Using cellars for farming in hot regions?

[svendepen]

Hi! I was wondering if cellars could be used for farming in hot climates?
I'm not sure if that has been considered before, I wasn't able to find any existing topics on the forum.

By intentionally making a cellar with a low cooling score, temperatures in a cellar can be kept far above 10°C so they won't suffer growth speed penalties. A score of 0.375 would be perfect for the max temperature of 40°C, making the cellar's max temperature just below 27°C, perfect for all crops. As long as the outside temperature doesn't reach below 13°C, the cellar won't go below 10°C.
I'm not sure how possible it is to intentionally build a cellar with that low of a score, but it doesn't have to be that low for this to work. A score of 0.6 would still work if temperatures don't go below 17°C, for example.

Artificial light is valid for crop growth without affecting cellar scores, so light levels wouldn't be an issue either.

Apologies if this is already a known method or if I looked straight past topics/wiki pages mentioning this already. Or if this would be considered "exploiting a cellar's properties".
Or am I missing something here that would invalidate this concept entirely? I haven't actually tested it myself.

[Facethief]

The best way to do this would probably be to have some sky light, as it both lowers the cooling score of the cellar and also lets light into the room. You’d have to be careful not to have too much light, though, as otherwise the room would become a greenhouse and work against you.

[Maelstrom]

Farming in hot climates?

Either enable underground farming and dig out a room in excess of the parameters for a cellar; oooorrrrrr

Build a sky farm.  You'll probably have to go up about 75 or 100 blocks, but temps up that high should be sufficiently low enough to farm without heat stroke.

[svendepen]

That would also work, yeah. I was just curious if cellars specifically would work, as I hadn't seen it before.

[Maelstrom]

Cellars don't change temps (not that I'm aware of and haven't bothered to look).  They change food spoilage rates.  But temps also affect spoilage rates independently of cellars.

[svendepen]

The wiki does mention temperatures in cellars. The temperature in a cellar is calculated using the formula `temp = 5 + ((x - 5) * (1 - y))`, where `temp` is the cellar's temperature, `x` is the outside temperature, and `y` the cellar's score. The spoilage rate is calculated based on that temperature.

I tested it out, and I couldn't get my turnips to survive even in a proper cellar, they still died to heat damage. So I suppose the cellar temperature is superficial, only used to calculate spoilage rates.
Unfortunate, because it seemed like a useful concept to me. But other methods suffice just as well.

[Maelstrom]

Using a cellar just doesn't seem "realistic" for this game.   Limited size and two other options are better.  Whether using a cellar or just flat dwarven style farming, either will need underground farming to be enabled; iirc, underground farming is disabled by default.   The last option, as mentioned, sky farming.

[Facethief]

8 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

Using a cellar just doesn't seem "realistic" for this game.   Limited size and two other options are better.  Whether using a cellar or just flat dwarven style farming, either will need underground farming to be enabled; iirc, underground farming is disabled by default.   The last option, as mentioned, sky farming.

Isn’t the underground farming penalty based on depth BSL? If so, it’d have little to no bearing on using a cellar for farming.

[Maelstrom]

I don't know.  Never farmed underground.

[Feycat]

Mountain farming is the answer you want here. 

[svendepen]

19 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Using a cellar just doesn't seem "realistic" for this game.   Limited size and two other options are better.  Whether using a cellar or just flat dwarven style farming, either will need underground farming to be enabled; iirc, underground farming is disabled by default.   The last option, as mentioned, sky farming.

I believe the concept would actually be realistic, especially compared to building a farmland way up in the sky.

In real life, similar concepts are applied. Not exactly a cellar maybe, but methods that share similarities. They're technically greenhouses as well, just exploiting different properties that decrease temperature rather than increase it. It's also sort of underground, but far from as deep as below sea level (where the underground farming rule would kick in).

So, greenhouse mechanics that lower temperatures instead of increasing them? That would make more sense than calling it a "low-scoring" cellar, while keeping things realistic.

[Maelstrom]

I was thinking cellar farming wouldn't be game realistic due to the size limitation, more than anything else.   And as for sky farming?   Not very RL realistic, but as for game realism?  Yes.   Yes it is.  

[svendepen]

Ah realistic in that sense! Yeah that's true, the size would be very limiting. Maybe on a small scale you could get away with it, but otherwise it becomes a hassle that sky farming would totally solve.

[Broccoli Clock]

Underground farming is one of those things I feel extremely strongly about, but I have no right too. To me, it's just a lazy exploit, despite it being possible in the game. I know, I know, people who use it will complain at my characterisation. I'm not throwing shade at people, I just really dislike the mechanism. There is a slight exception to this though, and that would be mushrooms. If we could farm them, then placing them in hot locations with no light (or underground) is completely fine.

As for farming in hot climates, it's not all that much different to temperate farming, you just choose different crops. For turnips, replace it with rice, instead of cabbage, replace it with peanuts, etc.  Sure, there may be a few months, due to the ambient temperature, where you can't farm anything (depending on where in the world you are) but that's the same for cold climates too. In terms of preserving in hotter climates you can be clever by pickling, salting, sealing and fermenting to extend that shelf lifespan. Ultimately the reason you choose to live in a hot climate is for the challenge, it's different and provides a different challenge. Turning on underground farming, imo, negates that struggle.

There is also the debate that as we have both a greenhouse mechanic but also copper pipes (of varying types) they could be combined to alter the greenhouse blanket +5.c; for example heat could be provided by a fire pit, with cold being provided by ice blocks, the distribution is governed by the pipe layout. Both methods needing their "fuel source" replenished over time. That's a different discussion though.

Obviously this is all subjective, if you want the ability to grow crops not suitable in your biome and to possibly do so at a location that is not feasible, then you should absolutely be able to without hearing my scorn.

 

Edited November 11, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[Maelstrom]

Underground farming makes a lot of sense, in game.   Consider how long was humanity carving out their existence in the bowels of the earth.