Auto peat

[Anton_]

Is there a way of getting a signal when Bog Earth turns to Peat?

tl;dr - I've tried a variety of ways, listed below, but not had any success. Are there any other blocks in the DW20 Lets Play season 8 modpack that I might try? Turbary is not available anymore. I know I can do it with Forestry's MultiFarm but setting that up just for Peat is a mission. And this has become a challenge anyway.

(The original reason for wanting Peat is to get Ashes to turn Apatite into Fertiliser, just because that way makes more Fertiliser per Apatite than just using Sand)

Bog Earth is #5792/0 or #5792/1 or #5792/2 (stages of maturation?) and Peat is #5792/3. I thought that would be enough to let Dark Utilities Block Update Detector give a redstone signal when Bog Earth turns into Peat - or even matures one stage - but it doesn't.

Extra Utilities Scanner's GUI seems to get corrupted when either block is in front of it - the top-left text overwrites itself.

Are there any other blocks in the DW20 LetsPlay season 8 modpack that I might try?

I thought it was going to be easy using Constructors/Destructors. The Constructors work fine. But I can't harvest Peat as a block to pop it into the Destructor's whitelist, not even with a silk touch Shovel - it turns into a brick (#5763, no metedata).

I tried blacklisting Bog Earth, but it reverts to #5792/0 in the Destructor's GUI - presumably by the act of mining it. But even so, I'd expect the Destructor to break the Bog Earth when it gets to stage 1 or 2, but it doesn't.

Destructor options are Yes for both "Compare damage" and "Compare NBT", but changing them makes no difference anyway, no matter whether it's Peat or Bog Earth at whatever stage. The only settings I've found that makes the Destructor harvest the block is an empty whitelist or empty blacklist (kinda odd?).

Am I missing something, or is it just not possible without Forestry kit?

 

[Pyure]

For detection, does the pack have Steve's Factory Manager? iirc it has a block that is effective for detecting other blocks.

 

[Anton_]

Pyure - no, that mod doesn't seem to be in the pack

 

[Pyure]

Pyure - no, that mod doesn't seem to be in the pack

If you can find a way to harvest it, you may have to do so on a timer. E.g., every 30 minutes just farm everything whether its fully matured or not.

 

[Anton_]

Pyure - good idea. Harvesting it is not a problem in itself - just harvesting at the moment of change. Your idea of a blanket harvest when most of it can be expected to have turned to peat is something I hadn't thought of - thank you!

 

[Anton_]

Just an update, if anyone's interested: successful project, but Peat production not as generous as I'd hoped.

I set up a row of 25 "peat processors", each comprising a Constructor to place Bog Earth block and a Mechanical User with a Shovel to harvest the block on getting a redstone signal, with Water blocks below the Bog Earth. Four Ranged Collectors spread out along the line pick up the harvest, which is conduited back to Refined Storage. A Timer sends a redstone blip to the Mechanical Users at 40 minute intervals. I get around 20-ish Peat blocks per harvest, the rest being unmatured Bog Earth. The Constructors immediately replace Bog Earth blocks.

The above is almost certainly not the best arrangement, me being me an' all, and I have no idea of how it compares with Peat production in a Forestry MultiFarm. 20-ish Peat blocks will produce 20-ish Ash which, with Apatite, will give 40-ish Fertiliser. An EnderIO farming Station will churn through that in much less than 40 minutes. I think a Blood Magic Well of Suffering mob farm will generate Bone at a faster rate, and a SAG Mill will give you at least 6 Bone Meal per Bone - more with a grinding ball (i.e., abandoning the idea of using Forestry Fertiliser).

 

[scottvee]

Unless it has been nerfed in recent versions it should not take 40 minutes to get 20 blocks. I've had manual farms where it almost starts maturing before I can place 50 new blocks of bog earth. Is that area not chunk loaded? You don't need a water block under each one. One water block can soak a 5x5 area.

 

[Anton_]

scottvee - yes, I've noticed some things are not quite as I thought they were. The slow maturation is true though, and consistent over several cycles. Yes, the area is chunk loaded. It was easier to just dig a water ditch than to ccorrectly space out water blocks - I was lazy! My implementation was imperfect in many ways. I really just wanted to see if Peat was any better than Apatite for Fertiliser (Bone Meal turns out to be best, in my case).

What is different is the function of the Scanner - when I tried it, the display was scrambled and unusable. That has since reverted to normal (how?) and it displays very clearly the stages of maturation - metadata from 0 to 3. One can thus harvest a Peat block as soon as it's ripe, which is more efficient than a blind harvest after x minutes. I didn't implement that, though - didn't need any more Peat.

 

[Cptqrk]

Do you have Refined Storage in your pack? If so, wouldn't a system like the one DW20 made for Living Wood and Living Rock work? Using Constructors to place and Destructors to collect, based on filtered in/out?

*edit after reading more carefully*

You found bonemeal to be best for fertilizer?

A single vein of Appitite normally gives me enough to make do for my entire playthrough LOL

 

[Anton_]

Cptqrk, I used apatite for quite a long time, but still managed to run out eventually. I even had a surface (lvl 30-65) quarry specifically to mine for it. Skeletons have however blessed me generously, and I have bones in vast, heady abundance, and they are being produced much faster than I can use them for fertiliser.