controller, where you can take them out by hand or with pipes.^[2]
• "Watering Trough" quest (Watering Trough) is for the Watering Trough. It takes Water Buckets, and baby animals near it grow faster. Keep it filled.^[2]
• "Feeding Trough" quest (Feeding Trough) is for the Feeding Trough. It has 9 inventory slots, each holding a stack of animal feed that you pipe in. Anything that breeds two animals of the same species works.^[2]

Unverified The Auto-Farm quest says the next quest explains how to build the multiblock, but that quest isn't in the sources I have, so the build requirements aren't covered here.

Crops

The Crops group is a long list of single-item quests, one per crop. Each one asks for the crop itself and has no description. Examples are a quest in "Productive Farming" for Oats, a quest in "Productive Farming" for Turnip and a quest in "Productive Farming" for Cloudberry. They all unlock from the Crops group, so you can do them in any order.^[2]

Flowers

The FLOWERS group works the same way, with one flower per quest. Several carry a dye colour as a subtitle, such as "Balloon Flower" quest (Balloon Flower, Purple), "Sea Holly" quest (Sea Holly, Blue) and "Dahlia" quest (Dahlia, Black). Others are "Amaryllis" quest for Amaryllis and "Cattail" quest for Cattail. These quests also have no description text.^[2]

Mutations

This group is the part with an actual order. Each mutation quest unlocks from the Mutations group plus the quests for its parent crops, so you follow the chains from the base crop upward. Here are the chains.^[2]

• Cherry tomatoes: a quest in "Productive Farming" (Cherry Tomato) leads to a quest in "Productive Farming" (Chocolate Pear Tomato), then a quest in "Productive Farming" (Yellow Pear Tomato), then a quest in "Productive Farming" (Sungold Tomato).^[2]
• Berries: a quest in "Productive Farming" (Golden Raspberry) needs the Sungold Tomato and Raspberry quests. a quest in "Productive Farming" (Miracle Berry) then needs Golden Raspberry and Goji Berry.^[2]
• Roma tomatoes: a quest in "Productive Farming" (Roma Tomato) leads to a quest in "Productive Farming" (Beefsteak Tomato), which the quest says comes from a random mutation. From there you can do a quest in "Productive Farming" (Blue Beauty), a quest in "Productive Farming" (White Wonder) and a quest in "Productive Farming" (Black Beauty). The quests say each of these has a chance of turning out as one of 2 other tomatoes.^[2]
• Corn: a quest in "Productive Farming" (Yellow Dent Corn) leads to a quest in "Productive Farming" (Blue Jade Corn, made with Cornflowers), then a quest in "Productive Farming" (Black Aztec Corn), then a quest in "Productive Farming" (Sugar Pearl Corn), and finally a quest in "Productive Farming" (Rainbow Corn).^[2]
• Grapes: a quest in "Productive Farming" (Green Grape) and a quest in "Productive Farming" (Red Grape) lead to a quest in "Productive Farming" (Concord Grape), then a quest in "Productive Farming" (Cotton Candy Grape).^[2]
• Bell peppers: a quest in "Productive Farming" (Red) and a quest in "Productive Farming" (Yellow) lead to a quest in "Productive Farming" (Orange). From Orange you can reach a quest in "Productive Farming" (White) and a quest in "Productive Farming" (Black, which also needs Green Bell Pepper). a quest in "Productive Farming" (Purple) comes after Black and Red.^[2]