Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-31308946-20170511164423

Overview
I know there have been a few suggestions like this in the past. Some have been endorsed. But I feel they lack something. This and this are the endorsed ones that I could find. I hope you like my ideas for farming!

Proposition
I propose that a fairly large amount of items and gameplay mechanics are added. Here they are:

Plants need sunlight!:

Plants need sunlight, so in the mod I think plants should only be able to grow when there is daylight, or at least a high light level. This will prevent many underground superfarms. If you have one of these and dont want to move it, just add a skylight!

Weeds:

If you have ever had a garden you most likely have had to deal with weeds. After you plant a seed there is a 40% chance that after the plant reaches its second stage, the plant is replaced by the weed. If left in your garden and not pulled up, the weed will spread to the plants around it at a faster than normal rate. When a weed grows to full height it will have tiny purple or white flowers, and when broken will yield nothing.

Butterfly jars:

Simply change the name to jar or glass jar for reasons below.

Beetles:

These little buggers (lol) will be a fairly common sight pretty much everywhere. They will be slightly smaller than butterflies. They can be caught in a jar. Dont we all love something else to collect? Heres the catch, if you have a nice little farm going, beetles will land on your precious crops and will eat them, the same way rabbits eat your crops.

Bees:

These are the opposite of beetles. They will be slightly larger than beetles and will fly around to different crops and "pollinate" them. The pollination will basically be the bonemeal effect. Bees also can be caught in a jar. (a nice way to make money! Transporting bees to distant farms!)

Bee hives: 

Bee hives will vary in size. There will be three different sizes: small medium and large. The small one will be the size of a placed bottle. The meduim will be the size of an ent ja, and the large will be a full block. They will have a bee animation (kinda like little black dots swarming around it.)

When broken:

A small hive will give you 1-2 honey comb.

A medium will yield 2-4.

A large will yield a grand total of 3-6 honey comb.

Honey:

So what will honey comb do? Putting it in the crafting table with a glass jar will fill the jar with honey. This can be drunk for two hunger bars. It will also be used for certain recipes. Can also be sold to various traders

Honey Cake:

Yay more cake! A Honey Cake restores the same amount of hunger as a normal cake does.

The bottle is a bottle of honey, and the cake is a honey cake.

Fertilizer:

Alright back to the plants. Fertilizer is just like bonemeal, except for the fact that its more expensive.

The output is supposed to be fertilizer but instead of texturing something (which I am bad at doing) I put in a dirt block. Fertilizer also decreases the weed chance by 20%.

Improved planting: 

This is only for when seasons are added. I assume Mevans will tweak the plants so that they cannot gro in winter, so I found a realistic way to bipass that. By right clicking the pot with dirt you fill it up. You can then plant things in the pot, as long as its indoors. The crop yeild will also be minimal since its in a pot not the ground.

Improving harvesting:

In minecraft when you harvest your wheat you rip up the whole plant. As this is fairly annoying, I have a solution. Scythes! A scythe is crafted like this: The hoe is meant to be a scythe. When using a scythe all one has to do is right click a plant and it will harvest it, giving the normal items. The only thing is it brings the plant back to "stage 1" and you dont have to replant it. Scythes can also be used for tilling. Using your fist or anything else will still break teh plant normally.

Additions to Farmhands:

Farmhands will now kill beetles as well as rabbits, and will be able hold and wield a scythe as well. They will pull up weeds now too. If they dont have a scythe they break the plant normally.

A Couple More Plants

This is the least of my priorities on this suggestion as we already have loads of plants. I didnt want to suggest a hundred plants like some people do so I just picked the two things I thought would have a unique planting style.

Peas!

Peas can not be planted like everything else. It is like grapes in the sense that they like to climb fences. So I propose these be planted on fences! The fence must be on a tilled soil block like grapes. You can then right click the fence with peas and voila! You have succesfully "pead" on your garden! (sorry bout that).

Squash!

This will grow like melons and pumpkins except for this: When planted and bonemealed melons will grow one melon, and then stop until you harvest it. Squash in real life grows like crazy, so I think squash will be able to grow on four sides of the plant at once!

Closing
Thats it! I hope you like my ideas for farming! Constructive criticism (and your kudos :D) are all welcome! If anything does not seem right or balanced let me know. 