Multifarm

Multifarm is a multiblock structure from Forestry used for the Automated Farming of trees, crops and flowers in LV-tier or beyond. It comes in multiple size configurations and consists of Farm Blocks, Farm Hatch(es), Farm Valve(s), Farm Gearbox(es) and Farm Control(s), with a surrounding pad of vanilla structure blocks for the farmland. To operate, it must be supplied with power, water and Fertilizer, consumption rates varying with biome and type of produce.

Construction

The core multiblock is a rectangular cuboid with a footprint of 3x3, 3x4, 4x4, 3x5 or 5x5 blocks, always four blocks tall. The entire multiblock is solid and must be made from Farm Block/Gearbox/Valve/Hatch/Control. There are Brick, Quartz, Stone, Sandstone and Netherbrick variations of each Farm block, their only difference is cosmetic and they can be freely mixed. Any block that does not have a surface face (completely enclosed inside) must be a Farm Block. The second layer from the top also cannot be anything but Farm Blocks; this will update to wide grey/black banding when the multiblock successfully forms. If the multiblock is not forming, right click any farm block to get an error message about what blocks are incorrectly placed. Other blocks can be any Farm (type); the multi is not limited to single copies of gearbox, valve, hatch or control and multiples will all be functional.

x1 Intricate Circuit Board with Electron Tubes; any farm except trees
x1+ Farm Gearbox; accepts power
x0+ Farm Valve; accepts water
x0+ Farm Hatch; outputs items
x0+ Farm Control; redstone control
x10+ Farm Block
x72+ Basic support blocks; Stone Brick (+ Chiseled/Mossy/Cracked), Sandstone (+ Smooth/Chiseled), Brick, Quartz (+ Chiseled/Pillar) or Netherbrick

Farm Block Types

Every Gearbox can accept power and the number of powered Gearboxes determines how quickly the Multifarm will operate - each one correlates to an additional parallel per farm action. Gearboxes will not pass power to adjacent gearboxes; each one needs its own power connection.

Valves are passive, but can accept water from any side. If no valve and automated water supply is provided, water must be added to the farm via the bottom left input slot in its GUI.

Hatches will auto-output (push) to their bottom faces, and can be pulled with logistics from any side. Supplies for the farm (dirt, seeds, fertilizer) can also be inserted via a hatch or the GUI, which will only accept valid items for the current configuration.

Control blocks will disable the matching side if a redstone signal is applied to a N/S/E/W face, or the entire farm if the top or bottom is triggered. Multiple incorrect missing resource error tabs will be shown when the multifarm is turned off via a Farm Control.

Working Area

The layer of support blocks define the working area of the multifarm. The multifarm will not farm any area without a support block below it, which can be used to restrict and shape its range. Support blocks must be placed at the same height as one of the Multifarm's layers so that the layer has a 3x3 of farm blocks at its center, or is up to one block below. Support block types (Stone Brick, Brick, Netherbrick, Sandstone or Quartz) can be mixed freely and the only difference is cosmetic.

Red: valid support block placements
Invalid farm layout^[1]

Cross section of a Manual farm, showing Bricks for support blocks, Ztones Garden Soil for dirt, and IC2 Stickreed & Magic Berry crops.

↑ For most Multifarms this layout will not work. However, Orchard (Pam's HarvestCraft) and IC2 farm configurations do allow the multiblock to be recessed below the support block layer.

3x3 Standard
4x4 Standard
5x5 Standard
3x4 Standard
3x5 Standard
4x5 Standard
3x3 IC2/Orchard
4x4 IC2/Orchard
5x5 IC2/Orchard
3x4 IC2/Orchard
3x5 IC2/Orchard
4x5 IC2/Orchard

Farm Type	Multi Size^[1]	Radius^[2]	Area^[3]	Farm Type	Radius	Area^[4]
Orchard / IC2 Farm	3x3	12	645	Standard Multifarm	7	168
Orchard / IC2 Farm	4x4	14	880	Standard Multifarm	9	288
Orchard / IC2 Farm	5x5	16	1149	Standard Multifarm	11	440
Orchard / IC2 Farm	3x4	14	848	Standard Multifarm	9	306
Orchard / IC2 Farm	3x5	16	1075	Standard Multifarm	11	396
Orchard / IC2 Farm	4x5	16	1112	Standard Multifarm	11	418

↑ Footprint; all Multifarms must be four blocks tall.
↑ Number of farmable blocks in all cardinal directions from edges of the multiblock. Diagonals are drawn between these sections to define the farm area, resulting in a diamond or octagon.
↑ Maximum number of farmable blocks, on one layer. For Orchard / IC2 Farm, this includes the blocks directly above the Multifarm since it can be recessed below the support layer.
↑ In managed farms that deploy water, this number will be 7-9% lower.

Programming the Farm

	Manual Farm	Managed Farm
Tube	Effect	Effect
Apatine	Shroom Farm	Shroom Farm
Blazing		Infernal Farm
Bronze	Vanilla Crop Farm	Crop Farm
Copper	Orchard	Arboretum
Diamantine	Reed Farm
Ender		Ender Farm
Iron	Vegetable Farm	Vegetable Farm
Golden	Succulent Farm
Lapis	Cocoa Plantation
Obsidian	Gourd Farm
Rubberized	Rubber Plantation
Tin	Peat Bog	Peat Bog
Uranium238	IC2 Crops

The Multifarm must have an Intricate Circuit Board with appropriate Electron Tubes to tell it which types of things it should be growing and if it's a Managed or Manual farm. Both parts can be made in the Assembler, but the Soldering Iron needed to combine them requires a Carpenter. Right or left-click with a Soldering Iron to remove a circuit board from a Multifarm. Breaking the last block of the multi will also drop its circuit board.

In the Soldering Iron's GUI, scroll with the arrow buttons until Manual Farm or Managed Farm is selected. Place Electron Tubes into the four slots; they will be assigned to the North, East, South and West quadrants from top to bottom. Finally, add the Circuit Board when all of the tubes and settings are chosen. Four tubes are required for a Multifarm board. Tubes cannot be removed once attached to the Circuit Board, but boards can be recycled by installing new Tubes in them. The Soldering Iron only has five durability but can be repaired in the Thaumic Restorer.

Manual or Managed?

Managed Farms will automatically deploy the appropriate soil type(s), till the soil, place water source blocks and handle the initial planting, while both types of farm will harvest and replant existing crops. A Managed Farm will remove surrounding blocks above its support layer and replace them with the appropriate "soil" supplied in its input slots. Removed blocks will be returned to the farm's output. Some crops can only be farmed in one mode or the other. A Multifarm must be set to either Managed or Manual, it cannot be a mix of both since its mode is defined by the single Intricate Circuit board inside. The Multifarm is overly generous in its water source block placement, making Manual farms preferable whenever possible. Also set a farm to Manual if using alternative hydration sources or soil blocks, so the farm doesn't deploy water source blocks nor attempt to replace the farming plot with dirt.

Farm Types

PHC -> Pam's HarvestCraft

Arboretum - default type. Grows saplings into trees and cuts them down.
Crop Farm - grows wheat/PHC Crops and completely removes the plant when harvesting.
Ender Farm - ExtraUtilities Ender Lily. Not implemented / available in GTNH.
IC2 Crop Farm - Anything grown on crop(sticks). Not compatible with PHC crops/trees. Leaves original crop/seed behind.
Infernal Farm - grows Netherwart, on Soul Sand. No water deployed nor required. Breaks and replants.
Gourd Farm - plants with stems, melon/pumpkin. Does not work with PHC.
Orchard - Harvests PHC Crops and Trees, does not replant, does not remove original plants.
Peat Bog - no seeds. Converts Bog Earth blocks into Peat and dirt.
Reed Farm - vanilla Sugar Canes. Harvests while leaving the bottom two blocks behind.
Rubber Plantation - Harvests Sticky Resin from IC2 Rubber Trees. Does not log trees, works through leaves.
Vegetable Farm - grows crops where the "seed" is the same as the produce (carrots/potatoes/etc.)

Usage

Right-click on any Farm block to open a formed Multifarm's GUI. Any issues will show up as red tabs on the left side. Information about the current climate (temp/humidity), Hydration, Power, Tips and Ownership are shown on the right tabs. The tank holds 10,000L of water, and its input slot is below with the upwards pointing arrow. The cross shaped section shows what each quadrant of the Multifarm is configured for and holds the Circuit Board. Below is the Fertilizer slot. The right side inventories hold soil blocks, seeds and output of the farm.

Farm	Fert.	Water	Power
Arboretum	30u	10L	200RF
Cocoa	120u	20L
Crop	20u	10L	200RF
IC2 Crop	10u	40L	400RF
Infernal	20u	none
Gourd	10u	40L
Orchard	10u	40L	200RF
Peat Bog	20u	10L
Reed	20u	10L
Rubber	10u	5L
Shroom	20u	80L
Succulent	10u	1L
Vegetable	20u	10L

To work, the Multifarm must be provided with Fertilizer (Forestry or IC2), water, and possibly seeds/saplings/"dirt" depending on the type of farm and Managed/Manual type. Each harvest costs water, fertilizer, and power. GTNH defaults to Forestry's HARD difficulty settings, which results in each Fertilizer item being worth 750 units. Other soil amendments like Compost, Bone Meal and Mulch are not accepted by the Multifarm. Forestry Fertilizer can also be used in-hand like Bone Meal to force-grow plants or spawn grass/flowers.

Base water consumption rates are modified by the length of time since the last rainfall as a multiplicative to the base values on the table to the left. If it has just rained or is raining, the Multifarm will be reset to its lowest value of 45%. Farms supplied with infinite water won't care about hydration demands.

The Multifarm does not consume energy when not working, unlike the Farming Station. It can be supplied with RF from Forestry engines (not recommended), EnderIO Capacitor Banks or various Photovoltaic Cells, and other RF generators. It can also be plugged directly into GT Electricity, including cables, generators and battery buffers. While it does not have a max voltage rating, it consumes very little power and even a large IC2/Pam farm can run off a LV generator with multiple Gearboxes.

Pam's HarvestCraft

For use with Pam's HarvestCraft crops or trees, the Multifarm should be configured to Manual Orchard mode with four Copper Electron Tubes in the Intricate Circuit Board. This will prevent the farm from destroying the original plant and yields ~1.75 items per crop block harvested. Orchards can be set up with a full top layer of dirt, just like the IC2 Farm shown below. One piece of Fertilizer produces approximately two stacks of harvested crops.

As of 2.5.1, the Multifarm does not work with Tea nor Coffee crops from Pam's. This is possibly unintended.

IC2 Crops

IC2 Crops can be grown with the Multifarm but require Uranium238 Electron Tubes, which boosts the Multifarm's range to a 16 radius octagon (37 block diameter) at max size, with 1136 usable farmland blocks after optimal water placement. It cannot apply Weed-Ex, only hydrate, fertilize and harvest. If filling an IC2 Multifarm with high-stat/high-tier crops, put down the cropsticks first and wait for the farm to fertilize/hydrate them so they don't die from insufficient environmental conditions. The Multifarm only checks six blocks above the farm structure blocks to prevent lag.

Automation

Auto Workbench (BC Factory) can turn harvested crops back into seeds with no power cost, but at a slow rate. Bigger, faster farms may need a [Crafter] or another powered autocrafting solution. Sprinklers will speed up crop growth or trees significantly. A Water Reservior will run one automatically if placed below the Sprinkler, which can only be placed on solid blocks. A Pump cover attached to a GT fluid pipe will also work as a suitable base. Item Logistics should be used to empty and refill the Multifarm's internal inventories, as it can only hold 1-8 stacks of supplies/produce before needing to be interacted with. A infinite water source should be supplied to the Farm Valve.

Tips

The Multifarm keeps track of how many days it hasn't rained, and uses more water accordingly.
For a flat farm, build the support blocks on the third (standard) or fourth (IC2/Orchard) layer up from the bottom of the multiblock.
Multifarms will pick up any seeds for their current farm type dropped in their working area, like a selective Vacuum Hopper.
Lootgames has all of the Farm blocks in its Chest3 pool, making it possible to get a Multifarm earlier than HV.

External Links

Content in this page has been copied and possibly modified from Forestry Wiki at (Farm Structure (Forestry)). Such content is under CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

[1] For most Multifarms this layout will not work. However, Orchard (Pam's HarvestCraft) and IC2 farm configurations do allow the multiblock to be recessed below the support block layer.

[2] Footprint; all Multifarms must be four blocks tall.

[3] Number of farmable blocks in all cardinal directions from edges of the multiblock. Diagonals are drawn between these sections to define the farm area, resulting in a diamond or octagon.

[4] Maximum number of farmable blocks, on one layer. For Orchard / IC2 Farm, this includes the blocks directly above the Multifarm since it can be recessed below the support layer.

[5] In managed farms that deploy water, this number will be 7-9% lower.

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