Cool contraptions to build

[Zjarek_S]

Thaumic bees don't add recipe for apatite, they allow to use it more efficiently by making concentrated compound. The only options seem to be either GT (chemical reactor or centrifuging soul sand from alkhestry) or RC saltpeter.

However apatite spawns are so large and can be used with fortune and farms use really small amounts of fertilizer, that in normal play you will probably never run out of it.

Edit: There will be some changes in 1.5 forestry, nerfing other tree cutting methods:
"Sapling yield in the fermenter has changed. The amount of biomass produced from a single sapling is now determined by the sappiness trait on it. Saplings without genetic information are treated as though they have lowest sappiness. Average sappiness boosts biomass yield back to the previous level. High sappiness increases it to 150 % of the previous yield."

 

[GPuzzle]

Actually, I think that's what people are talking about - that recipe was removed recently.
That said, if you're using any of the packs, I think Thaumic Bees has a way to make fertilizer. It uses Vis, obviously, but it is renewable if you set up enough crystal clusters.
(And anyway, it's not like you'll really need to create fertilizer that often.)
As people have alluded to, you could also use the GT chemical reactor to help you out, I think.
Thaumic Bees will also allow you to make your own shards... but then you're probably planning on setting up a village inside your base anyhow.

Then why the heck it still appears as a possible recipe in my Mindcrack (latest update) world?

 

[jumpfight5]

sappiness

I'm sorry. This is just....too...weird. Sappiness. Heh.

 

[Icarus White]

Thaumic bees don't add recipe for apatite, they allow to use it more efficiently by making concentrated compound. The only options seem to be either GT (chemical reactor or centrifuging soul sand from alkhestry) or RC saltpeter.

However apatite spawns are so large and can be used with fortune and farms use really small amounts of fertilizer, that in normal play you will probably never run out of it.

Edit: There will be some changes in 1.5 forestry, nerfing other tree cutting methods:
"Sapling yield in the fermenter has changed. The amount of biomass produced from a single sapling is now determined by the sappiness trait on it. Saplings without genetic information are treated as though they have lowest sappiness. Average sappiness boosts biomass yield back to the previous level. High sappiness increases it to 150 % of the previous yield."

Given that sappiness previously only determined how fast fruit grew, I suppose something like this was in the works for a long time.
Out of curiosity, though: the forestry wiki gives out water and fertilizer consumption, but how often is that cost taken? Once a block, once a growth cycle...?

 

[kev12east]

I've done some extensive testing with saltpeter and here are my conclusion, it may not be 100 % accurate, but it is enough for building a generator. Railcraft saltpeter regenerates if a few conditions are met:

• There is bedrock like block, saltpeter spawner in given column. Where there is newly generated saltpeter, there are this spawners. They spawn in quite large clusters on lowest level of world, however they can be moved by portal gun.
• It will only generate in second topmost block in this column.
• This block must be sand.
• Block on top also must be sand.
• It must sit on sand or sandstone.
• From the sides at least 3 blocks must be either sand, sandstone or salt peter ore, fourth block may be air, but can't be piston or water.

It doesn't spawn very quickly, but there are quite a few of this spawners in one area. Here are my tries at automation, rather successful:

This is simple setup, showing example of conditions required to spawn it. Nothing else to say about it, except that it is really slow.

Here is main production. It is mainly 3 layers of sand laid down by filler and harvested by quarry after some time. If quarry harvest any of the two corners of the bottom layer, it is deactivated and filler is activated. If filler starts filling 4th layer it is deactivated. Quarry is activated if energy cell powering it is full. In the time that previous setup gathered 6 pieces of saltpeter, this one harvested 11 stacks.

could you do a detailed tutorial on how to make this? my attempts have been coming up short