Tree Breeding
Tree Breeding is a mechanic from Forestry & Extra Trees that allows the creation of new tree species and selective breeding for traits. While mostly cosmetic for a variety of colourful woods, there are some niche uses for Forestry's trees - an alternate way of obtaining Coconut, seed oil, and some unique but low-value food for extra hearts. Every type of Forestry tree can be turned into planks, slabs, doors, stairs, fences, fence gates, Bibliocraft decorations and Forge Microblocks facades. With the Panelworker, multiple colors of wood can be combined for complex block patterns. Combined with Refractory Wax in the Thermionic Fabricator, Forestry logs, planks, fences, stairs and slabs can be made fireproof.
 | The Butterfly Problem Forestry trees spawn butterflies. If the area is not enclosed, those butterflies will wander with a vector bias and eventually collect in unloaded chunks, potentially causing lag issues when those areas are visited. It's strongly recommended to keep all Forestry trees indoors and use /forestry butterfly kill to remove them if needed. |
Tools & Supplies
- Carpenter - for making the Treealyzer, Arborist's Chest
- Enclosed space - to avoid butterfly issues. Several if doing both breeding and production
- Spectacles / Apiarist's Hat - Makes pollinated tree leaf blocks more obvious
- Saplings - vanilla Oak, Birch, Jungle, Dark Oak, Spruce, & Acacia
- Honey Drops - fuel for the Treealyzer and Escritoire
- Field Kit / Treealyzer / Analyzer / Scanner - Used to analyze sapling genetics. Converts vanilla saplings to Forestry variants. Analyzer/Scanner are powered machines.
- Arborist's Database - Generally unnecessary, as its functions are available via NEI. Tracks known species and possible mutations
- Arborist's Chest - can hold up to 125 different Forestry saplings or fertile pollen
- Escritoire - play a matching mini-game to boost mutation chances
- Pollen Collection Kit - manual pollen collection
- Bee Houses / Apiaries / Alvearies - homes for bees, to pollinate trees
- Bees - with a good Pollination speed and Flowers: Flower trait
- Grafter / Branch Cutter - for 100% chance of harvesting pollinated leaves. Lumberjack villagers will trade Proven Grafters for Emeralds. Basic Grafters are craftable in Steam Age, better durability options available with magic or technology. Branch Cutters have much higher durability than Forestry Grafters. Thaumium/Void grafters can be enchanted / self-repair, Industrial Grafter is rechargeable.
Obtaining Saplings
Forestry applies genetics to trees the same way it does to Bees. Vanilla tree saplings can be analyzed with the Field Kit, Scanner (GT) or Treealyzer, or collected from fertilized leaf blocks with a Grafter or Branch Cutter. Lumberjack villagers also can offer a single trade for a random Forestry sapling of any type, and chests in Forestry village houses may have random saplings. Any type of Bee with the Flower: Flowers trait can pollinate trees inside it's Territory x3 (default Average is 9x9 footprint, six blocks tall, so 27x27x18 for tree pollination), which will result in Forestry saplings. Butterflies also pollinate and will spawn naturally from Forestry-analyzed trees, but are much slower and less predictable at the job than bees are.
Forestry saplings can be accelerated with watering cans, bonemeal and other methods just like their vanilla counterparts. Oak converts to "Apple Oak", Spruce to "Red Spruce" and Birch to "Silver Birch", but other than the name change the tree appearance remains the same.
Pollinated Leaves
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Oak - Spectacles
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Oak - Natural
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Spruce - Spectacles
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Spruce - Natural
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Birch - Spectacles
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Birch - Natural
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Acacia - Spectacles
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Acacia - Natural
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Dark Oak - Spectacles
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Dark Oak - Natural
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Jungle - Spectacles
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Jungle - Natural
To cross-pollinate successfully, two or more different Forestry or vanilla trees need to be mature and within a bee's Territory, accessible by butterflies, or hand-pollinated with fertile pollen. This creates a leaf block with a slightly different texture that when broken will drop either a hybrid between the two parents or a new mutation if any exists between the crossed tree types. Chance of successful mutation varies by species, just like bees. To guarantee a sapling drop, use Branch Cutters or a Grafter to collect the leaf block. Otherwise the normal sapling drop rate applies, which is quite low.
Spectacles should be worn to make pollinated leaves more obvious. Even with Spectacles, certain leaf textures are difficult to distinguish, particularly jungle. Waila will have an extra line when looking at pollinated tree leaves, saying what the other parent species is. Tree pollination is slow, and can affect any leaf block, not just those that are visible on the outside surface of the tree's canopy. The easiest option is to set up a small group of auto-cycling apiaries with the best Pollination speed available in the middle of a small circle of the trees. Leave enough space that the surfaces of the trees can be easily inspected for pollinated leaf blocks.
Fertile Pollen
Fertile Pollen can be acquired by several methods and used to hand-pollinate a leaf block or in the Mutatron. It should not be confused with the more common Pollen item from the Industrious Bee branch. This type of pollen has no genetic information and cannot be used to crossbreed trees.
- The single-use Pollen Collection Kit (IV gated) can harvest pollen from a tree with right-click.
- Alveary Sieve in an Alveary can harvest pollen at the cost of Woven Silk.
- Sieve Upgrade in an Industrial Apiary will harvest fertile pollen from trees in the bee's Territory.
- Killing a butterfly may drop a fertile pollen from a tree it visited.
- Chests in Forestry village houses can contain fertile pollen from a random tree.
Mutations
New tree species are acquired by mutating the common vanilla types together, and then combining the resulting species in new ways. Some pairings can have multiple potential mutations - Silver Lime x Silver Birch can make both Hill Cherry and White Willow, in the right conditions. A few species have humidity/temperature needs which must be met to mutate. Mutations can also be created in the Mutatron with a sapling and fertile pollen. When a sapling successfully mutates it will always be purebred, unlike bee mutations. Presumably this is because some species of trees require multiple saplings to grow at all, and if they had different genetics it would be extremely difficult to obtain them. Grafters or Branch Cutters can be used to harvest as many saplings as desired from new trees once they are grown. A small stockpile of each new mutation should be kept for future use.