Growing Seasons (bug or WAD?)

[ruddthree]

Let's say you have a growing season that ends on the 10th of Septober. One year the season might end on the 11th of Septober, another on the 13th, another on the 9th.

Is this a bug, or working as designed?

I've hypothesized that growing seasons are dependent on not the given dates, but rather of the environmental temperature of which the crops are grown in.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Let's say you have a growing season that ends on the 10th of Septober. One year the season might end on the 11th of Septober, another on the 13th, another on the 9th.

Is this a bug, or working as designed?

I've hypothesized that growing seasons are dependent on not the given dates, but rather of the environmental temperature of which the crops are grown in.

The dates are somewhat of an estimate. Although they do seem to matter to automatic sowing of the zones. Out of date zones aren't automatically planted at the same temps as zones that are in the date range. Meaning they will automatically plant zones that are in their date range at a colder temp than they will zones out of their date range. At least I think that is what I recall from my testing. I really should have written those results down in a little better manner than scratch paper that I then through away

[ruddthree]

So colonists will plant crops more in-line with the date range, the colder the climate gets?

[Calahan]

The growing season dates shown on the world map are just an estimate, and whether or not your current map tile is in the growing season is (IIRC) based on the temperature of the last 12 hours. (I'm sure I remember seeing a post a year or so ago with all the details, but I wasn't able to find it in a search. It might've been on reddit. But I do recall 12 hours being the key time range).

So AFAIK it's WAD that the growing season isn't fixed, and that you will be able to plant crops outside the indicated dates. But I'll leave this open in case the devs want to consider if they want to communicate this (re: that growing seasons are not fixed) in-game to the player. Since this is not the first time this question has been asked on this forum, nor the first time it's been reported as a bug. 

[BlackSmokeDMax]

So colonists will plant crops more in-line with the date range, the colder the climate gets?

I think Calahan mostly has the right idea in leaving this for a dev if they so choose, but to possibly clear up what I wrote earlier (of course it also being wrong very possibly) ...

What I meant was when not in date range there is a minimum temp they will consider to be ok to plant. While in date range there is a separate minimum temp they will consider to be ok to plant. While in date range that ok temp is a lower number. Of course that could be me not taking into account that 12 hour thing Calahan was mentioning. Not sure if I considered that during my testing or not. Again, notes are long gone, lol.

For practical playing purposes, what I do is set my zones to "sowing not allowed" once I am getting close to end of season and I don't thing I'll have time to harvest any more crops. This of course depends on which crops are set for that zone as of course faster growing plants like rice are much different than planting a new crop of corn. I don't necessarily worry about the hard end date, but you are taking the risk of wasting your time if the weather does turn cold right on that date or of course a cold snap comes a knockin'.

I also take into account whether the pawns have other useful things they could be doing. If a grower has little other in the way of useful skills, I'll just leaving "sowing allowed" the whole year and if the pawn plants some crops that will never be harvested, no big deal, at least experience was gained. (wait is experience gained for planting or just for harvesting... I forget - at the very least a green thumb grower will gain joy from planting!)

In the spring, I follow somewhat the same rule of thumb, just in reverse. Mostly, you just get a feel for it, and hope you don't get a cold snap to ruin your work.

--
Now all of that is out the window when playing with the mod "Seeds, Please" and you need to worry about having a seed for each plant. Then playing it safe is much more important, mostly just in the early game before you can get a decent level of seeds banked. But even then you don't want to run out of seeds and be forced to buy them when a trader next happens to have them.

[XeoNovaDan]

I'd definitely be inclined to say this is WAD; growing seasons are more just an indicator of how long crops can grow without hindrance. If a growing season ends at the 10th of Septober, crops will generally continue growing, but it'll usually be below 10 degrees so they won't grow at 100% speed.

[ison]

bump

[ison]

It's working as intended. Thanks for reporting though.