Various details about the structure:
Machine directions
As a rule of thumb all MineFactory Reloaded machines point away from the player when placed. So their active side is on the side that the player can't see at that moment.
In this system a Planter and a Sludge Boiler don't really have active directions. (A Planter is always active upwards as it plants above itself.)
The one machine that has to be installed pointing the right way is the Harvester. It has to be installed so that the active side is towards the field. The active side in this machine looks like a black tv-screen with a bad signal.
A view into the Planter
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The planting layout is decided on the left in the color-gridded area. The saplings that the Planter is supposed to plant are placed in the middle. An upgrade can be placed in the right side slot if you want to plant a larger area than 3x3, for example this Tin Upgrade makes the area 9x9 (+3 block radius in all directions). As the tree farm will produce 24/7 it usually soon overflows anyway for me even without an upgrade. Depends on your needs I suppose. !!! Note that you can of course set also seeds and the like here !!! Anything the Planter knows how to plant works. On a farm none of the plants need water.
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A view into the Harvester
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Perhaps the only notable feature here is that the optional upgrade in this machine should be the same as in the Planter if you want to plant and harvest the same area. Remember to install the Harvester so that its active side is towards the field. A harvester can get jammed if:
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Sludge Boiler
Harvester produces sludge which will eventually clog the system. An easy way to get rid of it and gain extra materials at the same time is a Sludge Boiler.
One notable feature of the Sludge Boiler is that it will poison the players that wander too close to it (I'd guess on about 5 blocks). Placing it out of the way beneath the farm is one safe way of dealing with this. Once you've rigged up the pipes and the lines to it you'll probably never have a need to touch it again.
Cobblestone Transport Pipes
Yes, I know these are slow but they get the job done and they are cheap. Also, they connect to Diamond Transport Pipes which is something Stone Transport Pipes won't do.
Diamond Transport Pipes / Sorting
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Diamond Transport Pipes are expensive so I've been using them sparingly only in the forks of the piping system. Each pipe shows specific colors for each direction it's pointing to and sorting is simply done by right-clicking the pipe and then adding the items you want to sort to those colored boxes that represent the direction you want the item to go to. |
Trash Can
This is an optional feature that will get rid of the products you don't want. For example the vines found on Jungle Trees.
An alternative is to use for example a Void Transport Pipe and then you wouldn't have to have Extra Utilities mod. A Trash Can is merely cheaper. Or you could drop the items to lava (which uses apparently more CPU).
Fuel to the farm
The 3x3 grid in the planter allows for one part of the farm to be dedicated to producing the fuel for its own machines. In the Planter-picture above you can see a slice of Jungle Trees and in the piping after the Harvester Jungle wood is sorted to the fuel system (Redstone Furnace -> Steam Dynamo). Hoppers are added to increase the tolerance for pauses in the wood production.
And there is certainly enough fuel for other machines as well in this system.
Wrench
Wrenches are used to turn the output of a Hopper.
Instead of a wrench you could also use: Omniwrench (OmniTools) or Crescent Hammer (Thermal Expansion).
Charcoal
Charcoal isn't actually needed in the structure but it will jumpstart the machines (in the Steam Dynamo) so that the farm will start producing the wood it needs to function.
Upgrade on the pipes
Another good alternative for the pipes are Itemducts and Liquiducts which are both included in the Thermal Expansion mod.
Sorting in itemducts is handled by Pneumatic Servo (same mod) which are placed at least at the end of the line (right-click the duct with a servo) and it is then possible to determine which items are drawn to that location (whitelist) or turned away (blacklist).
Itemducts also enable the player to decide which ends of the ducts are inputs and which are outputs (right-click the end to toggle), and if the duct needs a redstone signal or not. -- Ergo, it's probably best you check each case as long as you're not sure what you are doing. I'm not claiming any expertise with these items yet.