Terrain Editing Tutorial: Terrain Field Foliage for Farming Simulator 17 (FS17) by PMC.
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HOWTO create foliage for your fields.
Foliage or plant life, the first four channels (0 through 3) control the type of plant. The next row of channels (4 through 7) dictates that plant's growth state. In the third row of channels, only channel 8 has any effect. It defines whether the crop is in a windrow (a row of cut vegetation, ready to be baled or stored) or not.
Foliage channel settings for various crops:
0, Wheat
1, Grass
2, Barley
3, Sugar beet
0 + 1, Rape (canola)
0 + 2, Maize (corn)
1 + 2, Dry grass
1 + 2 + 3, Potato
Fortunately, Giants Editor FS17 helps you out a bit here. When choosing the crop you want from the Foliage Layer drop-down menu, it automatically sets the bitmask for the first four foliage channels.
2024-10-20T13:43:49Z special note; my memory is a bit hazy on FS17 editing dating back to 2018, but I don't think you technically need to create foliage to your fields, its automatically generated by field definitions, so if you don't want, then there is no need to create foliage for fields, at least that's how it works in FS19 and FS22.