Farming in Don’t Starve Together’s Reap What You Sow update has introduced a whole new level of complexity—meticulously tending crops, juggling fertilizer types, and consulting spreadsheets just to maximize yield. But what if I told you that you could grow crops indefinitely, without watering, fertilizing, or micromanaging anything? That’s right—there’s a simple, sustainable farming method that requires almost no effort, and today, we’re diving into exactly how you can master it.

Laying the Foundation: Setting Up Your Farm

To get started, you need farm plots, which are crafted using the Garden Rigamajig at a Science Machine. Deploying the rigamajig on the ground creates farmable soil tiles. From there, use a hoe to prepare the ground, plant your seeds, and then—here’s the best part—walk away.

The Basics of Crop Growth

• Seasonal crops grow in 3-4 days.
• Out-of-season crops take a bit longer to mature.
• Regardless of how much (or little) you tend to them, all plants will eventually sprout into harvestable crops.

If you don’t care what crops grow, just plant generic seeds and let nature take its course. But if you’re aiming to control which crops you get while still avoiding complex mechanics, there’s an easy way to do that too.

Understanding Plant Stress and How to Avoid It

The farming system introduces seven stress factors that determine how well a plant grows. These factors influence whether you get a giant crop, extra seeds, or just the basic yield. However, instead of micromanaging all seven factors, you only need to focus on four of them to get a reliable, renewable source of crops.

How Stress Affects Harvests

• 1 or fewer stress points: Giant crop (breaks into multiple crops & seeds)
• 6 or fewer stress points: Crop + 2 seeds
• 11 or fewer stress points: Crop + 1 seed
• 12+ stress points: Just the crop, no seeds

Since seeds are the key to sustainable farming, our goal is to always get at least one per harvest without stressing about fertilizers or watering. Let’s break down how to do that with minimal effort.

The Easy Method: Sustainable Farming Without Stress

You only need to manage four key stress factors to keep your crops producing indefinitely. Here’s how:

1. Seasonal Compatibility:
   • Use a Gardeneer Hat to unlock the Plant Registry.
   • Right-click the hat while wearing it to check which crops are native to the current season.
   • Only plant seasonally appropriate crops to remove this stress factor.
2. Family Requirement:
   • Crops like to grow in groups!
   • Plant at least four of the same crop close together to fulfill this requirement.
   • Avoid overcrowding—don’t plant more than 10 per tile.
   • No empty spaces between crops = fewer weeds.
3. Initial Tending:
   • After planting, interact with the crops once.
   • You can either tend manually (just click on them) or play music to make them happy.
   • One single interaction is enough to lower stress.
4. Ignore Everything Else:
   • You can completely ignore watering and nutrients.
   • Your plants will still grow and yield seeds as long as you’ve managed the previous three stress factors.

By following this method, your crops will always produce at least one seed per harvest, ensuring that you never run out and can farm indefinitely.

Taking It One Step Further: Increasing Seed Yields

If you want to maximize seed production without obsessing over the farming mechanics, you can take an extra step:

• Tend to crops at every growth stage. This slightly boosts their overall health, allowing you to get two seeds instead of one.
• If you only get one seed per crop, you can feed crops to a caged bird for extra seeds, effectively doubling your harvest.

Farming Without Fertilizer: Why It Works

Most players assume that fertilizer is necessary for efficient farming. However, the reality is that fertilizer only benefits those chasing giant crops. If all you need is reliable food and seeds, you can ignore fertilizer completely. The system is designed to provide at least one seed per plant, ensuring that you never run out as long as you follow the stress-minimizing approach outlined here.

Final Thoughts: Farming Has Never Been Easier

This method is by far the easiest way to farm in Don’t Starve Together. You get reliable crops, endless seeds, and never have to worry about watering, fertilizing, or nutrient cycling. If you don’t care about giant crops, then all you need to do is:

1. Plant four of the same crop per tile.
2. Make sure they are in season.
3. Tend to them once after planting.

And that’s it. No stress. No hassle. Just infinite farming.

For those who want a deeper dive into advanced techniques like fertilization mechanics, self-fertilizing crop rotations, and maximizing giant crops, there are plenty of community resources available. But for now, just sit back, let nature do the work, and enjoy the simplest, most effective farming strategy in the game.

Happy planting!