I've recently joined a friend's Tekkit SMP server and decided to try out the crop crossbreeding since it seems easier to learn than the other bits of IC2 right now. So I made a hoe, built some crop sticks and got some wheat seeds my friend had in a chest. Then I made an X-shaped plot of five dirt plots, placed sticks on them and planted wheat in the outer four. Within a couple minutes the wheat were growing and the middle had something too. But then after a few hours of water and fertilizing them they hadn't finished. So, I made a cropmotron thing figuring perhaps it'd do a better job and logged out. Here it is about 13 hours after I planted the wheat and neither those four nor the middle whatever-it-is finished growing. So I'm left to wonder what I'm missing. Is it a bug in SMP where they don't finish growing to maturity?
Growth Troubles
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Since you didn't mention sticking cross-sticks into the middle spot, it's highly likely that the "had something too" was weed... which, after 13 hours for sure, destroyed the surrounding wheat crops and repspread further weed. And weed doesn't really grow to anything "mature" as in useful.
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Oh okay I must of missed that. I'll try putting the cross-sticks in once and see if that helps any.
No, the point is, if you didn't place cropsticks and something grew there it's pretty obvious it's weed.
Placing crosssticks does not prevent weed from growing on an empty crop, it merely is the actual way to create new crops.Simply memorize the weed-texture and leftclick it off the crops whenever it pops up
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I keep trying to get hops but all that seems to appear in the cross-sticks are weeds so I'm guessing just crossing wheat with wheat isn't the answer. On the upside I haven't had weeds take over the other crop-sticks since.
Try crossing other crops, wheat X wheat is extremely likely to produce wheat, and in fact due to the tier system will never produce hops, the formula for tiers is tier of plant 1 + tier of plant 2 + 1 = highest possible tier plants can breed to, since wheat is tier 1 and hops are tier 5, this will never happen, see this thread for more information on crops. Also go lenient on the Weed-Ex, it may keep weeds away but it negatively impacts the stats and I believe cross-breeding chance of crops.
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So instead I should try reeds and pumpkins since they're both tier II?
The higher the tier of the plants used is, the higher the chance of getting a higher tier plant is. -
I'm having a lot better luck now--even got terra warts to spawn--though weeds continue to be a problem and often have me needing to clear the cross-sticks two or three times before something useful actually takes hold.
Might be worth looking up Weed-EX on the wiki. Although to grind up the spider eyes you'll need a Macerator (or a friend on the server with one)
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If you're having trouble with weeds, keep in mind they will only (at first, until they spread) grow on empty cropsticks. So, one can basically avoid weeds by just not having empty cropsticks(unless you are crossing the plants, a setup with no empty cropsticks will generally have no weeds). Plant 'em when you need them. Also, as a heads up, only mature plants can be crossed, so you should have waited for the wheat to be ready to harvest before planting the last set of sticks.
When crossing plants, you run the risk of weeds pretty much no matter what, but since weeds looks quite unlike any other plant, you generally can notice what is a weed and what isn't once you've seen them.
My suggestion(which isn't yet possible, I think) is to use Mystcraft and make a age with the Accelerated Symbol when you want to crossbreed plants. That symbol increases the rate at which ticks happen, so things generally happen faster(even "Black Decay" spread, so make sure it's a stable age). I don't know if it'd make IC2 crops grow faster, but hey, it's worth a shot. -
Someone else on the server suggested trying weed-ex on the spots where the plants are crossed but I suppose I'll hold back on that and try putting the cross-sticks in once the plants are mature and see if that helps. Also we do have a macerator so that's not a problem but I'd rather not damage stuff if I can help it. And yes, weeds are a lot easier for me to spot now though I have a single, solitary cropstick off to the side with them in it just in case I forget how they look.
A weed on a pedestal, now that IS original.