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[Darion]

I want to make a underground tree farm, what is the best way? Should i make it in mud or what?

[Xen0n]

I want to make a underground tree farm, what is the best way? Should i make it in mud or what?

If you have any soil layers, the easiest would be just to hollow out a big room with soil floors (make sure sunlight never touches it, or it'll permanently only grow surface plants).  Once you breach a cavern that contains cave fungus, spores will start growing the treelike cavern mushrooms all over the undergorund soil.

Supposedly you can use cave-ins to move blocks of soil down to a lower level if it's more convenient, but keep in mind the whole "Once exposed to sunlight, always exposed to sunlight" rule.

[forsaken1111]

Dig out a large area, flood it, drain water. Trees will grow.

[FearfulJesuit]

If I wanted, I could cast gigantic floors of obsidian in successive layers above the map, then dig 'em out, flood them, expose to sunlight, and then go above one floor, right? Thus giving me 15 or 16 Z-levels of outdoor tree farm.

[Darion]

Which is better, soil or mud?

[forsaken1111]

As far as I can tell, there is no practical difference

[Quietust]

In previous versions, mud was significantly better than soil, but the changes to subterranean tree growth in 0.31.19 may have changed some of that.

[Darion]

I see, thanks!

[forsaken1111]

I would say to muddy the soil if you use soil, just in case. As he said, mud was significantly better.

[Synner]

So that means that if i channel my whole "surface" z-level and then build a floor all over it, the mud/dirt below will grow surface plants/crops? fi this is true i will !!SCIENCE!! the hell out of it.

[Xen0n]

So that means that if i channel my whole "surface" z-level and then build a floor all over it, the mud/dirt below will grow surface plants/crops? fi this is true i will !!SCIENCE!! the hell out of it.

Yup.  My first fort had a big 10x10 space channeled down 5 levels to be right next to my underground farm, so I could have both types of crops side by side. 

In previous versions, mud was significantly better than soil, but the changes to subterranean tree growth in 0.31.19 may have changed some of that.

Have only used 31.25, and never used muddied stone, but I can say that my 5-level fort that was mostly in soil layers ended up having so many trees growing everywhere that it was all I could do to continually designate entire floors for clearcutting to try and get them out of the way.  I had more trees than I could deal with, with no tree farms areas set up, just trees growing in the dining rooms, blocking the bedrooms, around the jails, etc.  Never harnessed magma yet, and powering all my barrel/bin production, soap, glass, and metal industries just from the coal from trees that I'm only chopping to get them out of the way.  Made me never want to set up fort rooms in soil again

[Leonidas]

In older versions another big drawback to the mud tree farm, besides the flooding, was that you had to clear the stone before the trees and shrubs would grow. I haven't tested it in the current version, but I assume that it still holds.

[Quietust]

So that means that if i channel my whole "surface" z-level and then build a floor all over it, the mud/dirt below will grow surface plants/crops? fi this is true i will !!SCIENCE!! the hell out of it.

You'll still need another solid layer of soil underneath it - while subterranean plants only require a soil floor (as of 0.31.19), surface plants still require an unmined soil wall within a 2-tile radius on the Z-level beneath them.

[Triaxx2]

I find the top layers of my fort almost always end up clogged with trees because of the soil floor. So I end up building a floor on them to prevent trees from growing. Mostly because I tend to end up with a fort up near the surface early on, and then never move out of it later on.

[fluffhead]

I had a tree grow in the doorway (didn't have the door built) to my dyer's shop.  Well apparently I didn't notice this in time and my Dyer's shop became a dieing shop.  I had to get a wood cutter to cut the tree away before i could even get the body out to recover/bury/dance on.