Irrigation with no infinite water source blocks

[EnbyKaiju]

Coming up to the new stable build of VS, and the need now for much larger grain/flax farms with the reduced drop rate, it has me wondering how folks who, like me, play with moveable water blocks turned off yet make large crop fields?

Do you take over a lake and build your field into that, do you hand-water everything and embrace the joy in the mundane task, or do you come up with more creative approaches?

I've been a tiered farm enthusiast in my builds for a while now, which is probably how I'm going to keep going (though I need to make more of those or find ways to expand them), but how do you handle those big farms when you can't just make chessboards of infinite water blocks?

[ATTESTEDJON]

Id would love to make a series of terraces where water from a water fall moves down to irrigate each level

[MKMoose]

I've personally always found that water should be moveable and obtainable, but not easily duplicated, i.e. there should be some natural sources (oceans, underground aquifers, rain) which don't deplete when drawn from, while regular surface sources should be finite.

Either way, to your questions.

 

On 4/8/2026 at 5:52 AM, EnbyKaiju said:

Coming up to the new stable build of VS, and the need now for much larger grain/flax farms with the reduced drop rate, it has me wondering how folks who, like me, play with moveable water blocks turned off yet make large crop fields?

Though I play with moveable water sources, I can say that terrace farms are by far the most efficient type of farm in terms of the amount of farmland blocks per water block, because a single water source would be able to supply infinite farmland if it wasn't limited by world height. It's just much more flexible to let the water flow just the way you want instead of having to build around existing water sources, and terraces can also be very aesthetic in certain cases if you build them in such a way that the water is hidden under the next layer. It can take quite a lot of work to pull off without moveable sources.

 

On 4/8/2026 at 5:52 AM, EnbyKaiju said:

Do you take over a lake and build your field into that [...]

Covering a lake is the best way to achieve a large, flat farm that doesn't require watering or rely on rain. You can also build a farm around a lake, not necessarily into it, if you don't have the soil or time in the early game or if you prefer the aesthetics of it.

Even just a single isolated block of water can supply:

• 8x 75% moisture tiles (~97% growth speed),
• 16x 50% moisture tiles (~82% growth speed),
• 24x 25% moisture tiles (~58% growth speed).

And you can increase these numbers if you create channels for the water to flow through to cover a larger area.

Naturally, the effective farmland count per water source will be much lower for a larger lake due to overlap, though the total for the entire lake can be very high regardless. Especially if you're willing to accept the lower growth rates, it means that you could just create a ring around a large lake, maybe with a couple extra channels, and be set for the entire game.

 

On 4/8/2026 at 5:52 AM, EnbyKaiju said:

[...] do you hand-water everything and embrace the joy in the mundane task [...]

Watering and rain increase the moisture of a farmland block to 100%, which results in a 110% growth rate (~13.4% higher than a regular 75% moisture block), which means that watering the farmland or settling in a rainy area can be useful in almost any context, not just with moveable water sources disabled.

After watering or rain, farmland moisture should decrease to zero over four days (haven't verified it experimentally yet), so you can water it every ~3 days if you're fine with slightly slower growth or daily if not more often if you want slightly faster growth. It takes a bit of maintenance, but especially in a rainy area it is absolutely a viable choice to just skip irrigation altogether.

Edited April 11 by MKMoose
Correct numbers that were switched around.

[LadyWYT]

9 hours ago, EnbyKaiju said:

it has me wondering how folks who, like me, play with moveable water blocks turned off yet make large crop fields?

To be fair, I don't play like this, but:

From a vanilla standpoint, making sure the fields are located in an area with high rainfall should be enough, no irrigation required. The crop growth might be a little slower than if it was irrigated, but the player should still be able to get yearly harvests with ease. Many players, I think, opt to just build their farms out into lakes.

If mods are involved, Hydrate or Diedrate allows the player to dig wells and collect rainwater in barrels. Would definitely be a tougher way to play, but a useful option if the player doesn't necessarily want to settle down next to water or build their farms out into a lake.

[EnbyKaiju]

11 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

If mods are involved, Hydrate or Diedrate allows the player to dig wells and collect rainwater in barrels. Would definitely be a tougher way to play, but a useful option if the player doesn't necessarily want to settle down next to water or build their farms out into a lake.

There's a really good irrigation mod that I've used before called Hardcore Water: Transport Edition, that I really loved using because it was a perfect balance of working with what you've got but not being overpowered. I hope that one gets updated because it's currently the only mod that gives you a solid irrigation system without a ton of additional stuff.

It's honestly surprising that the VS devs haven't implemented more irrigation options when they made no infinite water blocks the more intense survival experience (which is my default). Hopefully that's on the way.

[Nathan Flaminio]

I'd love to see aquaducts added! 

[KahvozeinsFang]

On 4/7/2026 at 8:52 PM, EnbyKaiju said:

Coming up to the new stable build of VS, and the need now for much larger grain/flax farms with the reduced drop rate, it has me wondering how folks who, like me, play with moveable water blocks turned off yet make large crop fields

Looks like you're going to be spending a lot of time with a watering can if you continue to play without moveable water sources.

[Blaiyze]

One of the reasons I liked the Primitive Survival mod, was the ability to dig irrigation ditches. Why this isn't vanilla I truly don't understand, considering the relative goal is realism. It's simple, it's effective, not over powered, and gets the job done. All you need is a nearby pond or water source to start the canal and you're good to go. It also occasionally gets blocked up and you have to clear them.

 

[Thorfinn]

Anymore I only take over lakes, and still usually do some watering at first.

Used to be that flowing water was laggy, at least in quantities sufficient for a decent farm. It's probably fine for your terra preta farm, though.

My luck with counting on rainfall is sketchy. Even in "Almost all the time", I've gone well over a month without rain, though I would not rule out the possibility that it simply does not rain when the chunk is unloaded.

[Zane Mordien]

On 4/10/2026 at 5:51 PM, Thorfinn said:

Anymore I only take over lakes, and still usually do some watering at first.

Used to be that flowing water was laggy, at least in quantities sufficient for a decent farm. It's probably fine for your terra preta farm, though.

My luck with counting on rainfall is sketchy. Even in "Almost all the time", I've gone well over a month without rain, though I would not rule out the possibility that it simply does not rain when the chunk is unloaded.

Same, when I play where I can't move water blocks I take over a lake as well. 

[Bruno Willis]

On 4/10/2026 at 2:45 AM, Blaiyze said:

One of the reasons I liked the Primitive Survival mod, was the ability to dig irrigation ditches. Why this isn't vanilla I truly don't understand, considering the relative goal is realism.

I genuinely don't understand the block game obsession with over-watering crops. In the real world, farms that close to water are going to rot their crops, unless they're very special crops like rice. Too much water is as bad as too little, and I wish V.S. could get fully away from TOBG's unrealistic watering system.

That rain hydrates farmland is a great step in the right direction, as are watering cans. I'd love it if crops could be watered too much, meaning you'd only want irrigation channels in arid landscapes where the gardens get a chance to dry out. Alongside that, it'd be good if moisture levels could be kept steady for longer (mods with mulch do a good job at this). That way people would be more likely to build realistic farms that can rely on rain and the occasional hand water during droughts. 

In the real world, if you had a meter wide pool after every meter of farm, you'd end up with a muddy mess. 

[Emeal]

43 minutes ago, Bruno Willis said:

I genuinely don't understand the block game obsession with over-watering crops. In the real world, farms that close to water are going to rot their crops, unless they're very special crops like rice. Too much water is as bad as too little, and I wish V.S. could get fully away from TOBG's unrealistic watering system.

That rain hydrates farmland is a great step in the right direction, as are watering cans. I'd love it if crops could be watered too much, meaning you'd only want irrigation channels in arid landscapes where the gardens get a chance to dry out. Alongside that, it'd be good if moisture levels could be kept steady for longer (mods with mulch do a good job at this). That way people would be more likely to build realistic farms that can rely on rain and the occasional hand water during droughts. 

In the real world, if you had a meter wide pool after every meter of farm, you'd end up with a muddy mess. 

You would need a full rewrite of how irrigation works, I'm all for it, but it would be a lot of work for the Anego Team.

[Zane Mordien]

1 hour ago, Emeal said:

You would need a full rewrite of how irrigation works, I'm all for it, but it would be a lot of work for the Anego Team.

It wouldn't surprise me if they did it one day way down the road. The flowing water blocks are the first step and riveres are the second which are coming in the next version.

[Blaiyze]

16 hours ago, Bruno Willis said:

I genuinely don't understand the block game obsession with over-watering crops. In the real world, farms that close to water are going to rot their crops, unless they're very special crops like rice. Too much water is as bad as too little, and I wish V.S. could get fully away from TOBG's unrealistic watering system.

It's because of how irrigation and moisture work in game as it currently stands. Trying to handwater a massive grain field is obnoxious especially if you don't have a water source nearby to constantly refill the watering can and without any other reasonable irrigation beyond rain and the watering can, building near water, plopping a water source in the middle of the field, or with the mod I mentioned, dig irrigation canals.

[Emeal]

There is no question in my mind that what we do to plants currently in Vintage story would turn into a mud pile in 3 days and kill all the plants.
So it leaves much to be desired for a uncompromising survival game. But the question if Anego wants to rework the irrigation, we should investigate that.

neat

Edited April 16 by Emeal
Looks like you can just search Tyron's name and read him like an open book.