Optimal™ Farmland Hydration levels?

[Allen]

The handbook says that farmland within three blocks of water will help them 'maintain good moisture levels', but hydration from being near water water seems to start at 75% and is reduced by 25% per block, meaning at three blocks away, you get just 25% hydration, reducing growth rate to around 60%

So like, is it ok to just have 1 block of water per 7x7 of farmland and have the outer ring grow at 25% hydration, countering the slower growth times with bigger harvests? 

Or does that just mean that being next to water makes hydration drain slower so you need to water less often or something?

If I put all farmland next to water for 75% hydration, is it okay to not water them?

Or maybe having water doesn't actually matter because all it does is raise the base hydration level to 25%/50%/75% better to just water your crops by hand every day to keep them at 100%?

Trying to actually optimize my farm layout for once, and not quite sure where to place the water.

[williams_482]

I strongly recommend having a water source adjacent to each farmland block. 

The drop off in growth speed between 50% and 75% moisture is noticeable. In my experience flax on high fert soil with 75% moisture will reach maturity while the 50% moisture soil is on stage 7/9. That's not debilitating or anything, but it is slower, and it makes it more awkward to harvest it quickly and rotate crops between full fields. 

Also worth mention that the more rain this field gets, the less this matters. Any tile with rain falling on it will be at 100% moisture until the rain stops, and then slowly recede back to baseline. 

Ultimately, it's usually not difficult to get plenty of farmland tiles adjacent to water in the early game by digging branching irrigation trenches off a small pond, and once you have a bucket placing one water source surrounded by eight farmland is a simple, tileable, and space-efficient setup. Outside of possible organizational or aesthetic considerations, there's no reason not to do that. 

[williams_482]

I realized I only answered part of your question.

Farmland needs to be within three blocks of some sort of fresh water (source or flow) to get any moisture from it, but as you saw it declines by 25% for each block of additional distance. 

Farmland with 75% hydration because it's next to water is usually fine. You can water it, it will grow faster, but it's usually not worth the effort.

If you are planning to rely on a watering can for irrigation, it's still best to make sure there's water within three blocks when you first plant the seeds. There's a bug where seeds planted in completely dry soil will grow half as fast over the life of the plant even if they are subsequently watered. In my first world I (unaware that better soils existed) planted my summer crops in dry, low fert soil and watered them regularly, but only about half of them reached maturity before freezing to death. I did have the fun experience of seeing my rye plants be stunted by both heat and cold though, so that was interesting. 

[ArgentLuna]

I build all my farms in 3x3 squares with the water in the center, keeps everything moist and compact and is easy to scale up or down as needed. Never bothered with watering them except by rainfall if it happens.

[Vexxvididu]

20 hours ago, ArgentLuna said:

I build all my farms in 3x3 squares with the water in the center, keeps everything moist and compact and is easy to scale up or down as needed. Never bothered with watering them except by rainfall if it happens.

This is my preferred method as well.  I know there are more optimal methods such as making them like stairs with water behind them but those approaches just look too awkward for me. I think the 3x3 squares with water in the middle is good enough.