Corn plant

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Revision as of 20:26, 29 September 2017 by XeoNovaDan (talk | contribs) (Re-arrangement of food production section, and widened some gaps)
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Corn plant

Corn plant a.png

A tall grain plant which produces ears of soft, edible seeds. While corn takes a long time to grow, it yields lots of food compared to other crops. Harvested corn takes a long time to spoil.


Type
PlantsPlants

Base Stats

Flammability
1
Max Hit Points
150

Stat Modifiers

All information here is up-to-date as of Alpha 17b.


The corn plant is a player-growable food crop with a high yield, but also long growing cycle. Corn can't be sown in hydroponics. A mature corn plant yields 27 pieces of corn.

Growing

Corn plants have a base growing time of 11.3 days, need a minimum soil fertility of 50%, and have a fertility sensitivity rating of 100%. The following table details how long it takes for corn plants to grow in each growable ground type, factoring in the plant resting time and being in ideal growing conditions:

Ground Type Gravel Soil Rich Soil Hydroponics
Fertility (%) 70 100 140 230
Grow Time (days) 27.88 19.52 13.94 -
Base Yield/day[1] 0.97 1.38 1.94 -
  1. Per plant


Corn plants have the highest yield per day out of all growable food crops in the game when grown in rich soil; beating rice by around 2%. However, corn's minimal advantage over rice makes no real difference except in gravel, where potatoes still rule supreme - and rice in hydroponics also eclipses corn in rich soil.


Food Production

The following table shows how many corn plants it takes to sustain one colonist, but only factors in the nutritional value of the yield, and the yield per day:

Ground Type Gravel Soil Rich Soil Hydroponics
Raw 34 24 17 -
Lavish[1] 21 15 11 -
Paste 13 9 7 -
Fine[2] 11 8 6 -
  1. Also applies to 100% vegetarian simple meals and packaged survival meals
  2. Also applies to pemmican


Corn's practically negligible yield per day advantage over rice, combined with corn's significantly longer growing cycle, makes corn arguably the least viable food crop in the game: inconsistent food supply, and the long growing cycle makes corn susceptible to crop loss (e.g. blight), and the latter will also be difficult to recover from.


The only real advantages that corn plants have over other food crops is that corn has a long shelf life, and corn plants are less labor-intensive for growers - but hauling labor is arguably higher since you're hauling huge amounts of food in one go, rather than smaller amounts of food over a longer period of time.


Therefore, it's only really advisable to use corn if you're experiencing a severe grower shortage in larger colonies, and if you're unable to make pemmican for whatever reason, or lack a freezer and aren't expecting to get one in a long time - although both are easily obtainable early-game anyway.


Economy

The corn plant's raw product is corn, which has a market value of 1.5 silver. The refined product with the largest profit margin is a fine meal, having a 37.14% profit margin. The following table details silver per day, per plant. It only factors in the 50% selling markdown, the market value of the products, and the yield per day:

Ground Type Gravel Soil Rich Soil Hydroponics
Raw 0.73 1.04 1.45 -
Refined[1] 2.32 3.32 4.65 -
  1. Assuming a vegetarian ingredient bottleneck. Your mileage may vary.


As is the trend with food crops; corn is fairly decent for economy with its refined product when in a vegetarian ingredient-bound situation.