So I just won redstone.

[Stormweaver]

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A short while ago, I saw someone build a small vMC tree farm on a livestream. Kinda silly thing to do really; took half a stack of bonemeal per tree, and just pushed the logs one block to the side; they even had to be oak trees.

Earlier today, I saw that FC updated BTW to 1.2.3 - so before I updated, I wanted to try making something with vMC redstone...and the above is the result. This tree farm:
- is 100% birch compatable, with very good growth rates for pine and 1x1 jungle trees
- gathers all of the wood into a small space for easy efficiency II+ axe harvesting
- is fast; whole harvest cycle takes around 10 seconds
- contains absolutely no complex logic gates, simple logic gates* or memory latches
- each area is independently wired; as such, the bulk of it is rather easy to hide behind walls/ceilings.
- is freaking amazing

Dropbox download - the world size is tiny, so feel free to take a look. Just put a sapling on the dirt, use bonemeal, and be amazed.

...*updates BTW*

[Battlecat]

That look extremely elegant. I'll download that for a look tonight; thanks for sharing!

[Poppycocks]

It's a beauty.

I've built several auto-wood-choppers, but this is just fantastic.

Thank you, will use.

[steveman0]

Very nice. Out of curiosity, do birch trees grow faster/more reliably than pine? Past research said tells me that they are similar yet I see most people use birch and I wonder if I should modify my system to use them instead. I used pine in mine because I happened to have a lot of saplings around.

I might have to get this and take a look at what I can do with it. I might simplify what I can with BTW/BTB tools and make a blueprint so that I can finally eliminate my wood limitation.

[Husbag3]

There's one by Pearsquirrel with a similar design with a nice aesthetic shell, you might want to take a look.

[darahalian]

That's really amazing! Cool design.

[Katalliaan]

Very nice. Out of curiosity, do birch trees grow faster/more reliably than pine? Past research said tells me that they are similar yet I see most people use birch and I wonder if I should modify my system to use them instead. I used pine in mine because I happened to have a lot of saplings around.

I might have to get this and take a look at what I can do with it. I might simplify what I can with BTW/BTB tools and make a blueprint so that I can finally eliminate my wood limitation.

I'm pretty sure people use birch over pine because birch trees never grow to a height that you have to pillar or climb to collect all the wood. You get less wood per tree, but you also get less hassle.

[Stormweaver]

Very nice. Out of curiosity, do birch trees grow faster/more reliably than pine? Past research said tells me that they are similar yet I see most people use birch and I wonder if I should modify my system to use them instead. I used pine in mine because I happened to have a lot of saplings around.

I might have to get this and take a look at what I can do with it. I might simplify what I can with BTW/BTB tools and make a blueprint so that I can finally eliminate my wood limitation.

I'm pretty sure people use birch over pine because birch trees never grow to a height that you have to pillar or climb to collect all the wood. You get less wood per tree, but you also get less hassle.

Birch trees can be grown at a 100% rate in a smaller space than needed for pine/jungle, and don't get branches; main reason I use them in tree farms tbh. When it comes to automation, birch has a higher output over time than any other vanilla tree.

[gftweek]

Nice one Storm, it reminds me of the BTW tree-harvester thread we had going a ways back, but all of those systems required complex timing setups, this is much simpler with the block detection system and you just need to add a saw and block dispenser for saplings to convert it for BTW use.

[steveman0]

Birch trees can be grown at a 100% rate in a smaller space than needed for pine/jungle, and don't get branches; main reason I use them in tree farms tbh. When it comes to automation, birch has a higher output over time than any other vanilla tree.

See I saw that in a few posts but I also came across contradictory statements that indicated that pines grew to the same size. I was curious why my growth sometimes requires multiple bone meal. I'll have to convert to birch and see how it goes. I think I just need to raise up my DBs by one level so they detect the leaves 100% of the time. Thanks.

[gftweek]

Birch trees can be grown at a 100% rate in a smaller space than needed for pine/jungle, and don't get branches; main reason I use them in tree farms tbh. When it comes to automation, birch has a higher output over time than any other vanilla tree.

See I saw that in a few posts but I also came across contradictory statements that indicated that pines grew to the same size. I was curious why my growth sometimes requires multiple bone meal. I'll have to convert to birch and see how it goes. I think I just need to raise up my DBs by one level so they detect the leaves 100% of the time. Thanks.

IIRC both birch and pine require more horizontal space to grow than oak (standard) and jungle trees, but pine have a more variable height than birch, so birch will grow most often in a defined space than the other tree types (as long as there is enough room at all).

[Xekrom337]

mind = blown.

that is all i can think of right now, but that is AWESOME!

[Stormweaver]

Plans for today; add in a bit of BTW tech for auto planting and harvesting, and call it done; at least till I settle on a method of compacting it down a little.

I just went and had a glance at the old tree farm topic again and...it's actually kinda crazy how huge some of the wiring we used back then was.

[SterlingRed]

Birch trees can be grown at a 100% rate in a smaller space than needed for pine/jungle, and don't get branches; main reason I use them in tree farms tbh. When it comes to automation, birch has a higher output over time than any other vanilla tree.

I've been looking at the vmc wiki for large jungle tree growth. It appears any 2x2 planting of any saplings as long as the nw corner is a jungle sapling, will always grow if the jungle sapling has no adjacent (or diagonal) blocks anytime bonemeal is applied or a neigboring block tick happens. I have tested the bonemeal and it works 100% of the time on the first bonemeal. I didn't wait long enough to get any estimate on average block tick updates to cause growth. As large jungle trees grow a maximum of 30 high with a 2x2 trunk, automating this BAT (big ass tree) is really tempting, and might turn out more productive than the birch tree. Of course it presents a challenge. Unfortunately I can't try anything for a few days since I'm traveling.

Your automated vmc tree farm is really neat! I may adapt it for my own experiments!

[Stormweaver]

Your automated vmc tree farm is really neat! I may adapt it for my own experiments!

Feel free :)

yeah, automating jungle tree growth is tempting, but outside of a quarry-like setup (or an actual BTB quarry/filler) I'm not sure how I'd go about it. I figure it'd be doable if not for the random branches that don't appear to be preventable >.>

That said, just having a high-quality axe and a quick way up is a good enough way to farm tbh imo.

[SterlingRed]

Your automated vmc tree farm is really neat! I may adapt it for my own experiments!

Feel free :)

yeah, automating jungle tree growth is tempting, but outside of a quarry-like setup (or an actual BTB quarry/filler) I'm not sure how I'd go about it. I figure it'd be doable if not for the random branches that don't appear to be preventable >.>

That said, just having a high-quality axe and a quick way up is a good enough way to farm tbh imo.

I don't think the random branches would be too much of a problem, they'll just hang out and it's nothing flint and steel can't take care of on occasion. I'm thinking 4 bd's with gravel and downward facing pistons placed above the max height of the tree would work, I need to test it. Bd rom bank to count. Refilling the gravel would be an issue.

This is btw, since when has 'good enough' stopped us?

[Williamson]

That's awesome! Auto tree farms have always been something that's interested me, but this looks to be by far the most elegant design I've ever seen. Am I correct in assuming that it's also quite cheap relative to timer based farms, seeing as it uses less redstone? This is really cool in any case.

[Stormweaver]

Your automated vmc tree farm is really neat! I may adapt it for my own experiments!

Feel free :)

yeah, automating jungle tree growth is tempting, but outside of a quarry-like setup (or an actual BTB quarry/filler) I'm not sure how I'd go about it. I figure it'd be doable if not for the random branches that don't appear to be preventable >.>

That said, just having a high-quality axe and a quick way up is a good enough way to farm tbh imo.

I don't think the random branches would be too much of a problem, they'll just hang out and it's nothing flint and steel can't take care of on occasion. I'm thinking 4 bd's with gravel and downward facing pistons placed above the max height of the tree would work, I need to test it. Bd rom bank to count. Refilling the gravel would be an issue.

This is btw, since when has 'good enough' stopped us?

Pistons can only push 12 blocks; I'm pretty sure the minimum height for a 2x2 jungle tree is a tad higher than that :p

As far as I can tell, an auto harvester for it would probably involve a wall of saws (a very, very big wall of saws) and a whole lot of sand. Branches kinda screw that up, as you'd have to make the mechanism up to 10 blocks wider to get them, as burning isn't really an effective way of dealing with anything tbh >.>

That's awesome! Auto tree farms have always been something that's interested me, but this looks to be by far the most elegant design I've ever seen. Am I correct in assuming that it's also quite cheap relative to timer based farms, seeing as it uses less redstone? This is really cool in any case.

Heh, it probably is cheaper tbh; hadn't really considered that angle.

[steveman0]

Heh, it probably is cheaper tbh; hadn't really considered that angle.

That was one of the biggest perks that caught my attention as quite a few are required for decent production. (Though using the right tree helps - I now have 3 stacks of birch all from natural growth)

[Elektrohawk]

I thought about trying to grow a jungle tree in a tube, but I really dont think It'd work. They seem to refuse to grow if they dont have enough room for all the branches and leaves. My current method is to place ladders up the tree (The vines arent relaible for getting all the way up), then just cutting the stocks top to bottom one at a time, leaving the one with the ladders for last. Then you get all the ladders back. considering the only movement is going up the ladders a few times, its soooo fast compared to even good regular tree farms pre-jungles...