Difference between revisions of "Guide to Hydroponics"

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== Welcome to the farm ==
[[File:Hydroponics.png|frame|right|Hydroponics. This is your home.]]
[[File:Hydroponics.png|frame|right|Hydroponics. This is your home.]]
[[Hydroponics]] and the [[Botanist]]s who work there are important people on the station, especially in longer rounds. Botanists grow plants, obviously. Without plants, the [[Chef]] cannot make many types of food. Without those types of food, the denizens of the station will either have to live off of beef jerky and space twinkies, or starve to death. Now that you understand why this is important, let's get started!
=== What is where ===


== Basics ==
Hydroponics has three areas to it. The main area that leads to the hall is where you’ll be spending most of your time. This is where you will plant and tend to your plants. In it are multiple trays for growing, as well as a Nutrivend and MegaSeed Vendor vending machines, a Seed Extractor, Biogenerator, and two other machines which you can check in a different guide. In the backroom is where you have your lockers, and a grinder and ChemMaster 3000 so you can get some extra use from your crops. There is also a crate with some supplies and access to maintenance in this room. To the left of that room and above the Kitchen is a small garden that is shared by you and the chef. There are some soil plots in there for extra growing as well as the drop-off for cargo’s MULEbots.


[[Hydroponics]] and the [[Botanist]]s who work there are important people on the station, especially in longer rounds. Botanists grow plants, obviously. Without plants, the [[Chef]] cannot make many types of food. Without those types of food, the denizens of the station will either have to live off of beef jerky and space twinkies, or starve to death. Now that you understand why this is important, let's get started!
=== Your gear ===


=== Your tools ===
Tools you’ll need:
* Bucket: Holds up to 120 units of liquid in it. Hydro trays hold 100 units of water in them but setting the transfer amount on your bucket to 70 (by right-clicking it) will be enough for watering your plants when they need it. There are a few lying about Hydroponics but you can always get another from a protolath.
o Alternately, toss your backpack away and get a backpack water tank. It holds much more water, up to 500 units! Click the backpack with an empty hand or the icon in the top left corner to extent the nozzle, then use it like a bucket.
* Mini-hoe: This is your most trust-worthy tool that you should always keep on you. This allows you to remove weeds from your trays to keep your plants nice and healthy. Weeds can also grow in empty trays, which may be good or bad. There is one in each of the lockers in the backroom.
* Hatchet: Your second most trust-worthy tool. Not as lifesaving to your plants as the mini-hoe is. Quite the opposite actually. If you have a plant you don’t want around anymore a few good hits with this will mess them up to be pulled out. Useful if there is a weed growing in a tray that you don’t want. Also found in the lockers in the back.
* Plant Analyzer: This tool, when used on a tray, seed packet, or grown crop will tell you detailed stats it has. We’ll go over these later. You come onboard with one in your suit socket but there are extras in the lockers.
* Plant Bag: Most people have only two hands and plants tend to pop out more than you can carry. This is where the plant bag comes in. Using this you can scoop up all your grown goodies for easy transport. Holds up to 50 crops and seeds. There is one in each locker in the back and you can get more from the NutriVend.
Extra tools you don’t need but are useful for when you get more into your job.
* Shovel/spade: You can use these for digging up grass floors you plant for some sand. A single spade is found in the crate in the backroom so be quick to get it!
* Wrench: Useful for un-wrenching your trays and machines from the floor so you can move them around. There are a few in the crate in the back.
* Wirecutters: Need another plant you have planted but don’t want to get a ton of seeds out of one crop? Snip off a bit of your plant and plant that instead! There is a limit to how many times you can snip it though and each time lowers its health. Rush over to tool storage or bug an engineer or someone with a protolath for one.
* Crowbar: Well you can’t plant grass on solid floor. Tear off those cold, metal tiles and replace them with soft, soothing grass floor. Get it the same way as wirecutters.
* Botanist Belt: What better way to carry all these tools than with a Botanist Belt? This nifty green belt holds most of your tools here. Your mini-hoe, hatchet, plant analyzer, spade, wrench, and wirecutters will all have a place to fit. Make one from the biogenerator with 300 units of biomass.


Hydroponics area is divided into two rooms. The big area to the north is where you'll spend most of your time. It has trays where you grow plants, two vending machines, one with seeds and the other with everything else. There is also a seed extractor and a biogenerator. The small area to the south has three lockers, crate with some tools, and some more equipment on the table.
=== Time to get GREEN ===
[[File:HydroponicsTraysRow.PNG|left|thumb|These are some pots. You grow stuff in them.]]


Plants require nutriment and water to grow. They are also bothered by pests and weeds. To check the plant, click on the tray. It will show you the levels of water and nutriment, and if there's too much pests/weeds. You will get a message like this:
So now that you know your way around and got all your tools ready it’s time to start learning how to plant your crops.
Plants require nutriment and water to grow. They are also bothered by pests and weeds. To check the plant, Examine (center-click) the tray. It will show you the levels of water and nutriment and if there's too much pests/weeds. You will get a message like this:


Hydroponics Tray has Potato Plant planted.<br>
Hydroponics Tray has Potato Plant planted.<br>
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Nutrient: 6/10<br>
Nutrient: 6/10<br>
Hydroponics Tray is filled with weeds!<br>
Hydroponics Tray is filled with weeds!<br>
Hydroponics Tray is filled with tiny worms!
Hydroponics Tray is filled with tiny worms!<br>


In addition to that, each tray has lights that tell you when a plant is not okay. From left to right:
In addition to that, each tray has lights that tell you when a plant is not okay. From left to right:
* Green: Ready to harvest.
* Green: Ready to harvest.
* Red: Low health.
* Red: Low health.
* Red: Weeds/pests/toxins.
* Red: Weeds/pests/toxins.
* Brown: Low nutriment.
* Yellow: Low nutriment.
* Blue: Low water.
* Blue: Low water.
 
Now that we know how to tell what a plant needs, it's time to plant some. Normally the chef will want tons of wheat so make that the first crop you plant. Also make sure you’re growing anything they might want that they can turn into food. If that’s done then start growing whatever you want from the MegaSeed Servitor and plant them in different pots. Check [[Guide_to_plants#Plants|this chart]] for a list of all the plants available to you.
Now that we know how to tell what a plant needs, it's time to plant some and then grab our tools. Take '''wheat''', '''potato''' and '''grass''' seeds from the MegaSeed Servitor, and plant them in different pots. Next, gather some equipment.
 
* Bucket: Set transfer amount to 70 (right-click), fill it in the sink, pour it on the tray. Simple.
** Alternately, toss your backpack away and get a backpack water tank. It holds much more water. Click the icon in the top left corner to extent the nozzle, then use it like a bucket.
* Mini-hoe: Removes the weeds from the tray. Keep in mind that weeds grow in empty pots, too, which may be good or bad.
* Plant analyzer: Shows detailed stats of a plant. Will be useful later. You should have it on you already when you arrive at the station.
* Plant bag: Used to collect plants on a tile. Holds up to 50. Get it from NutriVend.
 
Those are the things you won't need to have on you all the time:
 
* Screwdriver: Used to set up irrigation system.
* Hatchet: Used to chop wood into planks.
* Shovel: Used to dig up grass floors and cleaning the dirt.
* Wrench: Used to move your trays around.


=== Growing the plants ===
=== Growing the plants ===


Now all you need to do is wait until your plants grow. Somewhere at the middle of their growth you might want to replace the current nutriment with Robust Harvest from NutriVend. Robust harvest doubles the plant's yeild, at the cost of not allowing any mutations. Once the plant is fully grown, the green light will start blinking. Get to the pot and click on the plant. When the potatoes and wheat grow, you remove them from the pot. Take one of each and put it into the Seed Extractor machine to get some seeds. Then take your plant bag and click on the tile with the plants. This will put everything into the bag. Now, click on the smartfridge with it to load it. The chef can access it, and will soon start making food.
Now you play the waiting game. During this time weeds might try sprouting in your trays to which the red indicator light will flash. Just use the mini-hoe on them to clear out all the weeds. You may also want to replace the nutriment in the trays with Robust Harvest from the Nutrivend. Robust harvest doubles the plant's yeild, at the cost of not allowing any mutations. Once the plant is fully grown, the green light will start shining. Get to the tray and use your plant bag on it to pick off all the grown goods. Then take one of each crop to the Seed Extractor to get some extra seeds just in case you run out. This is very important for single yield plants like wheat and potatoes. The rest of the plants you collected then go into the Smart Fridge so the chef can start cooking.
 
If you have any extras that the chef isn’t going or can’t use, then you can put them in the Biogenerator. This is a very important machine in longer rounds as your Nutrivend WILL run out of nutrient bottles and Cargo most likely won’t order a restock for it, let alone in time if they do. It does need a container to work but a bucket has been conveniently placed next to it for this purpose. Once you fill the machine with some plants you can activate it and get biomass stored in it. Use can use this biomass to make multiple items but what you want it for most is its ability to make more nutrients. It can also make meat slabs just in case the chef runs out of <s>dead bodies</s> <s>corgis</s> <s>Pun Pun</s> their own meat supply.
The grass is a little different. First, you don't need to put it into the smartfridge - it's not for the chef, it's for our biogenerator. Take your bag and click on the pot with grass once it's ready to harvest - this puts growns into your bag. Time to set the biogenerator up. Don't forget to replant the wheat and potatoes. Put any extra seeds into the fridge.


=== Biogenerator and irrigation ===
=== Growing the Good Stuff ===


Biogenerator is a neat machine that can make items out of biomass. To get biomass, you need to put your plants inside. Hovewer, it needs a beaker to work. You can either go to [[Cargo]] and ask for a large beaker, or use a bucket. Either way, unload your bag into the machine, open its interface and process the plants. You should see that you now have some biomass. It's important that you can make nutriment here, for the time when your stock runs out. Grass is a pretty good plant for this: it grows quickly, quite tough, can be harvested multiple times, not needed for the chef and has other uses. You can recycle any plant, though if they don't have nutriment (e.g. bananas), the efficiency is ''very'' low.
Working in Hydroponics you’re not just expected to grow food that the crew can eat, but also some of those… more recreational substances. Most mushrooms and few plants have reagents in them that are considered illegal to possess and considered harmful if ingested. If you decide to go this path then expect Security to come banging on your door eventually. More than likely they won’t share your enthusiasm on the products you are handing out.
 
You can connect hydroponics trays with the hoses to set up the irrigation system. Just use the screwdriver on the trays you want to connect. Then, every time you pour more than 30 units of water on any of the trays, it gets evenly spread between them. It actually works on any chemical, but if you're pouring 30 units of something other than water on a tray, you're probably doing something wrong.
 
You can use a wrench on a tray to move it, then wrench it again.


== Mutations and selection ==
== Mutations and selection ==


Now that you've grown some food for the chef and some plants for generator, you can try to make your plants stronger. This is made by mutations. Use your plant analyzer on a growing plant. You should get something like this:
Now that you've grown some food for the chef and some plants for your generator, you can try to make your plants stronger. This is made by mutations. Use your plant analyzer on a growing plant. You should get something like this:


-Plant Age: 5<br>
-Plant Age: 5<br>
-Plant Endurance: 15<br>
-Plant Endurance: 15<br>
-Plant Lifespan: 25<br>
-Plant Lifespan: 25<br>
-Plant Yield: 4<br>
-Plant Yield: 4<br>
-Plant Production: 1<br>
-Plant Production: 1<br>
-Plant Potency: 5<br>
-Plant Potency: 5<br>
-Weed level: 2/10<br>
-Weed level: 2/10<br>
-Pest level: 3/10<br>
-Pest level: 3/10<br>
-Toxicity level: 0/100<br>
-Toxicity level: 0/100<br>
-Water level: 86/100<br>
-Water level: 86/100<br>
-Nutrition level: 7/10
-Nutrition level: 7/10<br>


You can also scan the growns:
You can also scan the growns:
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-Endurance: 15<br>
-Endurance: 15<br>
-Nutritional value: 1<br>
-Nutritional value: 1<br>
-Other substances: 0
-Other substances: 0<br>


And seeds:
And seeds:


-Plant Endurance: 15<br>
-Plant Endurance: 15<br>
-Plant Lifespan: 25<br>
-Plant Lifespan: 25<br>
-Species Discovery Value: 0<br>
-Species Discovery Value: 0<br>
-Plant Yield: 4<br>
-Plant Yield: 4<br>
-Plant Production: 1<br>
-Plant Production: 1<br>
-Plant Potency: 5
-Plant Potency: 5<br>


* Age: Simply shows how old is the plant.
* <b>Age</b>: Simply shows how old the plant is.
* Endurance: Max health. Between 10 and 100. Not very useful, unless you leave your garden often.
* <b>Endurance</b>: Max health. Between 10 and 100. Not very useful, unless you leave your garden often.
* Lifespan: When the age is above lifespan, plant starts losing health. Between 10 and 100. Not important at all in plants that can only be harvested once, unless they die before harvest. Barely useful for the other ones, because you can always plant it again.
* <b>Lifespan</b>: When the age is above lifespan, plant starts losing health. Between 10 and 100. Not important at all in plants that can only be harvested once, unless they die before harvest. Barely useful for the other ones, because you can always plant it again.
* Yeild: How much growns you get each harvest. Between 0 and 10. Pay attention to this, because if it drows to 0, things get pretty bad.
* <b>Yeild</b>: How much growns you get each harvest. Between 0 and 10. Pay attention to this, because if it drows to 0, things get pretty bad.
* Production: How fast it grows. Between 2 and 10, the '''lower''' the faster. Overall, not as useful. Most of the time, half of your trays is going to be empty anyway.
* <b>Production</b>: How fast it grows. Between 2 and 10, the <b>lower</b> the faster. Overall, not as useful. Most of the time, half of your trays is going to be empty anyway.
* Potency: The most imporant stat. Between 0 and 100. Basically, this determines plant power. Mostly affects amount of chemicals in the plant, though some have additional effects.
* <b>Potency</b>: The most imporant stat. Between 0 and 100. Basically, this determines plant power. Mostly affects amount of chemicals in the plant, though some have additional effects.


To change the stats, you need to mutate your plant. Keep in mind that mutations are ''completely random''. That's why you should plant several plants, mutate them, and then choose the one you like the most. To mutate the plant, you can use following methods:
To change the stats, you need to mutate your plant. Keep in mind that mutations are completely random. That's why you should plant several plants, mutate them, and then choose the one you like the most. To mutate the plant, you can use following methods:


First, E-Z nutriment makes the plant mutate every time it's ready to harvest. Left 4 Zed makes it mutate twice, but you'll have to replace the nutriment to actually harvest something! Nutriment has a very small chance to mutate the plant into a different specie.
First, E-Z nutriment makes the plant mutate every time it's ready to harvest. Left 4 Zed makes it mutate twice, but you'll have to replace the nutriment to actually harvest something! Nutriment has a very small chance to mutate the plant into a different species.
 
You can speed up the process by asking the [[chemist]] for some unstable mutagen. Pour 5 units on your plant and prepare for...


You can speed up the process by asking the chemist for some unstable mutagen. Pour 5 units on your plant and prepare for...
* 10% chance of death of a plant. Never use mutagen without backup seeds.
* 10% chance of death of a plant. Never use mutagen without backup seeds.
* 10% chance of specie mutation. This destroys the old plant and plants a new one. See the plants table for the information on these mutations.
* 10% chance of specie mutation. This destroys the old plant and plants a new one. See the plants table for the information on these mutations.
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You can use radium and uranium, but they cause ill effects, and really, if you can get radium, you can get mutagen.
You can use radium and uranium, but they cause ill effects, and really, if you can get radium, you can get mutagen.
There are many other chemicals you can use on your plants. Check the [[Guide_to_plants#Chemicals.2C_Wonderful_Chemicals|chemical table]] for a full list.


R&D can also make a wonderful thing called a Floral Somatoray. It has two options: increase yield and mutate the plant. In yield more, every time you fire it at the plant, there is a chance the yeild will increase. The chance becomes very small when you reach high levels, but it's very useful for low-yield plants. It can even raise yield from zero! In the mutate mode, it will always induce a normal stat mutation.
R&D can also make a wonderful thing called a Floral Somatoray. It has two options: increase yield and mutate the plant. In yield more, every time you fire it at the plant, there is a chance the yeild will increase. The chance becomes very small when you reach high levels, but it's very useful for low-yield plants. It can even raise yield from zero! In the mutate mode, it will always induce a normal stat mutation.


== Replica pod ==
== You and Dionas ==
 
Replica pod is very special plant. It can be used to grow dead people back to life. It's rarely used, unless the cloning is destroyed. To clone someone, follow those simple steps:
 
* Take a blood sample from the body using a syringe.
* Inject it into seeds bag.
* Plant them.
* Let the plant grow and harvest it.
 
There's a chance, based on potency, that a cloned person will become a plant-human. They are a little different from normal humans (e.g. they regenerate in light but suffer in darkness). The higher is the potency, the higher is the chance of them ''not'' being a plant.


If you grow a pod without any seeds, there's a chance that it will produce more than one seed.
There is one special seed packet that you can get from the MegaSeed Vendor called a Diona node. You know how they say “Plants are people too”? Well these seeds literally are. When planted they will need extreme care and attention. Keep them watered and feed with nutrients and when they are ready to be harvested, out will pop a cute little [[diona|diona nymph]]! These guys are very useful in botany as they can eat out weeds and pests from your trays, as well as replenish their nutrients. Also they look adorable and can be worn on your head! *sqeeeeeeeeeee


== Mushrooms and weeds ==
== Mushrooms and weeds ==


There are three types of plants. The biggest category is "normal plants". Much lesser ones are mushrooms and weeds. They are a little different from the normal plants:
There are three types of plants. The biggest category is "normal plants". Much lesser ones are mushrooms and weeds. They are a little different from the normal plants:
* Mushrooms need less light, and suffer less from lack of it.
* Mushrooms need less light, and suffer less from lack of it.
* Mushrooms don't need water to grow. They still use it, though.
* Mushrooms need nutrients to grow. They don't need water however but still use it.
* Weeds don’t need nutrients to grow but they do require water.
* Weeds don't suffer from high weed level.
* Weeds don't suffer from high weed level.
* Mushrooms and weeds can't be overtaken by weeds in a tray.
* Mushrooms and weeds can't be overtaken by weeds in a tray.
* Mushrooms' yeild can't drop to 0. It will always be at least 1.
* Mushrooms' yield can't drop to 0. It will always be at least 1.
 
The tray, empty or with a normal plant in it, can be occasionally overtaken by a weed if their level is 5 or more. In that case old plant is destroyed, and a new one will sprout in its place. Possible plants include:
The tray, empty or with a normal plant in it, can be occasionally overtaken by a weed if their level is 5 or more. In that case old plant is destroyed, and a new one will sprout in its place. Possible plants include:
* 1/6 chance for Reishi.
* 1/6 chance for Reishi.
* 1/9 chance for Nettle.
* 1/9 chance for Nettle.
Line 153: Line 141:
* 1/6 chance for Starshitle
* 1/6 chance for Starshitle


== Chemicals ==
== Produce from your produce ==
 
Some of the chemicals have various effects on the plants.


* E-Z-Nutriment: Middle ground between the other two. Makes your plant mutate once every time it's ready for harvesting, and has no effect on the yield.
There’s more than just food to some of the stuff you grow.
* Left 4 Zed: Makes your plant mutate twice, but it will never produce anything. You'll have to use another nutriment to actually harvest something!
* Robust Harvest: Makes your plant produce twice as much, and will never mutate it. Useful if you already have good stats, or simply don't want to bother with mutating.
* Pest Spray: Kills pests, duh. Also adds some toxicity, but very little. Unless you added toxins
* Plant-B-Gone: Seriously damages the plant. Also lowers toxicity by magic and kills weeds.
* Unstable Mutagens: Effect is desribed in the mutations section.
* Radium and Uranium: Same chance to mutate plants, but you need 10 units, they also damage the plant and add toxicity.
* Nutriment: A fertilizer. You can get it from the [[Chef]], or by using your own plants. Heals the plant.
* Ammonia: Also a fertilizer, same effect as nutriment. Get it from the [[Chemist]] or hack the Nutri-Vend to get this.
* Diethylamine: A very powerful fertilizer. Twice as effective. Heals the plant AND also kills pests. Get it the same way you get Ammonia.
* Anti-toxins: Makes your plant less toxic. You can get it by whining to anyone who works in [[Medbay]].
* Cryoxadone: Heals your plant, via miracles. Also lowers toxicity. Get it from the [[Chemist]], or find a nice doctor to steal some from cryogenics.
* Holy water: If you can get [[Chaplain]]'s attention and make him bless your water, it will heal your plant a bit.
* Phosphorus: Damages plant, drains water, kills weeds and, surprisingly, adds nutriment. If you manage to get your hands on a lot of it, you can use it to kill useless plants without hurting the next plant.
 
Bad things:
 
* Toxins, Acids, Fluorine, Chlorine: Damage the plant.
* Sugar: Makes pests and weeds grow stronger. Unless you [[Traitor|plan to use some mutagen to unleash giant spiders upon the station]], it's of no use.
 
== Plants ==
 
See [[Guide to plants]].
 
== Other notes ==


=== Sandstone and soil ===
=== Sandstone and soil ===


If you pick up the grass and use it (click on it in your hand), you will prepare the astroturf. Get a crowbat and remove some floor tiles, then put astroturf in their place. In addition to looking nice, it can be used to get some sand. Just dig it with your shovel and you'll get two piles. Now, pick the sand and use it. You will make a sandstone. Using three of them, you can make a soil plot, which is all like tray, except you can walk over it, and there are no lights. Sandstone has another use: you can build a door with 10.
If you pick up grass in your hand and use it (click on it or the Use key) you will turn it into two tiles of grass. Take that crowbar and start tearing up hydroponics but be careful not to click on any of your trays (it’ll rip all the components out and destroy the plant it had in it). In addition to looking nicer than crummy metal floor tiles, you can dig it up for some sand. Just use the spade or a shovel and you’ll get two piles of sand. Picking up the sand and using it will make a block of sandstone. If you use three of them then you can make a soil plot. It’s basically an extra tray except you can walk over it but with no indicator lights. You’ll have to keep an eye on these to make sure they have enough nutrients and water.
 
You can also use sandstone to make a sandstone door. 10 blocks is required to make a door.
You can also order additional hydroponics trays at cargo.
 
=== Wood and drying racks ===
 
First you need to get some tower-caps, grown them and harvest them. You can then use hatchet (and some other things, but it's not important) on the logs to chop some planks. They have many uses: you can make chairs, tables, wooden floors and so on. An unique thing here is a drying rack. You can use it to dry a plant, and then smoke it. First, build a rack with 10 planks. Then, grab a plant you want to dry and put it in the rack. Give it a few seconds and it's done.


Note: you can dry ''any'' plant, and smoking it will give you all chemicals that were in it. You can smoke dried apples if you want, and get nutriment from them.
=== Got wood? ===


=== Seed Storage ===
Tower-caps that you grow produce a type of woody log. Once you harvest one you use your hatchet to chop them up into wooded planks. Wood has many uses: you can make chairs, tables, wooden floors, doors and so on. Engineers might come looking for some if Mining isn’t delivering enough metal.


Once you use the extractor to extract seeds from the fruits of your labor, you can use the extractor to store and organize your seeds. Every seed is organized by and has its' properties displayed, so it's helpful to go back to the extractor every so often and throw away the seeds that are not as evolved as your recent strains.
=== Seed storage ===


=== Things you can make out of your plants ===
For the love of all that is robust, DON’T PUT THE SEEDS IN THE <s>SMART</s> FRIDGE. All because you can doesn’t mean you should. They take up extra space and make things harder for the chef to find. If you have to store extra seeds then get a second plant bag and put them in there. There’s no good way of storing extra seeds but that’s the easiest so far.


* Add some cable to a potato to make a potato battery.
=== Extra things you can make out of your plants ===
* Glowberries and glowshrooms, as the name suggests, glow.
* You can carve a pumpkin with a hatchet.
* You can make a cob-pipe out of a corn cob.
* Flowers and ambrosia can be worn on your head.


[[Category:Guides]]
* Add some cable to a potato to make a potato battery. Then cry when you realize R&D already make ultra-capacity cells.
* Glowberries and glowshrooms, as the name suggests, glow. Not a whole lot but get enough together and they can brighten up a room.
* You can carve a pumpkin with a hatchet. This pumpkin can then be worn on your head and lit up as a light source.
* You can make a cob-pipe out of a corn cob. If you do this though then expect your crewmates to ask for drugs to smoke in it.
* Flowers and ambrosia can be worn on your head. Unleash your inner hippie!

Revision as of 03:14, 13 October 2015

Welcome to the farm

File:Hydroponics.png
Hydroponics. This is your home.

Hydroponics and the Botanists who work there are important people on the station, especially in longer rounds. Botanists grow plants, obviously. Without plants, the Chef cannot make many types of food. Without those types of food, the denizens of the station will either have to live off of beef jerky and space twinkies, or starve to death. Now that you understand why this is important, let's get started!

What is where

Hydroponics has three areas to it. The main area that leads to the hall is where you’ll be spending most of your time. This is where you will plant and tend to your plants. In it are multiple trays for growing, as well as a Nutrivend and MegaSeed Vendor vending machines, a Seed Extractor, Biogenerator, and two other machines which you can check in a different guide. In the backroom is where you have your lockers, and a grinder and ChemMaster 3000 so you can get some extra use from your crops. There is also a crate with some supplies and access to maintenance in this room. To the left of that room and above the Kitchen is a small garden that is shared by you and the chef. There are some soil plots in there for extra growing as well as the drop-off for cargo’s MULEbots.

Your gear

Tools you’ll need:

  • Bucket: Holds up to 120 units of liquid in it. Hydro trays hold 100 units of water in them but setting the transfer amount on your bucket to 70 (by right-clicking it) will be enough for watering your plants when they need it. There are a few lying about Hydroponics but you can always get another from a protolath.

o Alternately, toss your backpack away and get a backpack water tank. It holds much more water, up to 500 units! Click the backpack with an empty hand or the icon in the top left corner to extent the nozzle, then use it like a bucket.

  • Mini-hoe: This is your most trust-worthy tool that you should always keep on you. This allows you to remove weeds from your trays to keep your plants nice and healthy. Weeds can also grow in empty trays, which may be good or bad. There is one in each of the lockers in the backroom.
  • Hatchet: Your second most trust-worthy tool. Not as lifesaving to your plants as the mini-hoe is. Quite the opposite actually. If you have a plant you don’t want around anymore a few good hits with this will mess them up to be pulled out. Useful if there is a weed growing in a tray that you don’t want. Also found in the lockers in the back.
  • Plant Analyzer: This tool, when used on a tray, seed packet, or grown crop will tell you detailed stats it has. We’ll go over these later. You come onboard with one in your suit socket but there are extras in the lockers.
  • Plant Bag: Most people have only two hands and plants tend to pop out more than you can carry. This is where the plant bag comes in. Using this you can scoop up all your grown goodies for easy transport. Holds up to 50 crops and seeds. There is one in each locker in the back and you can get more from the NutriVend.

Extra tools you don’t need but are useful for when you get more into your job.

  • Shovel/spade: You can use these for digging up grass floors you plant for some sand. A single spade is found in the crate in the backroom so be quick to get it!
  • Wrench: Useful for un-wrenching your trays and machines from the floor so you can move them around. There are a few in the crate in the back.
  • Wirecutters: Need another plant you have planted but don’t want to get a ton of seeds out of one crop? Snip off a bit of your plant and plant that instead! There is a limit to how many times you can snip it though and each time lowers its health. Rush over to tool storage or bug an engineer or someone with a protolath for one.
  • Crowbar: Well you can’t plant grass on solid floor. Tear off those cold, metal tiles and replace them with soft, soothing grass floor. Get it the same way as wirecutters.
  • Botanist Belt: What better way to carry all these tools than with a Botanist Belt? This nifty green belt holds most of your tools here. Your mini-hoe, hatchet, plant analyzer, spade, wrench, and wirecutters will all have a place to fit. Make one from the biogenerator with 300 units of biomass.

Time to get GREEN

So now that you know your way around and got all your tools ready it’s time to start learning how to plant your crops. Plants require nutriment and water to grow. They are also bothered by pests and weeds. To check the plant, Examine (center-click) the tray. It will show you the levels of water and nutriment and if there's too much pests/weeds. You will get a message like this:

Hydroponics Tray has Potato Plant planted.
The plant looks unhealthy.
Water: 78/100
Nutrient: 6/10
Hydroponics Tray is filled with weeds!
Hydroponics Tray is filled with tiny worms!

In addition to that, each tray has lights that tell you when a plant is not okay. From left to right:

  • Green: Ready to harvest.
  • Red: Low health.
  • Red: Weeds/pests/toxins.
  • Yellow: Low nutriment.
  • Blue: Low water.

Now that we know how to tell what a plant needs, it's time to plant some. Normally the chef will want tons of wheat so make that the first crop you plant. Also make sure you’re growing anything they might want that they can turn into food. If that’s done then start growing whatever you want from the MegaSeed Servitor and plant them in different pots. Check this chart for a list of all the plants available to you.

Growing the plants

Now you play the waiting game. During this time weeds might try sprouting in your trays to which the red indicator light will flash. Just use the mini-hoe on them to clear out all the weeds. You may also want to replace the nutriment in the trays with Robust Harvest from the Nutrivend. Robust harvest doubles the plant's yeild, at the cost of not allowing any mutations. Once the plant is fully grown, the green light will start shining. Get to the tray and use your plant bag on it to pick off all the grown goods. Then take one of each crop to the Seed Extractor to get some extra seeds just in case you run out. This is very important for single yield plants like wheat and potatoes. The rest of the plants you collected then go into the Smart Fridge so the chef can start cooking. If you have any extras that the chef isn’t going or can’t use, then you can put them in the Biogenerator. This is a very important machine in longer rounds as your Nutrivend WILL run out of nutrient bottles and Cargo most likely won’t order a restock for it, let alone in time if they do. It does need a container to work but a bucket has been conveniently placed next to it for this purpose. Once you fill the machine with some plants you can activate it and get biomass stored in it. Use can use this biomass to make multiple items but what you want it for most is its ability to make more nutrients. It can also make meat slabs just in case the chef runs out of dead bodies corgis Pun Pun their own meat supply.

Growing the Good Stuff

Working in Hydroponics you’re not just expected to grow food that the crew can eat, but also some of those… more recreational substances. Most mushrooms and few plants have reagents in them that are considered illegal to possess and considered harmful if ingested. If you decide to go this path then expect Security to come banging on your door eventually. More than likely they won’t share your enthusiasm on the products you are handing out.

Mutations and selection

Now that you've grown some food for the chef and some plants for your generator, you can try to make your plants stronger. This is made by mutations. Use your plant analyzer on a growing plant. You should get something like this:

-Plant Age: 5
-Plant Endurance: 15
-Plant Lifespan: 25
-Plant Yield: 4
-Plant Production: 1
-Plant Potency: 5
-Weed level: 2/10
-Pest level: 3/10
-Toxicity level: 0/100
-Water level: 86/100
-Nutrition level: 7/10

You can also scan the growns:

-Plant type: Normal plant
-Potency: 5
-Yield: 4
-Maturation speed: 6
-Production speed: 1
-Endurance: 15
-Nutritional value: 1
-Other substances: 0

And seeds:

-Plant Endurance: 15
-Plant Lifespan: 25
-Species Discovery Value: 0
-Plant Yield: 4
-Plant Production: 1
-Plant Potency: 5

  • Age: Simply shows how old the plant is.
  • Endurance: Max health. Between 10 and 100. Not very useful, unless you leave your garden often.
  • Lifespan: When the age is above lifespan, plant starts losing health. Between 10 and 100. Not important at all in plants that can only be harvested once, unless they die before harvest. Barely useful for the other ones, because you can always plant it again.
  • Yeild: How much growns you get each harvest. Between 0 and 10. Pay attention to this, because if it drows to 0, things get pretty bad.
  • Production: How fast it grows. Between 2 and 10, the lower the faster. Overall, not as useful. Most of the time, half of your trays is going to be empty anyway.
  • Potency: The most imporant stat. Between 0 and 100. Basically, this determines plant power. Mostly affects amount of chemicals in the plant, though some have additional effects.

To change the stats, you need to mutate your plant. Keep in mind that mutations are completely random. That's why you should plant several plants, mutate them, and then choose the one you like the most. To mutate the plant, you can use following methods:

First, E-Z nutriment makes the plant mutate every time it's ready to harvest. Left 4 Zed makes it mutate twice, but you'll have to replace the nutriment to actually harvest something! Nutriment has a very small chance to mutate the plant into a different species.

You can speed up the process by asking the chemist for some unstable mutagen. Pour 5 units on your plant and prepare for...

  • 10% chance of death of a plant. Never use mutagen without backup seeds.
  • 10% chance of specie mutation. This destroys the old plant and plants a new one. See the plants table for the information on these mutations.
  • 15% chance of heavy stat mutation.
  • 15% chance of normal stat mutation.
  • 20% chance of nothing. You get a message when this happens.
  • 10% chance of weeds mutating. If weed level is less than 5, nothing happens, otherwise you get a random mutated weed.
  • 10% chance of pests mutating. Again, if pest level is less than 5, nothing happens. Otherwise, three spiderlings are spawned. Shout for security and try to explain why you didn't use pest spray to them.

Or pour 2 units for a guaranteed heavy stat mutation, or even 1 for a guaranteed normal stat mutation. This method is safe even if you don't have backup seeds, but you need a dropper for this.

You can use radium and uranium, but they cause ill effects, and really, if you can get radium, you can get mutagen.

There are many other chemicals you can use on your plants. Check the chemical table for a full list.

R&D can also make a wonderful thing called a Floral Somatoray. It has two options: increase yield and mutate the plant. In yield more, every time you fire it at the plant, there is a chance the yeild will increase. The chance becomes very small when you reach high levels, but it's very useful for low-yield plants. It can even raise yield from zero! In the mutate mode, it will always induce a normal stat mutation.

You and Dionas

There is one special seed packet that you can get from the MegaSeed Vendor called a Diona node. You know how they say “Plants are people too”? Well these seeds literally are. When planted they will need extreme care and attention. Keep them watered and feed with nutrients and when they are ready to be harvested, out will pop a cute little diona nymph! These guys are very useful in botany as they can eat out weeds and pests from your trays, as well as replenish their nutrients. Also they look adorable and can be worn on your head! *sqeeeeeeeeeee

Mushrooms and weeds

There are three types of plants. The biggest category is "normal plants". Much lesser ones are mushrooms and weeds. They are a little different from the normal plants:

  • Mushrooms need less light, and suffer less from lack of it.
  • Mushrooms need nutrients to grow. They don't need water however but still use it.
  • Weeds don’t need nutrients to grow but they do require water.
  • Weeds don't suffer from high weed level.
  • Mushrooms and weeds can't be overtaken by weeds in a tray.
  • Mushrooms' yield can't drop to 0. It will always be at least 1.

The tray, empty or with a normal plant in it, can be occasionally overtaken by a weed if their level is 5 or more. In that case old plant is destroyed, and a new one will sprout in its place. Possible plants include:

  • 1/6 chance for Reishi.
  • 1/9 chance for Nettle.
  • 1/9 chance for Harebell.
  • 1/9 chance for Amanita.
  • 1/9 chance for Chanter
  • 1/9 chance for Tower Cap.
  • 1/9 chance for Plump Helmets.
  • 1/6 chance for Starshitle

Produce from your produce

There’s more than just food to some of the stuff you grow.

Sandstone and soil

If you pick up grass in your hand and use it (click on it or the Use key) you will turn it into two tiles of grass. Take that crowbar and start tearing up hydroponics but be careful not to click on any of your trays (it’ll rip all the components out and destroy the plant it had in it). In addition to looking nicer than crummy metal floor tiles, you can dig it up for some sand. Just use the spade or a shovel and you’ll get two piles of sand. Picking up the sand and using it will make a block of sandstone. If you use three of them then you can make a soil plot. It’s basically an extra tray except you can walk over it but with no indicator lights. You’ll have to keep an eye on these to make sure they have enough nutrients and water. You can also use sandstone to make a sandstone door. 10 blocks is required to make a door.

Got wood?

Tower-caps that you grow produce a type of woody log. Once you harvest one you use your hatchet to chop them up into wooded planks. Wood has many uses: you can make chairs, tables, wooden floors, doors and so on. Engineers might come looking for some if Mining isn’t delivering enough metal.

Seed storage

For the love of all that is robust, DON’T PUT THE SEEDS IN THE SMART FRIDGE. All because you can doesn’t mean you should. They take up extra space and make things harder for the chef to find. If you have to store extra seeds then get a second plant bag and put them in there. There’s no good way of storing extra seeds but that’s the easiest so far.

Extra things you can make out of your plants

  • Add some cable to a potato to make a potato battery. Then cry when you realize R&D already make ultra-capacity cells.
  • Glowberries and glowshrooms, as the name suggests, glow. Not a whole lot but get enough together and they can brighten up a room.
  • You can carve a pumpkin with a hatchet. This pumpkin can then be worn on your head and lit up as a light source.
  • You can make a cob-pipe out of a corn cob. If you do this though then expect your crewmates to ask for drugs to smoke in it.
  • Flowers and ambrosia can be worn on your head. Unleash your inner hippie!