When I set up planting beds I lay out wooden floor tiles and then pick up some so that my planting beds are 4 wide by X long. That gives me a nice frame to work in (much like using a string and stakes in a real garden).

To be healthy requires about .7 meters of space per plant. If you plant side to side or plant while walking backwards you don't get proper plant spacing and can lose some plants to lacking space. If you plant walking forward this does not happen. The plant stays red until there is enough space between it and the previous plant. If you click too soon you get the need cultivated soil error message. 4 floor tiles worth of space gets you 5 rows of plants if you want to be perfect with pant health (you can go with 4 rows in that space to make certain).

What might cause uneven rows is using the left mouse button to plant since bumping the mouse to one side or the other can change your perspective and therefore the placement of your plants. If you are OCD and want perfect rows with perfect plant spacing go to options and rebind attack to a key instead of the left mouse button. Use the mouse to line up your row with the edge of the wooden floor/fence/previous row/what ever then let go the mouse and use the "W" key to move perfectly forward and the newly bound key to plant when the plant turns green with out risk of bumping the mouse. Once you have perfectly planted rows you can rebind attack to the left mouse button.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2857321032

My main base has 3, 4 x 25 tile beds. Each bed will hold 175 plants and it takes me about 15 minutes to plant all 3 beds. I usually feed my boars and wolves before I start planting as they reproduce while I'm planting and the piggies and wolf cubs will mature later no matter where I happen to be.

Originally posted by blprice61:

Harvesting annoys me though. I wish the cultivator would pull anything in it's AoE out of the ground for pick up. If not the Cultivator, then perhaps a new tool, but it makes more sense to me to just add that function to the existing farming tool.

Good idea. I started out pounding the E key till I realized you can just hold it down. I also found that walking and holding it down is slower than moving to a spot and sweeping everything in reach holding it down while not moving.

Originally posted by blprice61:

Have to ask, why the insistence on straight lines and even spacing?

Ease of harvesting, maximum density, ease of planting.

I haven't done a spiral. I played with going sideways but found it harder than forward and what little you can see is easier with forward. I have seen the need cultivated soil message but hadn't put it together with spacing.

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

If you plant walking forward this does not happen. The plant stays red until there is enough space between it and the previous plant. If you click too soon you get the need cultivated soil error message.

I plant at a full walk and plant as quickly as it will allow me. Another thing I found helps with alignment is watching the final 'up' position of the cultivator. At 2 clicks out from max zoom each up position allows you to check spacing with the next row as long as the rows that are planted are to the left. The rows in my original post (which I had as private or some thing) are done this way. No judgement was used in placement other than trying to keep proper spacing with the row to the left.
I can't imagine doing each one by pick and plant.

The ones I plant for seeds I space out by eye in curved rows just standing in one place. For the actual crops, I stand in one place, spin, and plant in a spiral. I allow for some losses, also don't care if planting is initially 'healthy' - they'll either grow when the others mature or they'll go in the loss column.

Usually I have one or more remote farms at stone circles. They are flat enough to just cultivate without leveling and easy to just throw up some pole fence between the stones to stop greyling intrusion. Later on, if I start farming at night, I'll upgrade the pole fence to a stake wall fence.

Harvesting, I turn on walk mode (default 'C' key), hold 'E' down, and just walk along moving my cursor on the mature plants.

Originally posted by Megahurts:

Myself, I hold my mouse as still as possible, walk sideways, spacing seeds by eye and timing. At the end of the row, a couple taps to back up and then go up the next row the opposite way planting 'in line' with the previous row.

It's not too bad. Of course, if I could plant seeds like grass, it would be awesome.

Harvesting annoys me though. I wish the cultivator would pull anything in it's AoE out of the ground for pick up. If not the Cultivator, then perhaps a new tool, but it makes more sense to me to just add that function to the existing farming tool.

The same here. Once you catch the rhythm it looks like it was planted by machine. And for harvesting, yeah i agree. It would be great to be able to harvest more plants at the time. Barley and flax can be harvested with aoe dmg. I use stagbreaker, but atgeir works fine too.

Originally posted by Veseljko:

Barley and flax can be harvested with aoe dmg. I use stagbreaker, but atgeir works fine too.

That never occurred to me. I don't use those types of weapons usually but still, a good tip, Thanks.

I set up a 6m x 6m square wood frame, by using 2m wood beams.
Within the frame, plant 5 x 5 seeds (total 25 plants).

First lower the ground level so the 2m wood beams are sunken but still visible, once you raise the ground level back up. The goal is to be able to walk over it without clipping.

The Harvester tool creates a 3m x 3m section of fertilized land, so it fits 4 "Harvester Clicks" of fertilized land inside quite nicely.

Easy: Don't move your aim, just walk sideways while planting. Don't forget to toggle walk, and guess the distance between each crop until you get a good idea of how far you can place them apart. You'll be making perfect grid's of crops in no time.

Have to ask, why the insistence on straight lines and even spacing?

For me it makes for easier harvesting. Walk up the line moving the mouse up and down so it's like pluck, pluck, pluck, sprint a few steps, pluck, pluck, pluck, etc..vs pluck, step, pluck, step, etc. Not saying it is faster or easier than other methods, it's just the method I prefer.

Myself, I hold my mouse as still as possible, walk sideways, spacing seeds by eye and timing. At the end of the row, a couple taps to back up and then go up the next row the opposite way planting 'in line' with the previous row.

It's not too bad. Of course, if I could plant seeds like grass, it would be awesome.

Harvesting annoys me though. I wish the cultivator would pull anything in it's AoE out of the ground for pick up. If not the Cultivator, then perhaps a new tool, but it makes more sense to me to just add that function to the existing farming tool.