How plants really grow

Plant health is held down by whichever need is worst: light, water, soil or temperature. Strong water cannot make up for no light.

Home

Guides

FARM AND FOOD

1 MIN READ

Plant health is held down by whichever need is worst: light, water, soil or temperature. Strong water cannot make up for no light.

Light is on or off. Only sunlight and ceiling lights count. Without it, health drops to zero and growth stops. Every large planter needs its own ceiling light.

Soil: use a planter. Planters keep soil at a good level and grow about twice as fast as ground. Fertilizer lifts it to 100.

Water: fresh water raises saturation and salt water drains it. A sprinkler draws 2 per second. A small water catcher supports 3 sprinklers and a large catcher or barrel supports 6.

Sprinklers on a water pump are only needed when they sit higher than the source. Passing water through a sprinkler loses nothing, but a splitter costs 1.

Temperature slows low-hardiness plants. In the snow choose plants with several H genes.

Each plant has six gene slots: G faster growth, Y more yield, H hardiness, W more water need, X empty. Neighbors in a planter copy genes into each other during the crossbreed stage.

Pumpkins want 6,500 to 8,000 water in the planter. More or less hurts them.

A large planter holds up to 9 plants and crossbreeding only happens inside one planter. Common targets: GGYYYY for balanced growth and yield, YYYYYY for the most yield, GGGGGG for the fastest growth. Cull plants with W or X genes each cycle. Clones keep the exact six genes, so keep them away from weak neighbors.