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Soil Nutrients
The mod tracks five properties per field. All values are stored independently for each field ID on the map and saved to soilData.xml in your savegame folder.
Scale: 0–100
Starting default: 50
Status thresholds: Poor < 30 · Fair 30–50 · Good > 50
Nitrogen is the most mobile nutrient — it depletes fastest at harvest and leaches most heavily in rain. Most crops have a high nitrogen demand. Legumes (soybean, peas, beans) have an elevated N entry in the extraction table because they compensate for biological fixation in aggregate.
How to raise it: liquid fertilizer, solid granular, manure, slurry, UAN-28, UAN-32, anhydrous ammonia, urea, AMS
Scale: 0–100
Starting default: 33
Status thresholds: Poor < 25 · Fair 25–45 · Good > 45
Phosphorus binds tightly to soil particles and leaches very slowly in rain. It depletes primarily through crop harvest. Root and tuber crops have moderate P demand; oilseeds (canola) have the highest.
How to raise it: liquid fertilizer, solid granular, MAP (11-52-0), DAP (18-46-0), biosolids
Scale: 0–100
Starting default: 38
Status thresholds: Poor < 20 · Fair 20–40 · Good > 40
Potassium is critical for root and tuber crops. Potato and sugar beet have extreme K demand — expect significant depletion per harvest. K leaches at a moderate rate in rain.
How to raise it: liquid fertilizer, solid granular, potash (0-0-60), slurry, digestate
Scale: 5.0–7.5
Starting default: 6.0
Optimal range: 6.5–7.0
pH measures soil acidity. Most crops perform best in the 6.5–7.0 range. Rain slowly acidifies soil over time. Below 5.5 is considered poor. pH does not recover on its own — it requires lime application.
How to raise it: lime (dry), liquid lime
Natural drift: rain acidifies soil gradually; pH also drifts slowly toward neutral (6.5–7.0) on its own at a rate of 0.01 per day
Scale: 0–10
Starting default: 3.5
Status thresholds: Poor < 2.5 · Fair 2.5–4.0 · Good > 4.0
Organic matter improves soil structure and nutrient retention. It builds very slowly and is not depleted by harvesting. Chopping straw back into the field (instead of collecting it) adds OM based on crop volume and chop ratio.
How to raise it: manure, slurry, digestate, compost, biosolids, chicken litter, pelletized manure, chopped straw/chaff
| Season | Effect |
|---|---|
| Spring | +0.03 N per day (biological activity boost) |
| Fall | −0.02 N per day (gradual depletion) |
| Winter | No seasonal change |
| Summer | No seasonal change |
Rain leaches nutrients from the field at a rate proportional to rainfall intensity:
| Nutrient | Leach rate |
|---|---|
| Nitrogen | Highest (most mobile) |
| Potassium | Moderate |
| Phosphorus | Lowest (binds to soil) |
| pH | Slightly acidified by rain |
Rain effects can be toggled off in Settings.
Fields left unplanted for more than 7 days slowly recover nutrients on their own:
| Nutrient | Recovery rate (per day) |
|---|---|
| N | 0.07 |
| P | 0.03 |
| K | 0.05 |
| OM | 0.01 |