Farming is a crucial aspect of survival in Project Zomboid, as it provides items for you to consume to stave off hunger and malnutrition in a world where resources are scarce.

However, farming in Project Zomboid is a challenging task. You must cope with limited resources, harsh weather conditions, and the constant threat of zombie attacks.

Recommended Read: What Is the Best Starting Location in Project Zomboid?

This article will cover the basics of farming in Project Zomboid, including how to farm, where to get tools, seeds, water, things you can plant, and so on.

Farming in Project Zomboid includes selecting the proper occupation and traits, gathering necessary materials and tools, choosing a location to farm, planting the seeds, watering the seeds, and using fertilizer, then harvesting your farm.

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Project Zomboid Farming Guide

Farming in Project Zomboid is a high-risk-high-return activity.

While scavenging for food in the game’s early stages may suffice, it becomes increasingly difficult and dangerous as the game progresses. So, having a reliable source of food can significantly increase your chances of survival.

That’s why you need to understand how to farm.

Things You Can Farm in Project Zomboid

In Project Zomboid, there are seven types of seeds you can plant.

Each of them requires a different number of seeds to start farming and has a different grown time. You can check the table below for more information.

Where to Get Tools

First, you need a trowel and shovel to farm.

You can get the trowel in garages, crates, warehouses, and hardware stores. At the same time, the shovel can be found in sheds, crates, or work shelves.

In addition, you can use a snow shovel or a garden fork, found in farming stores or warehouses, to dig the ground.

Of course, you can also dig by using your hands, but that’s clearly ineffective.

Where to Get Seeds

Seeds are the primary items you’ll use to grow your farm. As mentioned above, there are seven types of seeds in Project Zomboid.

A crop seed packet contains 50 seeds. The seed packet can be found in drawers and closets of houses. They’re also available on store shelves or in warehouses.

To get seeds from the crop seed packet, right-click on the seed packet and select “Open Seed Packet”.

You can also obtain seeds from your current crops, but it’s impossible if you haven’t planted ahead.

Where to Get Water

Water is vital and indispensable in farming.

Although there is rain in Project Zomboid, it’s quite seasonal. So it would be best to have containers to ensure there’s always water for your farm.

You can use the rain collector barrel to store water when it’s raining in the game. Its capacity is between 40 and 160 units of water.

The rain collector barrel is crafted using a hammer, four planks, four nails, and four garbage bags.

Another way to store water is to use cooking pots, saucepans, buckets, or a watering can.

You can look for cooking pots on the kitchen counters of houses or restaurants. These are places where you can find the saucepans, too.

The buckets are rare but can only be found in gardens and storage areas.

The watering can, which is ideal for watering crops, is available in crates and sheds.

Cooking pots, saucepans, and buckets can contain 25 units of water. On the other hand, the watering can, can hold 40 units of water.

Once you’ve got these items, equip them, find any water source, right-click on it, and select “Fill”.

There are a lot of water sources in Project Zomboid. They are faucets, toilets, and bathtubs inside. Otherwise, get outside and find any lake, well, or river nearby.

How to Farm in Project Zomboid

Once you’ve collected all the required materials and tools, here’s how to farm in Project Zomboid in 6 steps!

1. Preparation

In Project Zomboid, farming is a skill you can learn and master regardless of what occupation or trait you choose in the early game. However, if you want to pay close attention to harvest and crops, we’d recommend choosing the “Farmer” occupation and the “Gardener” trait.

The “Farmer” occupation adds three farming skills, while the “Gardener” trait gives you one more.

Next, you’ll need a trowel, shovel, seeds, and water containers to start the farm.

2. Choose a farming location

Now, let’s choose a place to farm!

There are two main types of farms: ground-floor farms and roof farms.

The ground-floor option is straightforward. However, it’s vulnerable, as zombies can easily come and trample. So ensure you cover your farm with walls.

Ideally, consider locations somewhere far away from towns and cities, such as rural areas, where the zombie densities are pretty low. Dixie, Rosewood, and March Ridge are typical locations.

Roof farms, however, require more effort to build, but they’re more secure.

Farming on the roofs will reduce the chance of getting trampled or destroyed by zombies. You can choose any house or base to build, but you have to clear the zombies first and gather materials to build stairs.

Because there’s no dirt in the secondary building, you need to get out and gather them manually.

To move the dirt, you have to equip the shovel/trowel and put the sacks in your inventory. Right-click the shovel in your inventory, select “Equip Primary“, then right-click on an area with dirt, and select “Take some Dirt”. 

Get back to the second floor, right-click on the tile you want to drop the dirt on and select “Pour out Dirt”.

3. Dig the land to plant seeds

Next, equip the trowel the same way, right-click on the land section, and select “Dig Furrow”. You can plant seeds if only you dig your land.

If you have a seed packet, you can use it by right-clicking on it and selecting “Open Packet of <Seed Name>”. After that, right-click on the land you previously dug, select “Sow Seed”, and choose the seed you want to plant.

A “Plant Information” box will appear if you right-click the planted seeds and select “Info”. This box will show the status of your current crop, which will help you maintain it better. You can find the following info:

• Current growing phase
• Next growing phase
• Last time watered
• Fertilized
• Health
• Disease

Not to mention that the unavailable seed will be labeled in red.

4. Watering the crops

Right-click on your plants and select “Water“, then choose the amount of water. It’s recommended that you plant your crops with 50 units of water.

On the contrary, you can skip this step if it’s raining.

5. Using fertilizer and composter

Using fertilizer may reduce the growing time of your crops. This item skips 20 hours of the process.

However, overusing fertilizer (4-5 times) will destroy your crops. Be careful!

Make sure you have NPK fertilizer in your inventory, which can be found in sheds and crates in warehouses, then right-click on your crop and select “Fertilize”.

In addition, you can craft fertilizers using the composter and rotten food, but note that it also requires level 2 carpentry. In general, crafting fertilizer is considered a waste of time.

6. Harvest the crops

Depending on what types of seeds you plant, the time you are able to harvest them is different. There are 7 phases of growing time, and you can harvest your crops when they reach phase 6 or phase 7.

The current growth phase of your crops is displayed in the “Info” box.

When your crops reach phase 6, which is displayed as “Ready To Harvest”, you can right-click on the yield and select “Harvest”.

Stage 7, “Seed-bearing”, allows you to get more seeds instead of harvesting. This is very useful if you want to expand your farm without searching for more seed packets.

Project Zomboid Farming Tips & Tricks

The season system influences your crop. For instance, your crop will yield more in Summer (June to September) than in Winter (December to March).

In addition, planting crops on soil contaminated with zombie blood results in bad-quality seedlings.

Moreover, a radio with an emergency broadcast frequency is extremely useful since it’ll announce the weather in the next 48 hours. Therefore, you can skip watering your crops.

There are currently three diseases in Project Zomboid: Mildew, Insects, and Devil’s Water Fungi.

Although you can sort them out using the specific spray, it’s not a big problem. Because crafting the spray costs a lot of time, we suggest removing the plant to avoid spreading.

That’s all you need to know about farming in Project Zomboid.

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