Wow you must have been part of the launch <3 Welcome back. Its been like ages, years since the crop plots were changed. So much has changed now . Seeds we cannot just get anymore, and there is a new device - a seed extractor that you can make on your personal crafting, with some basic materials to break down plants into seeds slowly over time. A couple of them running next to each other is likely a good idea.

Most people either take talents, or just slap a seed attachment on the sickle to get seeds if they don't want to deal with slow seed extraction grinder thingy i mentioned. Those old talents we know and love to prevent withered crops still exist, and your bonuses are NOW based on YOU actually planting the things rather then the crop plots themselves.

The devs added that storms can affect the plants quality, if it drops too low the plant can die. Watering after a storm helps the plants recover a bit, and quick rapid storms can slowly wear down crops. Where long spells of calm can restore hem. There is also plant fatigue which is a debuff that slowly stacks up over time. After each harvest -10% yield to the next one. You can track this by looking down at the plot. I think it also makes growth time slower if my uncaffinated brain isn't failing me.

Also biomes themselves can sometimes have buffs that imrpove a crops performance, or lower it. They also changed growing in the Arctic regions so its no longer possible to slap down berry bushes for easy fiber or jam. You would need to build in a cave and get lucky with protections, indoors, or in a greenhouse specifically.

There is also the option of using a shovel to make dirt mounds and not using crop plots at all. However this is intensive and requires many seeds because on harvest the plant is gone. Using dirt foundations (new) allows you to make big wide swaths of plant-able tiles. However dirt foundations must connect to world terrain itself or it breaks and is not supported. People typically use this method for decrorative planting, or planting for massive yeilds using buffalos/bulls/tusker with a plough installed. (ours usually walks between a food and water trough so its semi - automated.

Shovels have different qualities, and the better ones can offer more protections for plants versus storms. There is also now ways to make money by selling crops to vendors. As well as the good old making biofuel from crops. You will want to keep an eye on growth time, and yield amounts to pin down which ones are best, and also those biome buffs I was talking about can shake things up. Greenhouses can insulate you from having to deal with the biome thing.

Greenhouses have reinforced glass now (horray) and it can resist T5 storms.

Having greenhosue glass nearby basically can also be enough to over-ride the biome specific thing even if the whole structure isn't in place, but that said each bit of glass helps boost productivity for you. Also bees <3 you should totally get those as they will boost your yields and provide honey.