Guide to hydroponics

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Hydroponics. This is your home.

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Your First Shift

So you've just arrived to the station and you can't tell a potato from a killer tomato. Note that while this little guide should be enough to get you started, you should still spend some time on other sections to properly learn how to be a botanist, but all of that is for later.
For now let's head to the first part of the guide:

What Is Your Purpose?

As a botanist you have three basic goals: Get science their plants (listed below), feed the station, and keep the Biogenerator from emptying. Aside from that you're mostly going to be left alone to make any plant you wish, just make sure you keep your more dangerous experiments inside.
Now that you know roughly what to do, it's time to explain how to mutate your plants or boost their stats.

Important Plant Stats

The most important important plant stats are:

• Potency: Determines reagent amount in the plant as well as the strength of some traits such as bioluminescence. Goes from 0 to 100, with 100 being most potent.
• Yield: How many individual plants you harvest each time. Goes from 0 to 10, with 10 being most plants harvested.
• Production Rate: How long it takes for the plant to be ready to be harvested again. Goes from 1 to 10, with 1 being quickest. This is a bit counterintuitive, so make sure you remember it.

Useful Chemicals

There is an expanded list of chemicals below, but these are the most important ones:

• Saltpetre: Increases potency by 1 point per 2u used on the plant, and reduces production speed.
• Unstable Mutagen: Use it to mutate your plants. 2u is enough for stat mutations and a chance for a new trait, while 5u will give a chance for species mutation. The plants use the Unstable Mutagen immediately so you can keep adding it as quickly as you'd like.
• Diethylamine: Increases Yield by 1 for every 50 units added. This is counted per addition, so adding less than 50u at a time does nothing. Always add in multiples of 50u
• Ammonia: Increases yield by 1 for every 100 units added. needs to be added in multiples of 100u
• Robust Harvest: One of the 3 main fertilizers you get access to and the only one you should use once you have a steady supply of Mutagen. It increases yield by 30% and prevents random mutation from ruining your plants' stats. Doesn't increase the stat itself, just the harvested amount.

Hover over each of the chemicals for a how to obtain them. for further details: Guide to Chemistry

Perennial Growth

The most important trait, and the first one you should extract to a disk in the DNA Extractor. This is what makes your plant not disappear as you harvest it.

What Plants to Grow?

First and foremost, Ambrosia Gaia. It produces a chemical called Earthblood that makes your trays self sustain. 4 Branches at 100 potency will turn a tray or soil plot into a self sustaining one, at lower potency you may need more. Science also need a branch for research.

Then come the plants for science:

• Ambrosia Gaia: The first plant you should always get
• GlowShrooms: Also produce radium, an ingredient of Unstable Mutagen.
• Glow Caps: Have the "Electrical Activity" trait which can be added to potatoes so that they can be made into much stronger batteries.
• Death Nettle: These make sulfuric acid and fluorosulfuric acid, which are mostly useful for nefarious purposes.

Hover over each plant for the means to get it.

Science may ask you for other plants too, but for the most part these should be more than enough.

As for the other plants:

• For food, make whatever the chef asks for, and preferably plant it in his garden to save tray space. Don't forget to put Gaia branches in the soil plots.
• The Biogenenerator can take just about any plant, but the higher the nutriment and plant matter content the better, so watermelons are one of the best choices.
• If you expect power issues grow some potatoes. They can be made into potato batteries by clicking them with wires, and with high potency and the electrical activity trait from glow caps are as good as any power cell science can make.

Recommended Checklist

Now that you know some basics let's run you down a basic to-do list for the beginning of the shift:

• Go to the backroom, grab a botany HUD and seed extractor from one of the closets, and the plant data disk box from each.
• Put the plant disk boxes near the DNA Extractor
• Ask Science for a chem dispenser, and bolt it near some trays so you don't have to walk back and forth all the time. However, Science doesn't have to give you the chem dispenser, so keep this in mind.
• Ask cargo for a multitool and screwdriver and use it to hack your vendors.
• Take a jug of Robust Harvest from the Nutrimax vendor and use it once on each of 8 trays. Those trays will "remember" they have robust harvest in them once they become self sustaining. You should do this on every tray and soil plot, but preferably after you got your Gaia growing nicely.
• Plant Ambrosia Vulgaris.
• Put a jug, bucket or beaker in your chem vendor and make some Unstable Mutagen.
• Set your Mutagen container to dispense 5u at a time(alt-click) and add Mutagen to the tray until the Ambrosia Vulrgaris mutates into Ambrosia Deus, then Ambrosia Gaia. Note that Ambrosia Gaia gets easily taken over by weeds, so make sure to rake the tray often, and keep a watchful eye on it.
• If the yield is very low use Mutagen 2u at a time(can only be done with a jug, pipette or syringe) to boost it a bit.
• Boost the Yield some more with Diethylamine from the Nutrimax vendor. Make sure you pour all the bottles into a bucket and add to the tray in multiples of 50.
• Make Saltpetre and use it on the Ambrosia Gaia until you get to 100 potency, and at most 5 production speed.
• Extract the Perennial Growth trait from some seeds that have it(e.g:apple seeds)
• When the Gaia finishes growing use one branch on the seed extractor, to get seeds, then insert the Perennial Growth trait to it in the DNA Extractor.
• Put whatever branches you have left into trays and save one for science
• Plant 2 Glowshrooms and 1 Nettle and mutate the Nettel into Death Nettle and one of the Glowshrooms by spamming Mutagen 5u at a time. Glowshrooms can mutate into shadow shrooms instead of glowcaps, so you may have to wait until your Glowshrooms finish growing so you can make some seeds.
• Get 2 of each shroom, 1 Death Nettle, and 1 Gaia branch to science. And make sure to keep one of each to make seeds from. Also make 3 leather in the Biogenerator if you have the biomass for it and make botanists gloves so sci don't sting themselves on the Death Nettle.

Would you look at that, you just made yourself useful! Good job!

As an aside, you can do a lot of these steps in paralel, but with how easy it is to lose your gaia to weeds it's better to keep it slow at first, at least until you have some backup gaia seeds.

Not Relying On Science

So you didn't get your chem dispenser, are you screwed? Well, not really, you can do hydroponics in other ways! To start with you still need your vendors hacked. Then go to the chemists with a bucket and ask them to fill it with Unstable Mutagen. Use this bucket to mutate Pumpkins into Blumpkins and also grow some Glowshrooms. Now extract the radium gene from the Glowshroom seeds onto a disk, and insert it into a pack of Blumpkin seeds using the DNA Extractor. Remove all other chemicals from it and you should be left with a plant that produces pure Mutagen. You can now use the grinder in the back room to grind those plants into Mutagen that you can use on your plants and continue from there.

For Saltpetre you will need bees, which you can also use for Mutagen, or Diethylamine. But even without the Saltpetre you can still manage by recording plant stats onto disks. Not optimal, especially not without upgrades for your machines, but sometimes you have to make do. Now, if worst comes to worst and you can't get any Mutagen to start with you can use Left4Zed to make your plants mutate each time they are harvested. This process is slow, but once you get your Blumpkins things start going a lot faster.

Without a chem dispenser you won't be getting Diethylamine, but you can still make Ammonia. You should already have blumpkins for mutagen production, so take a blumpkin seed, remove the other chems from it, grow it, and grind it in the all-in-one grinder to make Ammonia. This is a reliable process, but a slow one, especially with an unupgraded grinder. Don't forget that you need to transfer the Ammonia to the tray in multiples of 100u so the smallest container you can use a large beaker, jugs won't work.

Another thing that might happen is you have a chem dispenser but no upgrades, in which case it won't dispense Diethylamine. It still does make the basic chems needed to make it: 1u Nitrogen + 3u Hydrogen makes 3u Ammonia + 3u Ethanol = 6u Diethylamine, but you still need to heat them up. The easiest way is with an igniter, and a welding tool can also be used, though it requires refuling. Another option is to make a bonfire, which can heat up as many containers as you can fit in the tile it's on, but comes with the disadvantages of burning the containers placed on it to ash if they remain on it too long, and setting you on fire if you step into it.
In addition to all that you will want to upgrade your chem dispenser. Ideally you want to use a potato with 100 potency and the Electrical Activity trait

Extra Tips

• You can pickup, harvest or insert plants into a fridge, a Biogenerator, a seed extractor, a grinder or a disposal bin by clicking with a held plant bag or portable seed extractor.
• You can unbolt trays to move them around, in case you want to take a grown plant somewhere else.
• Potato batteries can be used in your chem dispenser as an upgrade or simply to replace a spent power cell. Simply disassemble the chem dispenser and reassemble it using the new potato battery instead of the old power cell.
• Disassemble one of your reception desks and move your Biogenerator there so that you don't have to deal with people asking you to make stuff.
• Make yourself an extra fridge for experiments, and another one that is accessible to anyone, like the Biogenerator, so you can share your plants.

Basics of Botany

Hydroponics and the Botanists who work there are important to the station, especially in longer rounds. Botanists grow plants that the Chef can use for food. Without botany, the station will have to live off of beef jerky and space twinkies, or starve to death.

Your Area

Hydroponics is divided into two rooms. The big southern section is where you'll spend most of your time growing goods. Trays are available where you grow plants and two vending machines, one with seeds and the other with miscellaneous items such as nutriments and tools for your job. The bio-generator can be used to grind plants and produce things for the station. In tandem is the seed dispenser used to reproduce your product. The northern area is where you can grab most of the equipment needed to work in botany.

Plants require nutriment and water to grow. They are also bothered by pests and weeds. Trays come equipped with alerts that flash specific colors to tell you what's happening with your plant.

From left to right -

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

Tools that are of use in botany -

• Wrench: Used to move your trays around.
• Wirecutters: Used to set up the irrigation system. If 30u or more of water is put into trays while the irrigation is set up, water will be shared across trays. This will also distribute things like mutagen and plant killer.
• Hatchet: Chops tower-caps into planks, chops other things. This is also a very robust tool that can be hidden in backpacks.
• Spade: Used to remove unwanted or dead plants from your trays.
• Cultivator: Kills Weeds.
• Plant Bag: Collects up to 50 items or 100 seeds from your harvest.
• Portable Seed Extractor: Found in the lockers of the back room, this can harvest and pick up plants and turn up to 100 plants into seeds. Can be alt-clicked to turn the contained plants into seed.

Plants 101

Take some seeds from the vendor and put them into the trays. Make sure to keep them weeded with a cultivator and watered. Some plants have a varied growth times, such as wheat growing faster while watermelons or apple trees take a little longer before you can harvest from them. Sometimes these and other stats of a plant are affected if you ignore them after the light warns you of their status. You have a choice of 5 nutriments, depending on if you hacked your machine or not. Once your tray flashes green, you're set to harvest. If you want to replicate the plant to continue growing more, just insert it into the seed extractor.

Biogenerators

The bio-generator makes items out of the nutriment in plants, such as watermelons and pumpkins which have a 20% nutriment boost trait. To get biomass, grab a spare bucket and equip the machine with it then put your growns inside. Open its interface and process the plants. If you somehow run out of nutriment in the vendors, remember you can print the three standard nutriments here. You can recycle any plant, though if they don't have nutriment like bananas, the efficiency is very low.

DNA Extractor

This allows you to extract genes and stats from seeds. This is a very useful machine for mass producing plants, easily saving lots of time.

How to use: 1. Go to the locker in the back and take out the box of plant data disks. 2. Load a disk into the machine along with any seed of choice. 3. Extract seeds to the disk (seed will be destroyed) or extract a gene. 4. Put in another seed. 5. You can now modify the seed's stats and genes based on what's in the plant data disk.

Useful seeds for maxing production:

• On some maps, there's wheat on the table, this wheat has 50 potency and 1 production speed.
• Treecaps have naturally high endurance and resistance, as well as 50 potency.
• The tobacco in the seed vendor has 10 yield.
• The wheat in the seed vendor has 1 production speed.
• At the start the DNA modifier can only store 50 potency on a disk, pester science to upgrade it as soon as you can so you can use 95 potency on a disk.

Don't forget that you can rename seed packs with a pen to keep track of your modified seeds!

Plants

There are three types of plants. The biggest category is "normal plants". The much smaller 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 don't need water to grow. They still use it, though.
• 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.

Trays, whether empty or occupied by plants, can be occasionally overtaken by a weed if their level is 5 or more. In that case the 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 Chanterelle.
• 1/9 chance for Tower Cap.
• 1/9 chance for Plump Helmets.
• 1/6 chance for Starthistle.

Here's a chart for reference on what you can grow.

Plant Chart (mouse over the reagents to have a brief effect description)

Name	Type	Seed	Potting	Product	Reagent Production	Traits	Available from	Mutates into
Aloe	Normal				10% silver sulfadiazine	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor
Ambrosia cruciatus	Normal				5% plant-matter, 15% tetrahydrocannabinol, 10% bicaridine, 15% kelotane, 20% bath salts, 5% plant-matter	Perennial Growth	Traitor uplink only
Ambrosia deus	Normal				5% plant-matter, 15% diluted omnizine, 15% synaptizine, 10% space drugs, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	Mutate Ambrosia vulgaris	Ambrosia gaia
Ambrosia gaia	Normal				6% nutriment, 5% earthsblood, 5% vitamin		Mutate Ambrosia deus
Ambrosia vulgaris	Normal				5% plant-matter, 10% bicaridine, 10% kelotane, 15% space drugs, 10% toxin, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Ambrosia deus
Apple	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, mutate Pineapple	Gold apple
Banana	Normal				10% banana juice, 10% potassium, 4% vitamin, 2% plant-matter	Slippery Skin, Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, Exotic Seeds Crate	Mimana, Bluespace banana
Berry	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Glow-berry, Poison-berry
Blood Tomato	Normal				10% plant-matter, 20% blood, 4% vitamin	Liquid Contents, Perennial Growth	Mutate Tomato	Killer tomato
Bluespace Banana	Normal				20% singulo, 10% banana juice, 4% vitamin, 2% nutriment	Slippery Skin, Bluespace Activity, Perennial Growth	Mutate Banana
Bluespace tomato	Normal				10% plant-matter, 20% singulo, 20% space lube, 4% vitamin	Slippery Skin, Bluespace Activity, Liquid Contents, Perennial Growth	Mutate Blue tomato
Blue cherry	Normal				7% nutriment, 7% sugar	Perennial Growth	Mutate Cherry
Blue tomato	Normal				10% plant-matter, 20% space lube, 4% vitamin	Slippery Skin, Perennial Growth	Mutate Tomato	Bluespace tomato
Blumpkin	Normal				20% ammonia, 10% chlorine, 20% plant-matter, 10% plasma	Perennial Growth	mutate Pumpkin
Cabbage	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Replica pod
Cannabis	Normal				15% tetrahydrocannabinol	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked)	Rainbow weed, Lifeweed,
Carpet	Normal				2% plant-matter, 5% hydrogen	Perennial Growth	Mutate Grass
Carrot	Normal				5% plant-matter, 4% vitamin, 25% oculine		MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Parsnip
Chanterelle	Mushroom				10% nutriment	Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate, can overtake a tray
Cherry	Normal				7% nutriment, 7% sugar	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Blue cherry
Cherry Bomb	Normal				10% plant-matter, 10% sugar, 70% blackpowder	Perennial Growth	Only available from Xenobiology
Chili	Normal				4% plant-matter, 25% capsaicin, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Ghost chili, Chilly Pepper
Cocoa	Normal				10% plant-matter, 25% cocoa powder	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Vanilla
Comfrey	Normal				10% styptic powder	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor
Coffee arabica	Normal				10% coffee grounds, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Coffee robusta
Coffee robusta	Normal				10% coffee grounds, 4% vitamin, 10% ephedrine	Perennial Growth	Mutate Coffee arabica
Combustible Lemon	Normal				5% plant-matter	Perennial Growth	Mutate Lemon
Corn	Normal				10% plant-matter, 20% corn oil, 4% vitamin		MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Snapcorn
Durathread	Normal						Mutate Cotton
Death berry	Normal				10% plant-matter, 8% coniine,10% tirizene, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	Mutate Poison-berry
Death nettle	Weed				25% fluorosulphuric acid, 25% sulphuric acid	Perennial Growth, Weed Adaptation, Hypodermic Prickles	Mutate Nettle, weed mutation
Deathweed	Normal				35% cyanide, 15% tetrahydrocannabinol	Perennial Growth	Mutate Cannabis
Destroying angel	Mushroom				4% nutriment, 4% Psilocybin, 20% amanitin	Fungal Vitality	Mutate Fly amanita
Cotton	Normal						MegaSeed Servitor
Eggplant	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Egg-plant
Egg-plant	Normal				10% nutriment	Perennial Growth	Mutate Eggplant, Exotic Seeds Crate
Fly amanita	Mushroom				35% amanitin, 4% Psilocybin, 10% growth serum, 4% nutriment	Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked), Exotic Seeds Crate, can overtake a tray	Destroying angel
Fungus	Mushroom				35% space fungus	Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked), can overtake a tray
Garlic	Normal				15% garlic juice, 10% plant matter		MegaSeed Servitor
Gatfruit	Normal				10% sulfur, 10% carbon, 7% nitrogen, 5% potassium	Perennial Growth	Only available from Xenobiology
Geranium	Normal				5% plant-matter, 20% bicaridine		Mutate Poppy
Glow-berry	Normal				10% plant-matter, 25% uranium, 20% iodine, 4% vitamin.	Strong Bioluminescence, Perennial Growth	Mutate Berry
Ghost chili	Normal				4% plant-matter, 55% capsaicin, 30% condensed capsaicin	Perennial Growth	Mutate Chili
Glowshroom	Mushroom				10% radium, 10% phosphorus, 4% nutriment.	Bioluminescence, Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked)	Glowcap Shadowshroom
Shadowshroom	Mushroom				20% radium, 4% nutriment.	Shadow Emission, Fungal Vitality	Mutate Glowshroom
Glowcap	Mushroom				10% teslium. Restores up to 100% battery charge.	Electrical Activity, Bioluminescence, Fungal Vitality	Mutate Glowshroom
Gold apple	Normal				10% plant-matter, 20% gold, 4% vitamin		Mutate Apple
Grapes	Normal				10% plant-matter, 10% sugar, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Green grapes
Grass	Normal				2% plant-matter, 5% hydrogen	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Carpet
Green grapes	Normal				10% plant-matter, 20% kelotane, 10% sugar, 4% vitamin		Mutate Grapes
Harebell	Weed				4% plant-matter	Weed Adaptation	Can overtake a a tray
Holymelon	Normal				20% holy water, 4% vitamin, 10% nutriment	Perennial Growth	Mutate Watermelon
Chilly Pepper	Normal				2% plant-matter, 25% frost oil, 2% vitamin	Perennial Growth	Mutate Chili
Killer tomato	Normal				10% protein, 4% vitamin	Liquid Contents	Mutate Blood Tomato
Koibean	Normal				5% plant-matter, 10% carpotoxin, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	Mutate Soybean
Kudzu	Weed				2% nutriment, 4% charcoal	Perennial Growth, Weed Adaptation	Weed mutation	Special, see this.
Lemon	Normal				5% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Combustible Lemon
Liberty-cap	Mushroom				2% nutriment, 4% Psilocybin	Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked), Exotic Seeds Crate, weed mutation
Lifeweed	Normal				35% omnizine, 15% tetrahydrocannabinol	Perennial Growth	Mutate Cannabis	Deathweed,Omega weed
Lily	Normal				5% plant-matter, 20% bicaridine	Perennial Growth	Mutate Poppy
Lime	Normal				5% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, mutate Orange	Orange
Meatwheat	Normal				4% protein		Mutate Wheat
Mimana	Normal				10% nothing, 10% capulettium plus, 2% nutriment	Slippery Skin, Perennial Growth	Mutate Banana	Mimana, Bluespace banana
Mint	Normal				3% mint, 3% plant-matter		MegaSeed Servitor
Moonflower	Normal				2% plant-matter, 2% vitamin, 20% moonshine		Mutate Sunflower
Nettle	Weed				15% wasabi	Perennial Growth, Weed Adaptation	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked), Exotic Seeds Crate, can overtake a tray	Death nettle
Novaflower	Normal				25% condensed capsaicin, 30% capsaicin, 4% vitamin		Mutate Sunflower
Oat	Normal				4% plant-matter		Mutate Wheat
Omega weed	Normal				5% space drugs, 5% lysergic acid diethylamide, 5% mercury, 5% lithium, 5% haloperidol, 5% methamphetamine, 5% Suicider, 5% hairgrowinium, 5% bath salts, 5% itching powder, 5% crank, 5% krokodil, 5% histamine, 5% psilocybin, 5% ectoplasm	Perennial Growth	Lifeweed,Rainbow Weed
Onion	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin		MegaSeed Servitor
Orange	Normal				5% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, mutate Lime	Lime
Parsnip	Normal				5% vitamin, 5% plant-matter		Mutate Carrot
Peanuts	Normal				10% plant-matter		MegaSeed Servitor
Pineapple	Normal				20% plant-matter, 2% vitamin, 4% water	Capacitive Cell Production	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Apple
Plump helmet	Mushroom				10% nutriment, 4% vitamin	Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked), Exotic Seeds Crate, can overtake a tray	Walking mushroom
Poison-berry	Normal				10% plant-matter, 15% cyanide, 20% tirizene, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	Mutate Berry	Death berry
Poppy	Normal				5% plant-matter, 20% bicaridine		MegaSeed Servitor	Geranium, Lily
Potato	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Capacitive Cell Production	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Sweet Potato
Pumpkin	Normal				20% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Blumpkin
Rainbow weed	Normal				15% lysergic acid diethylamide, 15% tetrahydrocannabinol, 15% happiness	Perennial Growth	Mutate Cannabis	Omega weed,Deathweed,
Redbeet	Normal				5% plant-matter, 5% vitamin	Densified Chemicals	Mutate Whitebeet
Red Onion	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin, 5% onion juice		Mutate Onion
Rice	Normal				4% plant-matter		MegaSeed Servitor
Reishi	Mushroom				35% charcoal, 35% morphine, 4% nutriment	Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor (hacked), can overtake a tray
Replica pod	Normal						MegaSeed Servitor, Exotic Seeds Crate, Mutate Cabbage
Snapcorn	Normal				10% plant-matter, 20% corn oil, 4% vitamin		Mutate Corn
Soybean	Normal				5% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Koibean
Space tobacco	Normal				3% plant-matter, 8% nicotine, 5% salbutamol		Mutate Tobacco
Starthistle	Weed					Weed Adaptation	Can overtake a tray
Steelcap	Mushroom					Fungal Vitality	Mutate Towercap
Sugarcane	Normal				25% sugar	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate
Sunflower	Normal				8% corn oil, 4% plant-matter		MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Moonflower, Novaflower
Sweet Potato	Normal				10% plant-matter, 10% sugar, 10% vitamin		Mutate Potato
Tea aspera	Normal				10% ground tea leaves, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Tea astra
Tea astra	Normal				10% ground tea leaves, 10% synaptizine, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	Mutate Tea aspera
Tobacco	Normal				3% nicotine, 3% plant-matter		MegaSeed Servitor	Space tobacco
Tomato	Normal				10% plant-matter, 4% vitamin	Liquid Content, Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Blood Tomato, Blue Tomato
Towercap	Mushroom					Fungal Vitality	MegaSeed Servitor, can overtake a tray	Steelcap
Vanilla	Normal				25% vanilla, 10% plant-matter	Perennial Growth	Mutate Cocoa
Walking mushroom	Mushroom				15% nutriment, 5% vitamin	Fungal Vitality	Mutate Plump helmet
Watermelon	Normal				20% plant-matter, 20% water, 4% vitamin	Perennial Growth	MegaSeed Servitor	Holymelon
Wheat	Normal				4% plant-matter		MegaSeed Servitor, Seeds Crate	Oat, Meatwheat
Whitebeet	Normal				5% plant-matter, 20% sugar, 4% vitamin		MegaSeed Servitor	Redbeet

Chemicals

Certain chemicals can affect your plants in various ways; from healing your plants, changing its stats, or just killing it outright. Unless you can get your own Chem Dispenser 5000, you'll likely need to ask Chemistry for help in obtaining some of these chemicals.

Chemical Chart; Effects are per unit. Hover over the names of chemicals to find where they are obtained.

Name	Purpose	Nutrients	Water	Health	Toxin	Bonus Effects
E-Z Nutriment	Fertilizer	1	0	0	0	Causes small, but random stat mutations in plants after harvesting.
Left 4 Zed	Stats	1	0	0	0	Causes multiple stat mutations on harvest, but plants bear no fruit. Can mutate species.
Robust Harvest	Fertilizer	1	0	0	0	Won't mutate plants. Increases yield by 30%.
Unstable Mutagen	Mutations/Stats	0	0	0	0	Mutates plants based on amount used.
Uranium	Mutations/Stats	0	0	-1	2	Chance to Mutate Plants with 10 units.
Radium	Mutations/Stats	0	0	-1	3	Chance to Mutate Plants with 10 units.
Ammonia	Fertilizer	1	0	0.5	0	Increases Yield by 1 for every 100 units added. This is counted per addition, so adding less than 100u at a time does nothing. Always add in multiples of 100.
Diethylamine	Stats/Fertilizer	2	0	1	0	Kills Pests. Increases Yield by 1 for every 50 units added. This is counted per addition, so adding less than 50u at a time does nothing. Always add in multiples of 50
Saltpetre	Stats	0	0	0.25	0	Adds 1 Potency per 2 units. Using 100 units speeds up Production time.
Atrazine	Weed Killer	0	0	0	0.5	Kills Weeds. Commonly known as Weed Killer.
Pest Killer	Pest Killer	0	0	0	0.5	Kills Pests.
Water	Water	0	1	0	0
Holy Water	Water	0	1	0.1	0
Soda Water	Water	0.1	1	0.1	0
Fish Water	Water/Fertilizer	0.75	1	0	0
Milk	Water	0.1	0.9	0	0
Beer	Water	0.25	0.7	-0.05	0
Nutriment	Fertilizer	1	0	0.5	0
Plant-matter	Fertilizer	1	0	0.5	0
Ash	Fertilizer	0.5	0	0.25	0	Kills Weeds
Charcoal	Healing	0	0	0	-2
Cryoxadone	Healing	0	0	3	-3
Sugar	Plant Killer	0.1	0	0	0	Creates weeds and pests.
Blood	Fertilizer	1	0	0	0	Creates pests.
Virus Food	Fertilizer	0.5	0	-0.5	0
Phosphorus	Plant Killer	0.1	-0.5	-0.75	0	Kills weeds (along with your plant).
Toxin	Plant Killer	0	0	0	2
Sulphuric Acid	Plant Killer	0	0	-1	1.5	Kills Weeds (along with your plant).
Chlorine	Plant Killer	0	-0.5	-1	1.5	Kills weeds (along with your plant).
Fluorine	Plant Killer	0	-0.5	-2	2.5	Kills weeds (along with your plant).
Fluorosulphuric Acid	Plant Killer	0	0	-2	3	Kills Weeds (along with your plant).
Glyphosate	Plant Killer	0	0	-5	6	Efficient against Kudzu.
Napalm	Plant Killer	0	0	-6	7	Kills Weeds (along with your plant).
Lazarus Reagent	Evil	0	0	0	0	Creates hostile plant-life.

Advanced Botany

Maybe you want to grow something more impressive than the tiny potatoes your plants probably produced. Or perhaps you got unlucky and harvested only one of each. A plant's stats determine all this and more, and true botanists are unafraid to PLAY GOD and change them!

Stats

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 (you can also see these stats from inside the seed extractor storage):

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

These names may be confusing at first. Here is what they all mean:

• Age: Age of the plant. Only relevant in terms of the lifespan stat.
• Endurance: Max health. Between 10 and 100. Not very useful, unless you leave your garden often.
• Lifespan: When the age is above lifespan, the 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.
• Yield: How much product you get each harvest. Between 0 and 10. Pay attention to this, because if it drops to 0, you won't harvest anything.
• Maturation Speed: Age cycles before the plant can start production. The first harvest will be (Maturation Speed + Production Speed).
• Production Speed: How fast your plant reaches harvest. Between 1 and 10—the lower the faster. The plant has to wait (Production Speed) age cycles before each harvest.
• Potency: The most important stat. Between 0 and 100. Basically, this determines plant power. Mostly affects the amount of chemicals in the plant, though some have additional effects, such as stun length for bananas. To get the amount of a given chemical in a plant, multiply the reagent in the chart by the potency: for example, 10% nutriment will be 5 nutriment at 50 potency.

Traits

Some plants have special traits, that can be tranferred through the Plant DNA Manipulator.

• Bioluminescence: Causes the plant to glow, emitting light equal to 10% of potency.
• Bluespace Activity: Gives the plant bluespace properties, making it teleport people hit if the plant has Liquid Contents, and on slip if it has Slippery Skin.
• Capacitive Cell Production: Plants with this trait can be made into batteries with the addition of wire. Electrical Activity increases the cell's maximum charge.
• Densified Chemicals: Doubles the reagent capacity of the plant.
• Electrical Activity: Gives the plant electrical charge, making it recharge batteries when used; it will also electrocute on slip if it also has Slippery Skin and on hit if it has Liquid Contents.
• Fungal Vitality: The plant acquires mushroom-like properties, making it not need light or water.
• Gaseous Decomposition: Plants with this trait emit a smoke cloud when squashed, spewing reagents everywhere. Requires Liquid Contents to be useful.
• Hypodermic Prickles: Plants with this trait will sting when thrown, transferring a portion of their chemicals to the target.
• Liquid Contents: Causes the plant to squash when thrown, applying the reagents inside on the target and destroying the plant.
• Perennial Growth: Plants with this trait can be harvested more than once.
• Shadow Emission: Causes the plant to emit slightly purple shadows.
• Slippery Skin: Causes the plant, or any products of the plant, to become slippery. The stun time is (Potency * 0.08), divided by 3 unless the plant has lube or is a banana. Maximum stun is 7 seconds.
• Strong Bioluminescence: Causes the plant to glow, emitting light equal to 20% of potency.
• Weed Adaptation: The plant acquires weed-like properties, making it not need nutrients and immune to weeds in the tray.

Mutations

To change the stats, you need to mutate your plant. Keep in mind that mutations are completely random, but you can do a more efficient job depending on how much you're willing to cooperate with other departments.

• Of your starting fertilizers, E-Z Nutriment makes the plant mutate once 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! Finally, regular 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. The effects of mutagen depend on how much you use. Best applied after transferring it to an empty fertiliser bottle, for greater control over amount used (Right-click > Set transfer amount). Pour 5 units on your plant and prepare for...

• • 10% chance of the plant losing lots of health instantly. The plant can die because of this
  • 10% chance of mutation into a related species. 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 with a 3% chance of a new trait appearing.
  • 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 help and try to explain to security why you didn't use pest spray.

Or, if you don't want to bother with species mutation, pour 2 units for a guaranteed heavy stat mutation with a 3% chance of a new trait appearing, 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 if you can get radium, you can get mutagen.

• 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 mode, every time you fire it at the plant, there is a chance the yield 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 mutation mode, it will always induce a normal stat mutation.

Replica Pod Cloning

Replica pod is a very special plant. It can be used to grow dead people back to life, in the case that genetics is destroyed. To clone someone, follow these simple steps:

• Take a blood sample from the body using a syringe.
• Inject it into the bag of seeds.
• Plant the seeds.
• Let the plant grow and harvest it.

A cloned person will become a fully grown diona.

If you grow a replica pod without any blood, there's a chance that it will produce more than one seed, and this chance depends on both luck and the plant's yield. Cabbage can be mutated into a replica pod.

Beekeeping

So, you want to keep those little flying demons and extract their sweet honey? First you need to request a Beekeeping starting kit from your local cargo bay. The starter kit will contain the items that you will need to create a happy bee colony from scratch. We'll get through all of them later. Before we begin, keep in mind that when a starter kit is ordered from cargo you are expected to have complete responsibility for the bees in your future colony, so don't fuck up!

Preparing Your New Colony

Now that your crate has arrived it's time to get your hands dirty! Take your crate and head to the desired place where your colony will reside and open it there. Of course, as a botanist, the obvious place will be at hydroponics. Lets set up the apiary.

• Put the beekeeper suit and hat on. (Optional for now, it's more useful for bigger colonies.)

• Pick up the queen bee and place it comfortably in the apiary.

• Place the honey frames in the apiary respectively.

Aaand... Your first colony is ready!

Apiary Management

If you right-click and examine your apiary, it'll show some stats. The resource supply represents the amount of honey contained in the apiary. You need to have plants around your apiary so the bees can produce resources. While the bees fly around the plants the resource supply will rise, simple as that. When you check the apiary, it'll show the amount of resources needed to create a new honeycomb or a new bee in the moment that you checked it. A new bee costs 50 resources, while a new honeycomb costs 100 resources. These honeycombs can be ground up into honey, a sweet substance that has minor healing properties, and can be used to make certain foods and drinks.

Genetic Manipulation

The queen bee can also be injected with chemicals to cause the resulting bees to have special properties. To do so, simply use a syringe with the chemical of your choice on the queen bee before putting it in the apiary. You can change the queen's chemical as many times as you want. When a bee is created from an altered queen, it'll carry the same chemical that the queen was injected with.

When a honeycomb is created by an altered bee, half of its chemical content will be the same as the chemical injected in the bee, with the other half being honey. This creates an easy method of 'farming' chemicals that may be hard to get. The last effect that the chemical will have is the bee sting. When stung, a small amount of chemical will be delivered in the sting. Although not an ideal method, this can be used to inject people with healing chemicals, or possibly harmful chemicals for those traitors looking to cause chaos.

Keep'em Tame

Better protect your apiary, a single greytide can disrupt the bees and throw them in a rampage. That said, desrupting a colony can be done by attacking the apiary or attacking the bees directly. Keep the bees in their assigned space and don't let them roam around the station, they'll 100% cause trouble if that happens. Although, with the overpopulation problem there is no way you will be able to control ALL the bees. Expect the crew to see the insects at least one time flying around outside Hydroponics. Equip the beekeeper suit and hat in case they get angry!

Other Notes

Kudzu

Kudzu is a special plant that can appear as a random event or you can grow it by adding Unstable Mutagen to a tray filled with weeds. (That might result in other weed-type plants, too.) It is a type of space vine that grows and mutates on its own.

Usual plant stats affect active kudzu in the specific way:

• Potency: The higher the potency, the more the kudzu will mutate on spread. The chance to mutate on each new piece is [potency / 10].
• Production Speed: It determines how fast the kudzu spreads. By default, it spreads at a rate of 20% of the amount of pieces per tick but no more than 30. Production Speed changes the cap by [30 * production / 50] and the percent of processed pieces per tick by [20 * (production / 50)].

Killing the last piece of kudzu will create a kudzu seed on its place with all the mutations of the piece saved in the seed, so if you reactivate it, the new first piece will have all the same mutations the seed has and will spread it to all the progenitors. Kudzu can gain mutations on spread or by adding special chemicals to it while the seed is growing (see below).

Mutations

Positive

Color	Name	Description
	Glassy	Makes the kudzu occasionally drop a glass sheet upon destroying it.
	Glimmering	Makes the kudzu occasionally drop a diamond, gold, or silver sheet upon destroying it.
	Light	Makes the kudzu emit light.
	Metallic	Makes the kudzu occasionally drop a metal sheet upon destroying it.
	Plasticine	Makes the kudzu occasionally drop a plastic sheet upon destroying it.
	Space Protective	Makes the kudzu grow in space.
	Transparency	Makes the kudzu transparent.
	Wooden	Makes the kudzu occasionally drop a wood sheet upon destroying it.

Minor Negative

Color	Name	Description
	Bluespace	Makes the kudzu grow through walls and objects.
	Fireproof	Makes the kudzu resistant to every kind of fire (including plasma fire).
	Vine-Eating	Makes the kudzu eat every non-vine-eating kudzu tiles.
	Virulently Spreading	Makes the kudzu spread thicker.

Negative

Color	Name	Description
	Aggressive Spreading	Makes the kudzu deal a small explosion upon spreading, destroying windows and other weak objects. It cannot get through reinforced walls.
	Explosive	Makes the kudzu explode upon death. It induces a chain reaction.
	Flowering	Makes the kudzu occasionally spawn aggressive flower buds. Every tile can snare passersby.
	Hardened	Makes the kudzu resistant to sharp objects (halves their damage). Every hardened tile has doubled health.
	Thorny	Makes the kudzu deal brute damage to whoever passing its tiles or dealing damage to it.
	Toxic	Makes the kudzu deal toxic damage to whoever passing its tiles or eating it.

Mutating Kudzu

Adding special chemicals to the tray when the seeds are growing will affect the specific kudzu mutations:

• Adding 5u of welding fuel will remove random positive mutation with a 20% probability
• Adding 5u of phenol will remove a random minor negative mutation with a 20% probability
• Adding 5u of sterilizine will remove a random negative mutation with a 20% probability
• Adding 15u of blood will change the production value of the seeds by a random number in the range from -5 to +15
• Adding 5u of amatoxin will change the production value of the seeds by a random number in the range from -15 to +5
• Adding 5u of plasma will change the potency value of the seeds by a random number in the range from -15 to +5
• Adding 10u of holy water will change a potency value of the seeds by a random number in the range from -5 to +15

Notes

• Scythes, sharp objects, and fire deals four times more damage to kudzu.
• Crossing kudzu can snare the crosser, but it doesn't deal damage. Unless it has the Thorny or Toxic mutations.
• Only destroying every vine tile stops the kudzu from spreading.
• The Chef's goat can destroy vines rapidly.
• Vines cannot spread diagonally.
• One tile can only capture one person.
• Glyphosate can wither kudzu with a 50% chance. You can find it in Plant-B-Gone bottles or make it with a Chem Dispenser.
• Aliens do not slash vines upon attacking them but eat them.

Decoration

If you pick up the grass and use it (click on it in your hand, or press z while holding it), you will prepare astroturf. Get a crowbar and remove some floor tiles, then place astroturf in their place, You can also mutate grass into carpet grass which makes carpet tiles instead. In addition to all that you can insert the blood production trait and liquid content traits from blood tomatos onto fungus to make a plant that creates a carpet tile when thrown. Add gaseous decomposition and you got yourself a carpet bomb.

Sandstone and Soil

By using either sand or volcanic ash in hand(same way as with grass) you can make a sandstone brick. Using three bricks, you can make a soil plot, which is like a tray, except you can walk over it and there are no lights. You can also build a sandstone door with 10 bricks.

Science can build hydroponics trays. They can also upgrade them by replacing the matter bins, and this increases the water and nutrient capacity of the tray.

Ambrosia Gaia leaves can be added to soil plots to make them self sustaining, the same way you can make hydroponics trays self sustaining.

Wood and Drying Racks

First you need to get some tower-caps, grow 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. A 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. Click on the rack and toggle drying so that the red arrows light up. 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.

Helping other departments

Apart from cooking, plants are also useful for Research & Development, selling rare plants at Cargo, providing Medical department and chemists with ready-to-use reagents (especially omnizine). Also, sometimes plants are needed for the DNA Vault station goal, in which case many different plants should be grown to be scanned.

Scientists at R&D can use plants in the Destructive Analyzer to get tech levels. Notable plants that help in that are:

• Tomato (biotech=5)
• Bluespace Tomato (bluespace=5)
• Killer-Tomato (combat=5)
• Bluespace Banana (bluespace=5)
• Glowcap (powerstorage=6, plasmatech=4)
• Glowshroom (plasmatech=6)
• Shadowshroom (plasmatech=4, magnets=4)
• Walking Mushrooms (programming=5)
• Glow-Berry Bush (plasmatech=6)
• Gatfruit Tree (combat=6)
• Death Nettle (combat=5)
• Ghost Chili (magnets=5)
• Golden Apple (materials=5)
• Ambrosia Gaia (biotech=6, materials=5)

Cargo Bay department can sell a number of rare plants for supply points. Most of the mutated species of plants are considered rare. Plant analyzer tells you if a plant is rare and it rarity score when used on a growing plant or its product (if the plant is not rare, there is no corresponding line). Only one sample of a plant is needed to gain point, more is unnecessary. Points are awarded for two different things: discovering a rare plant and getting better potency for the rare plant. The more potency obtained, the better reward. This means that to sell plant samples for the most price, you should first ship the new plant with the poorest potency possible (first shipment does not reward for potency). Then you should sell the same plant but with as much potency as you can get since the subsequent shipment rewards scale based on the difference between the biggest potency shipped before.

Unique things to do with plants

• Add some cable to a plant with Capacitive Cell Production to make a plant battery, add the electrical activity gene for an even better battery.
• Glowberries and glowshrooms, as the name suggests, glow.
• You can carve a pumpkin with a hatchet. Carved pumpkins can be worn and you can toggle them to emit a weak light.
• You can carve a corn cob (eaten ear of corn) with a hatchet to make a corn cob pipe.
• Wheat can be used to feed chickens in the Hydroponics near the kitchen (just give them wheat directly) for them to lay eggs.
• You can carve a carrot with a hatchet to make a shiv. It's not very strong but it's good at slicing things.
• Flowers and ambrosia can be worn on your head.
• Add dried ambrosia, wheat, tea aspera tips or tobacco leaves to a tower cap log to make a torch.
• Dried ambrosia, tobacco or any mutations of those are able to be smoked from wrapping paper, found in smoking vending machines.
• Make different wines by fermenting plants in a barrel.
• Novaflowers ignite people you hit them with and deal burn damage depending on potency.
• Ambrosia Gaia will make trays self sustaining, removing the need for water or nutriment.
• Comfrey and Aloe can be crushed to make healing poultices for brute and burn damage respectively.
• Combustible lemons are basically grown IEDs, be responsible with them.