Food Growth and Yields were change in Alpha 12

[TLHeart]

Starting out has been much more difficult than I remembered. I guess this is due to the fact that the potato crop I am relying on feels like it takes a lot longer to grow. Couple this with the fact that skills now effect yields and I am worried about setting up my initial food sources.

How do you guys deal with the starting game and getting food running? How much food do you plant and of what type? Do you use a sunlamp? What is the benefit of having a sunlamp if they don't grow at night then?

I am just trying to figure out the best way to get food up and running as soon as possible. So any help is appreciated.

yes food is much harder in the beginning now.

If I have rich soil close to my landing site, and where I want my base, I grow there, and design my base around that rich area. It also greatly depends on what biome you play in, the length of the sunshine days, as the northern biomes have less sun, which increases time until harvest.

One thing many players assume wrongly, is when potatoes say 6.19 days to grow, they will be harvesting in 6.2 days.  That is not the number of days from sowing to harvesting, it is the actual days of growing time at brightly lit, and correct temperature. If you have 12 hours of brightly lit growing time, and the correct temperature range, the potatoes are ready to harvest in 12.4 days from sow to harvest, in standard soil. Eclipse, snow, rain, thunderstorms, all reduce light levels, so increase the time to grow to harvest. Indoors, solar flairs are another problem.