SeedLeaf has two types of Crop buffers: rounding up and percentages. Here's how they work:
Rounding up Buffer
When SeedLeaf calculates the number of trays you need, based on your Orders, it will always round up the nearest whole number. For example:
6.6 trays will round up to 7
8.1 trays will round up to 9
However, if the calculation comes out to a round number (e.g., 8 trays), SeedLeaf will not round up to the nearest whole number.
So, most of the time, you will have some buffer Crop, but the exact buffer amount will vary.
Here is how this is displayed in SeedLeaf:
Under "Trays to Soak" below, you can see: "1 (0.6)"
This means you should sow 1 trays, but you only need 0.6 of a tray to fulfill your Orders
Percentage Buffer
In addition to the rounding up buffer, you can also set a percentage buffer for each Crop. This is done on the Crops page for each individual Crop:
The Crop Buffer Percentage is based on the amount of Crop needed to fulfill your Order Products. So the calculation is based on your Products. Here's how it works:
You have a Product that weighs 100 grams
To calculate how much crop to sow to fulfill a Order with that Product, SeedLeaf adds the percentage buffer to the Product weight, which in this case is 10 grams.
Thus, SeedLeaf calculates how much Crop to Sow based on a Product weight of 110 grams instead of 100 grams.
If you had an Order for 10 if this Product, you would need 1000 grams to fulfill the Order and SeedLeaf would calculate the number of trays to Sow based on a total weight of 1100 grams.
Note: The Buffer percentage does not get "added" to the rounding up percentage. If roudnig up already includes enough extra Crop to fulfill the 10% buffer, the calculation wil still look as if it was just rounded up.
Example Calculations Using the Above Crop Example:
Example 1:
If the Crop yield was 240 grams per tray, you would need 1000/240g = 4.2 trays to fulfill your Order, which SeedLeaf would round up to 5 trays leaving you with .8 x 240 g =192 grams extra Crop.
A 10% buffer would make the calculation 1100/240 = 4.6 trays, which would also be rounded up to 5 trays, so the buffer wouldn't make a difference.
This would be displayed as 5 (4.2) in SeedLeaf
5 is how many trays to sow
(4.2) is how many trays are needed to fulfill the Orders
Example 2:
If the Crop Yield was 250 g, you would need 1000/250 = 4 trays to fulfill your Order. Because it is a round number, SeedLeaf would not round up.
A 10% buffer would make the calculation 1100/250 = 4.4 trays, which SeedLeaf would round up to 5 trays
This would be displayed as 5 (4)
5 is how many trays to sow
(4) is how many trays are needed to fulfill the Orders
So a buffer guarantees you will always have extra Crop, while rounding up will not apply if the total calculation is whole number.
Another Example with a Larger Buffer
If the Crop had a 30% buffer and 240 gram yield for an Order requiring 1000 grams of Product, the calculation would be 1300/240 = 5.4 trays, which SeedLeaf would round up to 6 trays.
This would be displayed as 6 (4.2)
6 is how many trays to sow
(4.2) is how many trays are needed to fulfill the Order
So when there is more than .9 difference between the "What to Sow" and "What is Needed", then you know a Crop buffer is in effect.
Here's an example of how this would be displayed:
