Exact grass spawning mechanics?

[Khornet]

I managed to find the following info on the wiki:

"Tall grass that is cut does not regenerate on soil blocks."

Is this rule absolute? Does this mean that once I cut tall grass, the grassy block will NEVER produce tall grass again? This severely impacts harvesting hay for animal feed.

Until now I believed tall grass growth is related to temperature and it will always regrow - I noticed that planting soil blocks outside results in them being covered in grass and tall grass spawning (somethings right before my eyes). So is the only effective method of farming tall grass to "replant" vast patches of soil after digging it out?
 

[Streetwind]

If you look at a soil block, you'll notice that there are like 3 or 4 different grass textures it can have. Starts from very patchy and gets increasingly dense, until you have the perfectly full, all-green total grass cover.

If you put down a soil block, it will start without any grass at all. Eventually, grass will begin to grow on it. And if there is anything less than full grass cover, it can grow further. Think of it like stages the block can progress through. Depending on the temperature and humidity, and also pure chance, it may go stage by stage, or it may skip some stages and go to full very quickly, or it may never actually reach full, and peter out at an intermediate stage.

Now: each time the soil block changes its texture, there is a chance for tall grass to spawn on it.

This means that the same block can potentially spawn tall grass multiple times, if it generates one with each stage it goes through, and you manage to cut it in time.

But, it also means that once the block has reached its final stage - the full grass texture - it'll never spawn tall grass again, because it never changes texture again. And because the soil block will still continue to advance even if the tall grass on it is not cut, that means that typically you'll only get to harvest it once.

So how do you get enough tall grass for your animal husbandry needs?

Well: grab a shovel, dig those grass blocks up. Put them back down. They're now grass-less soil blocks again. And once they start getting their grass textures back, they can spawn tall grass again.

[Khornet]

Thanks, that explains it. I didn't know the tall grass grows every time the "soil grass" changes texture. Seems kind of unrealistic, considering how lush and tall grass fields are IRL.

Not to mention, replacing dirt is a really sub-optimal way of farming grass... now not only do I have to consider breaking scythes, but shovels too.

Grinding for grass and sticks (can't just make them out of boards?) are my two biggest gripes with the game at the moment. Ok, no, finding limestone is my biggest gripe in the game. I simply cannot do it.

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Jacob Kos

[junawood]

I just cut the grass whenever I have do dig up other stuff, and after a while I have way more than I need.

[Khornet]

Actually, the wiki also mentions how grass respawns on tilled soil - I will test if tilling large patches of soil is an efficient method of farming grass. It's gotta be better than replacing the dirt...

Edited June 20, 2021 by Jacob Kos

[Streetwind]

It certainly works, though much slower than on soil blocks regrowing their texture. So you'll need a very large area of fallow farmland for it, not sure if it needs to be irrigated.

[nathan herald]

farmland works great for me I just make a farm 3 times what I need for crops and scythe it every now and again with the added perk that 4% of the time you will get a horse tail instead of grass.

In fact if you think of this mechanic from a decorating point of view it is rather brilliant on the devs part.

if you mow away all the grass on your property then dig out and replace the soil where you think grass would be naturally you get a random and natural looking spread of tall grass but only where you want it.

beats MS's method of bone-meal and pray all sideways IMHO.

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by nathan herald