Guide to hydroponics: Difference between revisions

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imported>Armhulen
(this might be wrong, correct me if it is. made Kudzu into it's own section for it's special properties.)
imported>Mackerel
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== Basics ==
== Basics ==


[[Hydroponics]] and the [[Botanist]]s who work there are important crewmates, especially in longer rounds. Botanists grow plants, obviously. Without plants, the [[Chef]] will run out of ingredients for food. Without the chef, 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!
[[Hydroponics]] and the [[Botanist]]s 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 Tools ===
=== Your Area ===


Hydroponics area is divided into two rooms. The big southern section is where you'll spend most of your time. It has trays where you grow plants and two vending machines, one with seeds and the other with everything else. There are also a seed extractor, a biogenerator, and several sinks and water tanks. The smaller northern section has three lockers, a crate with some tools, and some more equipment on the table.
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. To check on a plant, click on the tray. It will show you the levels of water and nutriment, and if there's too many pests/weeds. You will get a message like this:
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.
 
Hydroponics Tray has Potato Plant planted.<br>
The plant looks unhealthy.<br>
Water: 78/100<br>
Nutrient: 6/10<br>
Hydroponics Tray is filled with weeds!<br>
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:


From left to right -
* Green: Ready to harvest.
* Green: Ready to harvest.
* Red: Low health.
* Red: Low health.
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* Blue: Low water.
* Blue: Low water.


Now that we know how to tell what a plant needs, it's time to plant some. Take '''wheat''', '''potato''' and '''grass''' seeds from the MegaSeed Servitor, and plant them in different pots. Next, gather some equipment.
Tools that are of use in botany -
 
* Wrench: Used to move your trays around.
* Bucket: Set transfer amount to 70 (right-click), fill it in the sink, pour it on the tray. Simple.
* 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.
** 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 extend the nozzle, then use it like a bucket.
* Hatchet: Used to chop wood that you get from tower-caps into planks.
* Cultivator: Removes weeds from the tray. Keep in mind that weeds grow in empty pots, too, which can be good or bad.
* Plant analyzer: Shows detailed stats of a plant. Will be useful later. You'll have this in your apron storage 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:
 
* Wirecutters: Used to set up the irrigation system.
* Multitool: Used to hack your machines, should you choose to do so.
* Hatchet: Used to chop wood into planks.
* Shovel: Used to dig up grass floors and cleaning the dirt.
* Shovel: Used to dig up grass floors and cleaning the dirt.
* Wrench: Used to move your trays around.
* Plant Bag: Collects up to 50 items from your harvest.
 
=== [[File:Seed_Extractor.gif|Sextractor]] Growing the Plants ===
 
Now all you need to do is wait until your plants grow. You will know your plants are ready to harvest when the green light at the far left of the hydroponics tray starts blinking. Get to the pot and click on the plant to harvest your produce. Pick up one of your harvested produce and put it into the Seed Extractor machine to get new 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 the smartfridge, and will hopefully soon start making food.
 
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. Store any extra seeds in the fridge or in the seed extractor; the seed extractor is ideal for seed storage as it shows the stats of the seed's plant.
 
=== [[File:Biogenerator.gif|Biogenerator]] Biogenerator and Irrigation ===


The 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 to know that you can make all three types of standard 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.
=== [[File:Seed_Extractor.gif|Seed Extractor]] [[File:Biogenerator.gif|Bio-generator]] Growing the Plants and Biogenerators ===


You can connect hydroponics trays with the hoses to set up the irrigation system. Just use the wirecutters 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.
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 effected 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.


You can use a wrench on a tray to move it, then wrench it again when you're done moving it.
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.


== Plants ==
== Plants ==
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