Only a few days until the release of Seasons 19, and the development team is still immersing us in the different game mechanics introduced by the mod. Today they we are going to talk about weeds.
Weeds will grow in untreated fields as soon as the soil temperature is high enough. The default soil temperature for weed germination is 4 degrees Celsius, but this can be changed on a custom map (mod). This means that weeds can appear on your fields during cultivation and seeding operations, before your crop has started to grow.
Weeds grow in random clumps and yield is only affected in the parts where they are visible. The rest of the field is not impacted. You can see this using the field information window.
Destruction of weeds
At first, the weeds are small and can be removed using mechanical weeding or the passage of the sprayer, but they will mature when the soil temperature reaches around 12 degrees. Mature weeds can only be destroyed by spraying. Spraying not only kills all weeds, but also has a preventive effect. Once a field is sprayed, it will no longer produce weeds until harvested, as the game's default mechanics plant weeds every time the player harvests a field.
Weeds wither and die when the soil temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius. The preventative effect means players can spray their field even before seeding and before weeds are visible, to protect against weed-related yield losses.
Weed growth is completely organic and is not directed by the growth file, so there is no additional work for map makers to do. However, modders will be able to customize soil temperatures to control when weeds germinate, mature, and wilt. "We will soon publish additional and detailed information on converting maps to Seasons 19 format" underlines the Realismus team.