How to make Fertilizer in Ark: Survival Ascended

If you’re playing Ark: Survival Ascended and want to grow crops like a real farmer, you’ll need a lot of Fertilizer. But you can’t just find it lying around, you actually have to make it yourself and you’ll need a lot of it—here’s how to get your hands on some.

What does Fertilizer do in Ark: Survival Ascended?

In Ark: Survival Ascended, Fertilizer helps plants grow just like in real life. If you use it on the soil, your crops will grow faster and have a higher yield. It’s one of the best kinds of Fertilizer because it applies 54,000 units of Fertilizer to any crop and lasts for a whopping nine hours.

How to make Fertilizer in Ark: Survival Ascended

In Ark: Survival Ascended, there are two ways to make Fertilizer. First, you can put 30 Thatch and three piles of any kind of animal poop (like Human, Small, Medium, Large, or Massive Animal Feces) into a Compost Bin. You can harvest Thatch by hitting trees, and finding poop either by luck or by giving lots of stimberries to tamed animals. It takes about 50 minutes to make one Fertilizer, so you can do something else while you wait.

Second, you can put any of the poops mentioned above into a Dung Beetle’s inventory you’ve caught. The Dung Beetle will turn the poop into multiple units of Fertilizer and even make Oil. The bigger the poop, the more you get, but it takes about 15 minutes.

Are there any alternatives to Fertilizer in Ark: Survival Ascended?

If making Fertilizer seems like too much work, you can also use the poop itself to fertilize your crops and help them grow. But remember, using poop directly isn’t as good or doesn’t last as long as regular Fertilizer.

The only thing better than Fertilizer is Bonemeal Fertilizer. You can make this in a Handmill with one Keratin, five Hide, three Charcoal, and three Spoiled Meat.