Biomass creation.

[Sam6555]

So I started a new map with a few friends a couple days ago deciding to use a more green approach for power this time around. I'm okay with almost all of it, however I'm a bit concerned with the organic part of what goes into a Fermenter. I'm using a MFR planter/harvester combo, I'm not keen on multifarms though I know how to use them, SCarts is overdone, and finally I don't do any form of code for CCraft.

For the planter, I tested a few things out such as Force Trees and Blue Mahoe, however the planter doesn't plant these. So atm I'm just using vanilla Oak Trees. Though not nearly enough saplings are being produced, which gets me wondering. What saplings do others use for their Fermenters? Assuming the use of MFR treefarm, or maybe you don't even use trees?

 

[Someguy]

You don't say which pack you're playing so I'm not sure what mods you have available, but if you have Natura, I've found the Sakura (cherry) trees are very prolific in both saplings and wood, and they work well with MFR machines.

The Biomes-O-Plenty cherry trees also seem to be quite prolific, had good results with those. I haven't tried too many other species of tree.

If you're brave and/or patient, you can delve into Forestry tree-breeding and work your way up to a tree type that's sappy and woody and fruity and everything all in one. I think. I dunno, I haven't gone down that road yet myself.

 

[Sam6555]

Ah, right the modpack. Using Unleashed 1.1.2.

I have a few Sakura saplings lying around, I'll try those. I've seen you can get traits like Triple Saplings on trees with breeding them, but I have never gotten into breeding, not even bees. Another thing I plan to do later on. Heh...

 

[Sam6555]

Ok tried this out, the Sakura trees do indeed produce a nice amount of saplings. However these saplings do not work in a Fermenter.

 

[TheLoneWolfling]

Ok tried this out, the Sakura trees do indeed produce a nice amount of saplings. However these saplings do not work in a Fermenter.

Can you run them through a MFR unifier?

 

[Sam6555]

Doesn't look like it, remained the same sapling the whole time.

 

[Lisranda]

What size area are you planting? Are you using a fertilizer?

One of the huge mistakes people make with MFR tree farms is using upgrades and still filling the whole area with trees. If you use a fertilizer, you will have trees grow side-by-side-by-side and when that happens a HUGE number of their leaf blocks just don't spawn, which results in less saplings. In fact, a 9x9 planting area with a full time fertilizer will generally LOSE more saplings every cycle than it creates as you have an 8x8 block of trees in the middle that don't generate a single leaf block and the ones around the edge only produce about 1/3 of what they should.

When using MFR tree farms for saplings... stick to the 3x3 or if you use upgrades, disable the planting of trees in some areas so that more leaves can spawn. One 3x3 planter with a fertilizer that has constant supply (I prefer IC2 fertilizer... the Forestry stuff is too non-renewable without the right bees and the MFR stuff generates so slow naturally in composters) can nearly fuel 2 boilers with staggered start-up. I'm sure if you disabled planting the one tree in the middle (so it only planted 8 in each cycle) it would handle 2 boilers no problem.

Of course, also consider the MFR Bio Reactor -- which makes Biofuel directly (skips Biomass) and at a faster rate. It gets more efficient with a greater diversity of ingredient but you can use Carrots, Potato, all the the various Seeds, Bonemeal, Nether Wart, Ink Sacks, any kind of Dye, etc etc. If you have 9 different types of products it produces more fuel per item than the Fermenter/Still combo -- except when using Saplings, where Forestry is still king. You can stick an MFR Unifier on the output of the Bio Reactor to turn the Biofuel into Ethanol as they are the same liquid in the liquid dictionary. You don't need to do that of course, the purple stuff burns the same as the orange, but it might make it easier for storage.

 

[Sam6555]

I will definitely look into this tomorrow. Total size is 11x11 no fertilizer. I'll try it with planting only in an x shape and use a fertilizer. That should fix my problem. The MFR Bio Reactor sounds good, never noticed the block before I'll be trying that out for sure.

I'm a little surprised when you said a 3x3 farm can handle 2 boilers, sounds pretty crazy.

 

[Someone Else 37]

Ok tried this out, the Sakura trees do indeed produce a nice amount of saplings. However these saplings do not work in a Fermenter.

If you intend to pump the biomass directly into some Stills for Ethanol, you might have better luck setting up some other farms and running an MFR Bioreactor.
If you want to do something else with your Biomass that MFR can't duplicate, you'll have to use Forestry trees and either a turtle-based farm or a Multifarm. You'll probably want to breed one fruit-bearing tree species (Direwolf20 seems to like papayas) and a tree species for saplings. I think there are separate traits for how many leaves are on each tree, how many saplings you'll get per leaf block, and how much biomass you'll get per sapling. I've no idea which species have the best traits, though, so you might want to spawn in and look through the Master Arborist's Database (aka Sengir in a Can) to get some idea of which species to look for, and how to get them.

Also note that Industrious bees are naturally good at breeding trees, but any hive species will do as well. Alveary Sieves are also extremely useful for making tree breeding somewhat less random, but require a fairly large commitment into bee breeding.

 

[Lisranda]

I will definitely look into this tomorrow. Total size is 11x11 no fertilizer. I'll try it with planting only in an x shape and use a fertilizer. That should fix my problem. The MFR Bio Reactor sounds good, never noticed the block before I'll be trying that out for sure.

I'm a little surprised when you said a 3x3 farm can handle 2 boilers, sounds pretty crazy.

The saplings from a 3x3 farm can nearly run 2 36H boilers -- if you take all those logs and turn them into charcoal (or sawmill them into planks.... though I'm not a fan of that approach) you can easily fuel 2 more solid fueled 36H boilers off of a 3x3 farm with fertilizer.

 

[Labhras]

Most saplings the fermenter can't touch can actually be crafted into plantballs that it can use. I know this is true of force saplings for sure.

 

[namiasdf]

For your problem specifically, increasing the size of your tree farm might help. I have over 90 planters running 800+ Xycraft soil + oak tree farm going. That gives me a surplus to the 6 fermenters I'm using.

With forestry biomass you have many options. The items that yield the most biomass per piece starts at saplings, compressed plantballs, plantballs/wheat & everything else. If you are using an MFR planter/harvester, off of a 3x3 tree farm you probably won't have enough saplings to run one fermenter at full speed. This is unless you are using a fertilizer, which grows things instantly.

Fermenters can accept 17 MJ/t and can produce biomass at an alarming rate. I have 6 fermenters running at near full speed. They can produce 6 million units faster than you might imagine. I think I left for about a hour or two and came back to find everything backed up.

 

[Blasphemarii]

On the subject of Sakura trees, in the latest version of Unleashed, the only use they seem to have is either planting more trees, burning in a furnace or scrap. They don't turn into plantballs and don't work with any machines that I've tried. I don't know if this is a bug or if this is intended, but it would be nice to get rid of the 500+ stacks of sakura saplings that I have laying around in barrels outside Think of the of all that potential ethanol... daym.

 

[Hoff]

On the subject of Sakura trees, in the latest version of Unleashed, the only use they seem to have is either planting more trees, burning in a furnace or scrap. They don't turn into plantballs and don't work with any machines that I've tried. I don't know if this is a bug or if this is intended, but it would be nice to get rid of the 500+ stacks of sakura saplings that I have laying around in barrels outside Think of the of all that potential ethanol... daym.

Throw them in an MFR bioreactor.