Crops

Creating Custom Crops

Heirloom offers a vast database of crops, but there may be times when you need to add a unique crop or variety that isn’t already included. This is where the “Create Crop” feature comes in handy. This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating and managing your own custom crops within Heirloom, giving you the flexibility to track and plan for any plant you choose to grow.

Consider creating a custom crop if:

• You’re growing a rare or heirloom variety not found in Heirloom’s database.
• You’re experimenting with a new crop and want to track its performance.
• You want to track non-traditional crops, such as medicinal herbs or unique flowers.
• You want to use your own naming conventions for internal tracking.

Why Use Built-in Crops When Possible?

While Heirloom offers the flexibility of custom crops, using built-in crops is highly recommended whenever possible. Heirloom’s built-in crops come with valuable pre-loaded data based on the Market Gardener Institute‘s methodology, and they are constantly being refined and updated.

Furthermore, future features will allow for the exchange of Chart data between users. To benefit from these upcoming features, your crop must be part of Heirloom’s core database. This collaborative data sharing will be a powerful tool for the entire Heirloom community. While we understand the need for customization, we encourage you to explore the extensive built-in crop library before creating a custom entry.

Ensure that the crop does not already exist before creating a new one. Since this is a custom crop, you’ll need to manually enter all relevant data (e.g., days to maturity, spacing, yield estimates) in the Charts section. This data is crucial for accurate planning in the Game Plan. Also, consider suggesting your custom crop to the Heirloom team for potential inclusion in the main database, benefiting the wider user community.

How to Create a Custom Crop

• Click “+ Create Crop”: This button is located in the top right corner of the Crops page.
• Fill in the Details: The “Create crop” window will appear, prompting you to enter the following information:
  • Crop types: Select the general category for your crop (Vegetable, Fruit, Flower, Herb, Cover Crop) using the dropdown menu. A second dropdown menu will appear for you to specify the family of the crop.
  • Name: Enter the full name of your custom crop (e.g., “Purple Dragon Carrot”).
  • Short name: Create a 3-character abbreviation for your crop (e.g., “PDC”). This will be used in areas where space is limited, such as the Game Plan calendar
  • Color:

Managing Your Custom Crops

To change your custom crop information, simply locate in the Crops and click on the pencil icon.

To delete a custom crop, you can click on the delete icon, which will create a confirmation popup.

Tips and Best Practices

• Use clear and descriptive names for your custom crops to avoid confusion.
• Before creating a custom crop, thoroughly search Heirloom’s database to ensure it doesn’t already exist.
• At a minimum, enter the essential data points (days to maturity, spacing) to ensure your custom crop functions correctly in the Game Plan.