In the main menu, the “Resource management” category includes the two items
The Crops section contains the master data of the crops that are cultivated on the planned farm. The seed requirement can be calculated and the seed order exported in the seed calculation.
4.1 Crops
Call up the crop master data by clicking on “Crops” in the main menu under Resource Management. If the import was used in the initial setup wizard, 45 vegetable crops have already been created (if not, see à First steps).
Crops and varieties still missing on your farm can be created here and crops that are not to be cultivated can be deleted.
If you later create crop records for season planning in the cultivation calendar, the data of the crops saved here will be used as the data basis for the records.
Crop list: Each crop entry line contains
- the crop name and stored varieties
- the plant family
- Number of planned crop records for the selected season
- Assigned #tags (edit in the “Notes&#tags” tab of the crop sidebar)
- Notes (edit by clicking on the pencil or in the “Notes…” tab of the crop sidebar)
- Options: “Copy crop” and “Delete” (In the picture, Asia lettuce can be deleted, baby leaf lettuce and eggplant cannot, as sets are planned in 2023. The delete option is only displayed if no sets of the crop are planned in any year).
Show crop data: Click on the row of a crop to open/close the sidebar.
Filter/search crops: The crop list can be narrowed down using the filter by crop, cultivar type, plant family and #tags, you can use the search field to search for crops, cultivar names or #tags.
Create culture: Click on +Create culture at the bottom right. A new entry is created in the list and the sidebar with the crop data opens. Enter the name of the new crop at the top, select the appropriate plant family (or enter it in the name field if not available in the selection and create it with Enter) and, if necessary, the desired color. Click on the tick to the right of the crop name to complete the entry. To edit the details again, click on the culture name. 
The new crop is automatically sorted alphabetically in the crop list. To enter further data, click on the created culture in the list.
Create sets: Planting sets of the stored crops can be planned with + Create sets.
Edit crop-details:
The records created for a crop are generated from the crop master data entered here in the crop area. The better and more precisely the data already matches the crop (e.g. precise information on required harvest quantities), the less work will be required to make changes to the crop records.
The sidebar with the data for a crop is divided into six areas, with additional tabs (tabs) available for the varieties, task templates and notes & #tags. The picture shows the tabs at the top and the data areas collapsed one below the other. With “Expand all”/Collapse all all can be opened/closed or separately by clicking on individual areas.
Details Tab
Details section
- Display color: Click color selector or random color button – selects crop color for display in the cultivation plan/on the beds
- Crop type: Nutrient requirement of the crop weak/medium/strong or green manure. This allows you to control the position of the crop in your crop rotation and display the crop sets sorted according to this in the cultivation calendar and under planning/fields on the beds.
- Crop type: Cultivation/direct sowing/purchase of young plants/growing for (young plant) sale), depending on the cultivation method of the crop on your farm.
- Security: Safety margin (e.g. 10%) for the estimated loss during the cultivation period (from bed planting or, in the case of direct sowing, from emergence to harvest). This buffer is added to the required plant quantity in the calculation so that the planned harvest quantity is achieved despite crop losses.
- Germination rate (only for cultivation type “Cultivation”): additional security for the time from protected sowing to planting in the bed
In contrast to security, the germination rate does not refer to failure, but represents the percentage of germinated seeds. The indication, e.g. 85% germination, comes from the manufacturer’s packaging, a germination sample or as your own estimate.
Harvest information section
- Harvesting method: indicates how a crop is harvested.
- Single harvest: for crops that can only be harvested once (e.g. lettuce/cabbage; plant is off after harvesting (automatically has unit piece, note rounding to whole pieces!)).
- Harvest per m². For crops with a unit of weight (select g, kg or bunch) (e.g. spinach).
- per plant and week – harvest: applies to crops that are harvested several times with a time gap, e.g. all fruit vegetables (tomato, cucumber, pumpkin, …).
- Expected and required harvest quantity:
- In the case of single harvesting, harvest quantities are specified with the “required harvest quantity per week”, as the unit piece (1 piece = 1 plant) is specified and the quantity of plants to be cultivated and the bed meter requirement already result from this. (Farm type “SoLawi – Required harvest quantity per share and week” = enter the required quantity per member share and week)
- For harvest per m², there is also the “expected harvest quantity” – the estimated total average yield per m² that can probably be harvested.
- For per plant and week, enter the expected harvest quantity (estimated average yield per plant that can be harvested per week).
- Delivery weeks: define a fixed number of weeks. On the planned record, this is used instead of the crop’s harvest weeks to calculate the quantities. (Option only appears for the “Single harvest and per square meter” harvesting methods).
- Additional harvest quantity: Enter a quantity that is required in addition to the member planning.
Cultivation period section
Predefine the cultivation period for the planting set creation: Click on “+add” and set a cultivation window for the season. For multiple periods, click “+add” again and set the sliders to the corresponding start and end weeks.
Crop periods section
Cultivation times shows the cultivation, growth and harvest periods of the crop in weeks. The cultivation input field is only shown for crops with cultivation type “Cultivation” or “Young plants for sale”.
Plant spacing section
Planting distances include the distance in the crop row, the distance between the rows and the number of rows on the bed.
Young plant information section
Young plant information is shown depending on the selected cultivation type (see Details section above)
- the size of the planters used for your own cultivation, e.g. pots or multi-pot plates. Enter pot/plate sizes by clicking on “Create” under Farm/Area parameters, these can then be selected in the menu.
- The number of seeds per multi-pot is required to calculate the seed quantity needed for cultivation.
The number of plants per box is used to calculate the seed and young plant order (when purchasing young plants).
Varieties Tab
Varieties can be added to the crops. The variety-specific data is used for set planning with selection of the variety. Seed information stored on the varieties is used for calculation and overview in the seed store.
Create varieties: Click on + Create variety. Enter a variety name at the top and click on the green tick. Click on the pencil symbol under “Note”, e.g. to make a note of variety properties. End the entry with the green tick. To delete a variety, click on the “trash can” symbol next to the variety name.
Edit variety details: Click on the option to activate variety-specific data. Enter germination rates, cultivation times or planting distances that differ from the cultivation data. These can be used in the set planning when selecting this variety instead of the crop data.
Task templates Tab
Create all special types of tasks that will be required for this crop on your farm here as templates for the sets. Each newly created set then automatically contains the tasks stored here.
System tasks: “Sowing / cultivation and planting” are automatically created as standard tasks by the program when a set is created. They are therefore also listed in the templates. They cannot be edited or deleted, only a note can be created. If tasks are created from these templates on the record, they are also moved by moving the record in time. Conversely, changing the date in the task also moves the record.
Create task template: Click on “Create new task template” at the top of the menu if there is no suitable selection. An empty template is then created which can now be edited.
Name: Click in the name field and type the first letters of a name. Suggestions are displayed for the most common cultural works. Select a suitable one or finish entering your name. Additional fields: For documentation purposes of certain tasks, additional input fields are created in the tasks, e.g. for “Fertilization” and “Plant protection” product name and application rate.
Click on the green tick on the right when the name has been entered completely. Click on the existing name to change it later.
Click on the pencil icon under “Note” to create or edit a note.
Time specification: Set a relative date to a reference date (number of days before or after cultivation/sowing, planting, harvesting or end of cultivation). Assign a display color for the task using the color picker or random color button.
Series template: The task can be carried out several times at the same time intervals in the planned set. To do this, activate the “Serial template” checkbox.
is default value: Created task templates with the “is default value” option activated can be selected in the drop-down menu and contain the stored data as a copy. These can be adapted accordingly for the current crop.
You can remove default value templates from the menu by clicking on the X button on the right (“is default value” is then deactivated for the corresponding template).
Notes and #Tags Tab
In this tab, you can create a note or create and delete #Tags (i.e. [häschtägs] = marker words) for the crop that are to be displayed in the crop records.
You can then filter the record list in the cultivation calendar and in the “Add records” list on the field to only display records with certain #Tags.
You can create new #tags in the “Assign new #tags” input field. Enter one or more words (without separators) and confirm by pressing the Enter key. The #tag(s) will then be automatically assigned to the culture.
The #Tags already assigned to the culture appear in dark green. To remove them, click on the small X to the right of the name. The #Tags created in the culture master data are displayed on the planned records. To use additional or temporary #Tags, create them directly on the record.
4.2 Seed requirements calculator
The seed calculation can be used to calculate the seed requirements and, if necessary, young plants for the created cultivation plan, as well as to export the seed order. In addition, a list of all required young plants with the order days or weeks is created from the planned records with young plant purchases. If the plants are stored per box, the exact number of boxes that need to be ordered is calculated. The young plant order list is included in the seed export.
In the upper table section “Seed requirement TKG”, the seed requirement is calculated for all crops and varieties that are planned with cultivation type direct sowing or own cultivation and whose seed weight can be calculated in grams and are therefore specified in TKG (thousand grain weight).
Below this, in the table “Seed requirements other units”, the crop/variety requirements that are not maintained with TKG are calculated. These can be, for example, garlic, onion sets, Jerusalem artichokes or potatoes, for which a weight per unit area is specified for the crop/variety.
Ideally, seed data is already stored for each crop and variety, the seed stock has been entered in the seed store and the season has been planned with all sets.
If data is not maintained, the calculation is still carried out and the “Notes” column shows what is missing. If, for example, no thousand grain weights are stored for the varieties, the requirement is output in individual grains but not in weight.
Perform calculation:
Select the period for which the order quantities are to be calculated.
Click on “Calculate requirements
Click on “Export” to export the requirements list as an Excel spreadsheet.