Bonsai Trees 4 in FTB Skies 2: Aero

Bonsai Trees 4 lets you farm wooden logs in a small pot instead of a full-size tree farm. You need the sapling and the soil that the tree you want requires, and you also have to give the Bonsai Pot an axe to chop the tree down. That axe loses durability as it works. The pot also has a disguise slot, so it can mimic another block and blend into your build.^[1]

This pack includes version 4.0.9 of the mod.^[2]

Where the quest book puts it

The quest "Bonsai Trees" quest sits in the "Generating Resources" chapter. That chapter belongs to the "Resources & Logistics" group and is chapter 8 of 31 in the book. It has 99 quests, and its introduction says it covers the mods that help you farm items in bulk.^[1]

The Bonsai Trees quest comes after the Clay quest, and its task is to get a Bonsai Pot. Most of the other quests in that chapter are not covered here, so check the quest book for what they say.^[1]

In-game guide

The mod comes with an in-game book called The Book of Trees, which describes the trees in your world. It has entries for the vanilla trees: acacia, azalea, birch, cherry, dark oak, jungle, mangrove, oak and spruce. Each entry has an "In Minecraft" part and an "On Earth" part. For example, the mangrove entry notes that it can grow in water or on land.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]}

The Bonsai Trees quest sits in the "Generating Resources" chapter of the quest book, in the "Resources & Logistics" group (chapter 8 of 31). It comes after the Clay quest, and its task is to get a Bonsai Pot. The quest says bonsai pots farm all sorts of wooden logs, as long as you have the right sapling and soil for the tree you want.^[1]

Step 1: Craft a Bonsai Pot

The pot is the first and only item you have to make. The pack uses this recipe, so check it here rather than guessing.^[14]

Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

5 × any brick

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsaipot

Step 2: Set it up

1. Pick a tree to farm. Each tree needs its own sapling and a matching soil. If you pick a combination that doesn't work, the pot's tooltips tell you there are no valid soils for that sapling, or no valid bonsais for that soil.^[1][15]
2. Put an axe in the pot. The quest says the pot needs one to chop the trees down, and the pot's tooltip reminds you to insert a tool to harvest. Chopping uses up the tool's durability.^[1][15]
3. Optionally, use the disguise slot to make the pot look like another block. The pot's tooltip calls this decoration optional.^[1][15]

Small pots

There is also a Small Bonsai Pot. You don't need a separate crafting route for it: you can turn a Bonsai Pot into a small one, and back again, with these two recipes.^[14]

Small Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Special Copycomponents (bonsaitrees4)

• Bonsai Pot

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsai_pot_to_small

Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Special Copycomponents (bonsaitrees4)

• Small Bonsai Pot

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsai_pot_to_big

How the pack tunes bonsais

The pack leaves the main gameplay values at the mod defaults. gameplay.baseGrowTicks is 200 ticks, which is used for any tree without its own custom grow time. gameplay.toolDamagePerCut is 1, and gameplay.cutCooldown is 20 ticks. The cooldown is how long the pot waits to try again when the cut drops don't fit in its output.^[15][16]

The pot's tooltip also says that enchanting it improves its performance. The sources I have don't say which enchantments help, so check in game before you spend anything on it.^[15]

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

In this pack, Bonsai Trees 4 revolves around one block: the bonsai pot. You grow a tree in it, insert a tool to harvest, and the drops go into the pot's output inventory. The sources don't describe any power, fluid or multiblock setup for the mod, so this section sticks to what they confirm.^[17][18]

The pots

There are two sizes: the Bonsai Pot and the Small Bonsai Pot. You can swap one for the other in the crafting grid, and both conversion recipes use a special recipe type that copies components from the input pot to the result.^[19]

Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

5 × any brick

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsaipot

This is the pack's shaped crafting recipe for the Bonsai Pot.

Small Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Special Copycomponents (bonsaitrees4)

• Bonsai Pot

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsai_pot_to_small

Turns a Bonsai Pot into a Small Bonsai Pot.

Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Special Copycomponents (bonsaitrees4)

• Small Bonsai Pot

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsai_pot_to_big

Turns a Small Bonsai Pot back into a Bonsai Pot.

The pot tooltips mention a few extras. There is an optional decoration slot (camouflage), and the tooltip hints that enchanting the pot improves its performance.^[17]

Soils and saplings

A bonsai needs a sapling and a matching soil. The mod tells you when a pairing doesn't work: a soil can show that there are no valid bonsais for it, and a sapling can show that there are no valid soils for it. If the pot refuses an item, you'll see a message that it can't insert those items.^[17]

JEI helps when you're hunting for a combination. In this pack, client.showJEISubtypes is false, so JEI doesn't list every bonsai variant at once. The mod notes that showing them all can clutter the ingredient list and be heavy on low-end machines.^[17][20]

Growing

A bonsai tree can have its own grow time. If it doesn't, the pot falls back to gameplay.baseGrowTicks. This pack sets it to 200 ticks, which is the mod default, so the base growth speed hasn't been changed here.^[17][18]

If you see the tooltip line "Production is on hold.", the pot isn't producing at that moment.^[17]

Harvesting with tools

A pot won't harvest on its own: its tooltip tells you to insert a tool to harvest. Each cut can damage that tool, and the pack's tool settings are all at the mod defaults.^[17][18]

• gameplay.toolDamageChance is 0.3333333432674408, so each cut has about a one-in-three chance of damaging the tool.^[18]
• gameplay.toolDamagePerCut is 1, which is the damage dealt when that chance triggers.^[18]
• gameplay.toolAllowIndestructible is true, so tools that don't take damage, such as the Supremium Axe from Mystical Agriculture, can be used to cut bonsais.^[17][18]

Output and cooldown

Drops go into the pot's output inventory. If a cut's drops don't fit, the pot waits and tries again after gameplay.cutCooldown, which is 20 ticks in this pack (the mod default). The mod says this exists mainly to stop servers being overloaded by repeated cut attempts while the output is full.^[17][18]

Redstone

The pot shows a redstone status in its tooltip, which reads either Enabled or Disabled.^[17]

Display and debug options

The remaining options only change what you see, not how the pot works. In this pack client.disableModelCache and client.minimalQuads are both false. The model cache option is meant for debugging and has a significant performance cost when enabled, and minimal quads renders only the pot's hull to help very low-end machines. client.showTreesInSaplingTooltip is true, so saplings show their tree in the tooltip.^[17][20]

The debug options debug.showChances, debug.showRollsAsCountInJEI, debug.showUnknownLootConditions and debug.showUnusedSoilRecipesInJEI are all false here. The chances they show are estimated from loot tables, and the mod warns they aren't reliable.^[17][18]

Bonsai Trees 4 doesn't have tiers in this pack, at least nothing the sources describe. Progression is a single step: unlock the pot through the quest book, then start farming logs.^[1][14]

Where it sits in the quest book

The mod's quest, "Bonsai Trees" quest, is in the "Generating Resources" chapter. That is chapter 8 of 31 in the "Resources & Logistics" group. The quest comes right after the "Clay" quest, and its task is to obtain a Bonsai Pot.^[1]

The quest text sets out what the pot needs. You supply the sapling and the soil for the tree you want to farm, and you also give it an axe to chop the tree down. The axe loses durability as it works. The pot also has a disguise slot, so it can mimic another block.^[1]

Crafting the pot

The Bonsai Pot has one in-pack recipe, shown here.^[14]

Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

5 × any brick

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsaipot

There is also a Small Bonsai Pot. You don't craft it from scratch: the pack has recipes that convert a Bonsai Pot into the small version and back.^[14]

Small Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Special Copycomponents (bonsaitrees4)

• Bonsai Pot

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsai_pot_to_small

Bonsai PotMod recipe

Crafting Special Copycomponents (bonsaitrees4)

• Small Bonsai Pot

Recipe id: bonsaitrees4:bonsai_pot_to_big

What you can grow

The mod's in-game guide has entries for these vanilla trees: acacia, azalea, birch, cherry, dark oak, jungle, mangrove, oak and spruce.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Unverified The exact sapling and soil pairings for each tree, how fast the pot grows them, and what each tree yields are not covered by the sources for this pack, so check them in game.

Bonsai Trees 4 has a single quest in the pack's quest book, so this section is short. It sits in the "Generating Resources" chapter, which is chapter 8 of 31 in the book and belongs to the "Resources & Logistics" group. The chapter has 99 quests and covers mods for farming resources in bulk.^[1]

The Bonsai Trees quest

The quest is "Bonsai Trees" quest. Its task is to obtain a Bonsai Pot. In the quest book it comes after the quest called "Clay".^[1]

The quest explains that bonsai trees let you farm all sorts of wooden logs. You need the sapling and the soil required for the tree you want to grow.^[1]

You also have to give the pot an axe to chop the trees down, and this uses up the tool's durability. The pot has a disguise slot too, so it can mimic another block.^[1]

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

Bonsai Trees 4 has a common config for gameplay and debug options, and a client config for visuals and JEI. Good news: every gameplay value in this pack that lists a mod default is set to exactly that default, so the pack hasn't changed how fast trees grow or how tools wear down.^[18][20]

Gameplay options

These live in the common config and are the ones you're most likely to care about.^[18]

• gameplay.baseGrowTicks is 200 in this pack, the same as the mod default. It's the base number of ticks a bonsai tree takes to grow, and it must be above 1.^[18]
• gameplay.toolDamageChance is 0.3333333432674408, the mod default. It's the chance that a tool takes damage when it cuts a bonsai tree. The allowed range is 0.0 to 1.0.^[18]
• gameplay.toolDamagePerCut is 1, the mod default. When a tool does take damage from a cut, this is how much it takes.^[18]
• gameplay.cutCooldown is 20, the mod default. If a tree has been cut but its drops don't fit in the output inventory, this is how many ticks it waits before trying again.^[18]
• gameplay.toolAllowIndestructible is true in this pack. That means indestructible tools, like those from Mystical Agriculture, can be used in bonsai pots.^[18]

Client options

These only affect what you see on your own screen.^[20]

• client.showTreesInSaplingTooltip is true, so sapling tooltips show the tree model.^[20]
• client.showJEISubtypes is false. Turning it on shows all trees in JEI.^[20]
• client.disableModelCache is false, so the model cache stays enabled.^[20]
• client.minimalQuads is false, so the minimal-quads rendering mode is off.^[20]

Debug options

The common config also has a set of debug options, and all of them are false in this pack: debug.showChances (chances in tooltips), debug.showRollsAsCountInJEI (rolls as a count in JEI), debug.showUnknownLootConditions (unknown loot conditions in tooltips) and debug.showUnusedSoilRecipesInJEI (unused soil recipes in JEI).^[18]