Enshrouded Farming Guide: Seedbed, Farm Soil and Watering

Enshrouded farming only starts once Emily Fray, the Farmer, is in your base: she provides the Seedbed, where harvested crops and water turn into new seedlings. You plant those in Farm Soil, wait a few minutes and harvest several times what you put in.

This guide shows how to turn crops into a steady supply for your kitchen: soil types, wells and the Water Barrel, the Rake with adjustable depth, rice underwater and a Watering Can that works differently than its name suggests.

🌾 How Enshrouded farming works

Whatever stage you're at, farming follows the same loop. Your first harvest in the wild unlocks the seedling recipe, and everything after that happens at your base:

1. Rescue the Farmer and bring her to your base with the Summoning Staff
2. Make Farm Soil and build the Seedbed
3. Harvest a wild plant to unlock its recipe
4. Grow seedlings at the Seedbed and keep water ready
5. Plant them inside your Flame Altar's build area
6. Harvest and turn part of the crop straight back into seedlings

Your field belongs in the build area, because only there do terrain and buildings stay permanent. How big that area gets per altar level is in our Enshrouded base building guide.

👩‍🌾 Unlocking Emily Fray, the Farmer

Without Emily Fray there's no Seedbed and no Farm Soil. You get the quest "Growing Stronger Together" from Athalan Skree, the Hunter. Where exactly to go and how to get past the switches and traps is in our Enshrouded craftspeople guide.

Emily Fray's stations include the Cooking Station, Oven, Beehive and the Almanac of Plants and Seedlings. You get the Almanac through its own quest, whose start condition Keen Games fixed with patch 0.9.1.1 on April 29, 2026. According to the patch notes, "Forging the Path" added two workbenches and a factory that split up the long recipe lists of the Farmer and the Carpenter.

🪴 Building the Seedbed and growing seedlings

The Seedbed costs 10 Wood Logs, 2 Metal Scraps and 10 Farm Soil. The German community database eprison.de lists 52 seedling types for it, from wheat, tomato and pumpkin to saffron and sage and tree seedlings such as spruce.

A recipe only shows up after you've harvested the plant once. For the tomato seedling, for example, it unlocks when you harvest tomatoes for the first time. So pick up every unknown plant on your travels if you want to grow it later.

📊 What one seedling really gets you

Here's the math using tomatoes, with values from eprison.de: 1 tomato and 1 water make 5 tomato seedlings in 15 minutes. Every planted seedling yields 2 tomatoes at harvest. One tomato becomes ten, so you gain nine. Keep one from every harvest and your field grows without another trip into the wild.

The English community wiki at enshrouded.wiki.gg differs on the recipe: there, the tomato seedling also needs 1 Farm Soil, and crafting takes 5 instead of 15 minutes. Both sources agree on the yield of 5 seedlings. What counts is what the Seedbed shows you in game, especially since 1.0 reworked yields and production times of many crafting recipes.

According to 4netplayers (a community source), the yield ranges from 5 to 20 seedlings depending on the plant. We've left out pre-1.0 growth times on purpose: the 1.0 patch notes redesigned plant growth times overall.

🟫 Farm Soil and other soils

Emily Fray makes all of these soils. Recipes follow eprison.de unless noted otherwise:

Farm Soil is "healthy soil that will increase the growing speed of most plants", and the fertilised version speeds it up strongly according to the item text. Flower Soil is meant for flower pots, and Shroud Infused Farm Soil is used for a Shroud plant seedling according to eprison.de. The community wiki adds that seedlings also grow on regular dirt and sand.

The sources disagree on some recipes. 4netplayers describes Fertilised Farm Soil as Farm Soil upgraded with nitrate and water, while eprison.de lists the recipe in the table. The English community wiki has the same recipe but with a yield of 10 instead of 15. For Flower Soil, both sources agree on 10 Farm Soil and 1 Honey. What counts is what the Farmer shows you in the client.

🌱 Laying out fields

According to GIGA, you pick Farm Soil under terrain in the build menu and place it like regular blocks, and the 4-meter box shape works well for beds. Then take the finished seedlings from the Seedbed and place them on the soil.

The Rake is made at the Workbench from 6 Wood Logs, 2 yarn and 2 stone according to eprison.de. Since Update 7, "Wake of the Water", from November 10, 2025, you can adjust its radius manually according to the official changelog. There's also an adjustable cursor depth, so you can dig small ditches and irrigation channels instead of only leveling ground.

💧 Water for farming: wells, Water Barrel and pump

You mainly need water at the Seedbed, because most seedling recipes use water as an ingredient. According to the official Update 7 changelog, workshops with water recipes have their own water storage. You fill it three ways: with a water tool such as the Watering Can, at the press of a button from a nearby well, or with filled water pouches in your inventory.

Both wells require the Carpenter's Masonry Tools. According to the community wiki, a well passively builds up a supply of water. The Water Barrel is the game's rain barrel: it fills with rainwater according to the changelog, which you can use for crafting, a pond or irrigation. One catch: according to the community wiki, rain alone doesn't refill bodies of water, only the barrels.

🌊 Irrigation, water gates and rice underwater

Keen Games introduced underwater seedlings with Update 7. The official changelog says seedlings such as rice must stand in water, and algae only grow when fully submerged. A rice paddy is a flooded bed, and the Rake's ditches work well for it.

The Rice Seedling is made at the Seedbed from water, raw rice and Fertilised Farm Soil. eprison.de lists 1 water, 20 minutes and 20 seedlings, while the English community wiki lists 2 water, 5 minutes and 5 seedlings. The plant has to sit in water so that its roots stay covered. According to eprison.de, you find the first rice to harvest at a farmstead in Veilwater Basin, which unlocks the recipe.

You control water flow with irrigation gates that can be raised and lowered. The English community wiki lists the small model as "Irrigation Gate Small" from the Carpenter. To keep water out of certain areas, there are water barrier wall and floor pieces.

Since "Forging the Path", water flows much further on flat surfaces according to the official patch notes, and water dispensers no longer shut off when no player is nearby. Both matter for flooded rice paddies.

🚿 The Watering Can: information, not watering

The Blacksmith, Oswald Anders, makes the Watering Can from 4 charcoal, 6 Metal Scraps and 1 coal dust according to eprison.de. According to the official changelog, it shows the growing info for every plant, such as soil and growth stage. The community wiki adds the water level and a capacity of 100 units. Version 1.0 adds a tutorial that explains how the Watering Can helps you keep track of what your plants need.

According to the community wiki, the Watering Can isn't required for growth and doesn't speed it up. You don't have to water regular beds. Its use is carrying water from the well to the Seedbed, capping the growth of individual plants and checking whether a seedling sits in the wrong soil.

💡 Enshrouded farming tips

• Put a well next to the Seedbed: then you fill the water storage at the press of a button without hauling pouches.
• Fertilised Farm Soil for expensive crops: pumpkin and saffron already need it in their recipes according to eprison.de.
• Always keep one crop back: then you never have to go out again to restart a recipe.
• Harvest into magic chests: according to the community wiki, workshops pull materials directly from nearby magic chests.

What to cook from your harvest and which buffs grains, vegetables and fruit give is in our Enshrouded food buffs guide.

📌 What 1.0 changes for farming

The recipes and values above come from Early Access after "Forging the Path" (0.9.1.0) and hotfix 0.9.1.2.

The official patch notes for version 1.0.0.0 change quite a bit for Enshrouded farming. Plant growth times were redesigned and lowered overall: large plants and trees now take longer, small plants are faster. Cattails and reed can be planted in shallow water, thyme has a seedling, all night plants are available as potted plants and farm animals produce much faster. Outdated farm beds were removed from several farms in Embervale. The patch notes don't give new times. What's confirmed for the release is collected in our Enshrouded 1.0 overview.

❓ Enshrouded farming FAQ

When can I start farming in Enshrouded?

As soon as you've rescued Emily Fray, the Farmer, and brought her to your base. She unlocks the Seedbed and Farm Soil.

Do I have to water my plants?

Not regular beds. According to the community wiki, the Watering Can doesn't speed up growth. You need water at the Seedbed and for underwater plants such as rice.

How do I get new seedling recipes?

By harvesting the plant in the wild for the first time. After that, the recipe shows up at the Seedbed.

How do I grow rice?

Make Rice Seedlings at the Seedbed from water, raw rice and Fertilised Farm Soil, then plant them in water so the roots stay covered.

Can I stop trees from growing to full size?

Yes. Since Update 7, you can cap the growth of individual plants with the Watering Can.

📌 Sources

Checked against the official Keen Games changelogs for Update 7 (0.9.0.0), "Forging the Path" (0.9.1.0), patch 0.9.1.1 and version 1.0.0.0. Recipes: German community database eprison.de; item names, Seedbed, Farm Soil and Watering Can: English community wiki at enshrouded.wiki.gg. Additional sources: 4netplayers and GIGA. As of October 15, 2026.