Guide (Farming)

Info

Choose Farming Plot

There are 5 farming plot items available in normal gameplay, Portable Hydroponics, Planter, Hydroponics Tray, Hydroponics Device and Hydroponics Station. Automated Hydroponics is labeled obsolete thus only accessible via Creative Mode.

• Portable Hydroponics, early game item
  • pros
    • Early game item, normally provided in starter crate.
    • No piping needed. Insert starter water canister can last a long time.
  • cons
    • Can not be automated.
    • Portable item, clutters base floor.
    • Requires external lighting (sun/ Grow Light)
• Planter, early game item
  • pros
    • Early game item, do not need alloy to build.
    • No piping needed. Accepts water canister, water bottle, or dedicated water pipe.
    • Can be automated.
  • cons
    • When not using liquid pipe, watering the plant can be labor-intensive.
    • Has only one water port so it can not be chained, making the green house layout less compact.
    • Requires external lighting (sun/ Grow Light)
• Hydroponics Tray, mid/end game item
  • pros
    • Do not need alloy to build.
    • Can be automated.
    • Extremely space-efficient, one plot per small grid.
  • cons
    • Requires piping network to feed water.
    • Data port is absent. Does not support data interrogation for logic systems.
    • Requires external lighting (sun/ Grow Light)
• Hydroponics Device, mid/end game item
  • pros
    • Do not need alloy to build.
    • Can be automated.
    • Data port supports data interrogation for logic systems.
  • cons
    • Requires piping network to feed water.
    • Not space-efficient: requires a pipe segment between two consequtive plots, as well as wiring from the data port.
    • Requires external lighting (sun/ Grow Light)
• Hydroponics Station, mid/end game item
  • pros
    • Built-in light source.
  • cons
    • Requires steel to build.
    • Can not be automated.
    • bulky, 4 plot for 3x4 small grid, not space-efficient.

Setup

This guide is partially out of date! Some details might have changed since it has been written

• Using Portable Hydroponics, Planter, Hydroponics Tray, Hydroponics Device or Hydroponics Station

1. All of them use an open-top design so a controlled atmosphere (greenhouse) is required to operate this equipment. Build an airtight room with an airlock. Use simple airlock if the environment outside is a vacuum, or advanced airlock if the outside world has pressure.
   • If you plan to rely on Grow Light or Hydroponics Station, direct sunlight is not required, so you can build the greenhouse anywhere using any material.
   • If you want to use sunlight as well, the greenhouse should be planned with maximum sun exposure in mind, and all walls/ceilings facing the sun trajectory are made of glass.
   • Note: A specific amount of sunlight is required for the plant to grow at full speed, and too little (or too much) light will cause its light usage efficiency to get lower and lower as the "Illumination Stress" increases. This slowly reverts back to full efficiency when proper lighting conditions are provided.
2. You can set Build an entire set of pressure/temperature/gas mixture control for the greenhouse, either manual system or automated (via logic chips or programable IC chip). Make sure the following conditions are met, or the plant will wither through a declining health bar:
   • 7.7 kPa < Pressure < 190 kPa. Glass panel collapses near 200 kPa pressure difference.
   • Atmosphere and pipes being mostly free of pollutants and volatiles, maximum of 3 mols for volatiles.
   • At least 1% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, up to full 100% if maximum efficiency is desired.
   • 15 °C < Air Temperature < 50 °C.
   • 5 °C < Water Temperature < 60 °C.
   • You can use the Cartridge Plant Analyser to check the exact min/max parameters for a given plant, and their current value as perceived by the plant.
3. Provide grow beds with water, or the plant will wither through a declining health bar. Insert a canister of water into the slot of Portable Hydroponics. Apply water bottle or water canister directly on Planter. Connect Hydroponics Tray, Hydroponics Device, Planter or Hydroponics Station to a liquid pipe network containing water.
4. Seed the farming plot. Can be done with either seeds or raw fruits.
5. Provide illumination to the plants. Activate the UV light on Hydroponics Station, turn on your dedicated Grow Light, or wait till the sun comes up. The plant won't die if they lack the sunlight, but will cumulatively slow down their growth ("Illumination Stress" in the Plant Analyser), and will slowly revert back to normal efficiency when proper lighting conditions are provided. Default batch of seeds might not tolerate the low level of natural sunlight on Mars.
6. Provide darkness to the plants. Most plants require a certain amount of darkness per day or they will eventually start dying. The Plant Genetic Analyzer can be used to learn the minimum amount of darkness needed.
7. Fertilizer (obtained through Portable Composter or Advanced Composter) can be used to speed up growth or boost yield depending on how it is made. More detail to be added.
8. The plant reaches maturity before it generates seeds.
9. Wait till the fruit has seeds before harvesting. If you harvest immediately upon maturity you will miss out on seeds. (This is mostly a problem for folks with old scripts for their Harvie.)
10. A healthy plant consumes water and carbon dioxide, then produces oxygen and radiates heat into the surrounding atmosphere. Constant manual intervention or another feedback loop into the environment control will be necessary to keep the greenhouse running in the long term.

(it should be mentioned that the Hydroponics Tray can be automated through the use of a Harvie unit (Kit (Harvie)). By placing the unit above the Hydroponics Tray, the Harvie unit will be able to automatically plant and harvest crops with the use of logic)

• Using Automated Hydroponics

1. This item is obsolete. It's only accessible in creative mode. Check its own article for detail.

Plant consumption and production of gases and water

version 0.2.5108

Plant	Temperature (air)	H2O (mol/tick)	CarbonDioxide (mol/tick)	Oxygen (mol/tick)	Volatiles (mol/tick)	Nitrogen (mol/tick)	NitrousOxide (mol/tick)	Pollutant (mol/tick)
Food crops + fern + flowers	15-52 °C	-0.00006	-0.0012	+0.0012
Tropical Lily	17-56 °C	-0.00006	-0.0020	+0.0020
Peace Lily	13-52 °C	-0.00006	-0.0020	+0.0020
Darga fern	15-52 °C	-0.00006	-0.0085	+0.0085
Mushroom1	15-52 °C	-0.00006	+0.0012	-0.0012
Winterspawn, alpha	best at ~18 °C	-0.00020		+0.00022	+0.00042	-0.0030
Winterspawn, beta	best at ~20 °C	-0.00040		+0.00042	+0.00082	-0.0050
Hades, alpha	?	-0.00006		-0.00753	-0.00253			+0.0040
Hades, beta	?	-0.00006		-0.00253	-0.00753			+0.0025
Alien mushroom	?	-0.00006		+0.0008		+0.0012	-0.0024

• 1: Mushrooms only grows in darkness
• 2: Depends on temperature, alpha is max at ~18 °C and beta at 20 °C, the plant must be mature
• 3: Depends on the O2 and H2 concentration
• Comment: Plants have been observed to consume much less CO2 when the air has a low concentration of it, with O2 still being produced at full capacity. The reverse is also true for mushrooms. Water doesn't behave like this, below a certain amount a tray will no longer count as hydrated and the plant will start dying.

Efficiency of raw food and meals

The following table compares the sustainability of everything eatable in meals:
(1 meal satisfies 100% of hunger. In this way, 1 muffin for example satisfies 200% of hunger, which sufficient for 2 full meals.) * per unit (e.g. 1 cereal bar, 1 tomato or 1ml of milk.) * per stack (e.g. 20 mushrooms or 5 raw corn grains.) * per plant / grow cycle (e.g. some soybeans or pumpkins, which grow to several (more than 1) on their plants.)

The list includes all plantables, cookables, cannables and eggs (assuming that a chicken lays 5 unfertilized eggs per 40 grain per day).

v0.2.3647.17684

Name	Efficiency													Ingredients or seeds	Prepare in
	(Full) meals per portion (item efficiency)					Meals per full stack (inventory efficiency)				Meals per harvest (hydroponics efficiency)
	Portion	fills	Hunger	⇒	Meals	by	Stacks	⇒	Meals	by	Yield	⇒	Meals
Flowers	n/a	→	0%	→	0	→	100	→	0	→	2	→	0	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Mushroom	1	→	20%	→	20%	→	20	→	4	→	2	→	40%	1 Mushroom	Hydroponics
Fern	1	→	2%	→	2%	→	100	→	2	→	2	→	4%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Soybean	1	→	10%	→	10%	→	100	→	10	→	2	→	20%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Cooked Soybean	1	→	24%	→	24%	→	10	→	2.4	→	2/5	→	10%	5 Soybean	Microwave, Automated Oven
Canned Edamame	50%	→	100%	→	200%	→	1	→	2	→	2/15	→	~27%	(15 Soybean) ⇒ 3 Cooked Soybean, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine
Soy Oil (100ml)	50ml	→	100%	→	200%	→	1x100ml	→	2	→	2/100	→	4%	100 Soybean	Reagent Processor
Milk (100ml)	50ml	→	100%	→	200%	→	1x100ml	→	2	→	2/10	→	40%	5ml Soy Oil, 5g Fern	Chemistry Station
Condensed Milk	1	→	100%	→	100%	→	10	→	10	→	2/10	→	20%	100ml Milk	Microwave, Automated Oven
Canned Condensed Milk	25%	→	100%	→	400%	→	1	→	4	→	2/20	→	40%	2 Condensed Milk, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine
Wheat	1	→	10%	→	10%	→	100	→	10	→	2	→	20%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Flour (500g)	n/a	→	0%	→	0	→	500g	→	0	→	2/1	→	0	1 Wheat per 5g	Hydroponics
Cereal Bar	1	→	60%	→	60%	→	1	→	0.6	→	2/10	→	12%	(10 Wheat) ⇒ 50g Flour	Microwave, Automated Oven
Bread Loaf	50%	→	100%	→	200%	→	1	→	2	→	2/45	→	9%	200g Flour, 5ml Soy Oil	Microwave, Automated Oven
Egg	n/a	→	0%	→	0	→	1	→	0	→	2/8	→	0	~8 of any: Soybean, Wheat, Corn	Chicken
Powdered Eggs	1	→	22%	→	22%	→	10	→	2.2	→	2/32	→	~1.4%	4 Eggs	Microwave, Automated Oven
Canned Powdered Eggs	50%	→	100%	→	200%	→	1	→	2	→	2/128	→	~3.1%	(20 Eggs) ⇒ 5 Powdered Eggs, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine
Muffin	50%	→	100%	→	200%	→	1	→	2	→	~2/18	→	~23%	50g Flour, 1 Egg, 10ml Milk	Microwave, Automated Oven
Pumpkin	1	→	100%	→	100%	→	20	→	20	→	2	→	200%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Cooked Pumpkin	1	→	60%	→	60%	→	10	→	6	→	2/1	→	120%	1 Pumpkin	Microwave, Automated Oven
Pumpkin Soup	26%	→	100%	→	380%	→	1	→	3.8	→	2/5	→	152%	5 Cooked Pumpkin, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine
Pumpkin Pie	~16.7%	→	100%	→	600%	→	1	→	6	→	2/28	→	~43%	100g Flour, 1 Egg, 10ml Milk, 10 Pumpkin	Microwave, Automated Oven
Potato	1	→	20%	→	20%	→	20	→	4	→	2	→	40%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Baked Potato	1	→	80%	→	80%	→	1	→	0.8	→	2/1	→	160%	1 Potato	Microwave, Automated Oven
Fries	~63%	→	100%	→	160%	→	1	→	1.6	→	2/6	→	~53%	5ml Soy Oil, 1 Potato	Microwave, Automated Oven
Canned Fries	~42%	→	100%	→	240%	→	1	→	2.4	→	2/6	→	80%	1 Fries, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine
Rice	1	→	6%	→	6%	→	50	→	3	→	2	→	12%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Cooked Rice	1	→	40%	→	40%	→	10	→	4	→	2/3	→	~27%	3 Rice	Microwave, Automated Oven
Canned Rice Pudding	50%	→	100%	→	200%	→	1	→	2	→	2/15	→	~27%	(15 Rice) ⇒ 5 Cooked Rice, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine
Corn	1	→	20%	→	20%	→	20	→	4	→	2	→	40%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Cooked Corn	1	→	40%	→	40%	→	10	→	4	→	2/1	→	80%	1 Corn	Microwave, Automated Oven
Corn Soup	~26%	→	100%	→	380%	→	1	→	3.8	→	2/5	→	152%	5 Cooked Corn, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine
Tomato	1	→	30%	→	30%	→	20	→	6	→	2	→	60%	Seed bag	Hydroponics
Cooked Tomato	1	→	50%	→	50%	→	10	→	5	→	2/1	→	100%	1 Tomato	Microwave, Automated Oven
Tomato Soup	~17.2%	→	100%	→	580%	→	1	→	5.8	→	2/5	→	232%	5 Cooked Tomato, 1 Empty Can	Basic/Advanced packaging machine

Food storage

Food decays at a rate determined by the environment it is stored in. The main factors are gas composition of surrounding atmosphere, temperature of the surrounding atmosphere, pressure of the atmosphere, and whether or not the item is in a fridge. Decay rate multipliers for a given gas are listed below:

Gas	Decay Rate Multiplier
Nitrogen	0.6
Carbon Dioxide	0.8
Vacuum	1
Volatiles	1
Oxygen	1.5
Nitrous Oxide	1.5
Water	2
Pollutant	3

Also not all foods decay here is the list of foods unaffected by decay.

• Cereal Bar
• Corn Soup
• Pumpkin Soup
• Tomato Soup
• Canned Fries

The Soups being canned goods, and the cereal bar being a processed food hence why they do not decay.

The decay rate also contains a factor determined by temperature, the pressure of the environment, as the food that needs to be preserved now has to be above 101 kPa as preservation gets debuffed if its below 1 earth atmosphere. And the temperature decay factor is a complicated calculation summarized in the graph below (/u/LordRavenX, 04/2021):

Storage of food within a powered fridge also multiplies by a factor of 0.3, reducing decay by 70%.

To minimize decay, food should be kept in a powered fridge in a nitrogen atmosphere of over 101 kPa at a temperature of at least 110 K (-163 °C) as the calculation has been tweaked to not penalize preservation for being to cold.