Hydroponics basin

Hydroponics basin

An artificial nutrient bath for growing plants. The nutrients pumps must work continuously; the plants will die if power is cut.

Base Stats

Type

Building – Production

Market Value

230  ^[Note]

HP

180

Flammability

50%

Path Cost

30

Building

Size

1 × 4

Minifiable

False

Placeable

True

Passability

pass through only

Cover Effectiveness

30%

Blocks Wind

False

Terrain Affordance

Medium

Power

-70 W

Cleanliness

-3

Creation

Required Research

Hydroponics

Skill Required

Construction 4

Work To Make

2,800 ticks (46.67 secs)

Resources to make

100 + 1

Deconstruct yield

50 + 0 - 1

Destroy yield

25 + 0 - 1

A hydroponics basin is a production building that provides a highly fertile area for growing crops fast and in areas that otherwise would not support them..

Acquisition

Hydroponics basins can be constructed once the Hydroponics research project has been completed. They require  100 Steel,  1 Component, 2,800 ticks (46.67 secs) of work, and a Construction skill of 4.

Summary

A powered hydroponics basin acts as a terrain with 280% soil fertility, twice that of rich soil. The exact speed boost depends on the Fertility Sensitivity of the plant in question. For example, rice gets the full 280% effect, while potatoes won't benefit nearly as much.

Hydroponics basins are placed on the ground, and work both indoors and outdoors. In order to function, they require 70 watts of power, day and night. This is absolutely critical, as when unpowered, its plants will wither very quickly. They can't be uninstalled, only deconstructed for half their value as usual. Each basin has a cleanliness value of -3, making a large hydroponics farm a very "dirty" prospect. They do not short circuit in the rain.

Hydroponics only provides soil fertility, so all other plant growth conditions must be met. This isn't a problem in the growing season while outdoors, but in order to regulate temperature, you must grow indoors, under a mostly complete roof, and use buildings like a heater. The sun lamp is required to provide light in the absence of sunlight (due to the roof). Note that standing lamps aren't suitable for crop growth: plants require at least 51% light, while standing lamps provide a maximum of 50% lighting and do not "stack".

Colonists will automatically plant only 1 type of plant per basin. By default, this is rice. The following plants can be grown in hydroponics basins:

Rice plant Potato plant Strawberry plant Healroot

Cotton plant Hop plant Psychoid plant Smokeleaf plant

Tinctoria Fibercorn Nutrifungus Toxipotato plant

Pollution

Pollution underneath does not lower the fertility of hydroponics. However, most plants will rapidly die if the terrain becomes polluted, even in a basin. Only psychoid plants and toxipotato plants can grow in a basin under pollution. Of those, only psychoid receives any appreciable effect. (Toxipotatoes have a fertility sensitivity of 0%; they grow no faster in hydroponics than they do in the ground).

Analysis

Hydroponics are most useful if you have limited fertile grow space - whether your colony is inside a mountain, or in an extreme biome like a desert or ice sheet. If there's plenty of fertile soil, then hydroponics can be useful, but more limited in scope.

In terms of yield, 1 tile of hydroponics is equivalent to 2.8 tiles of regular soil. Since soil is free, it is usually more cost effective to plant in more soil (when available) rather than build hydroponics. Once cost doesn't matter, hydroponics can be used in any biome to save space and therefore walking distance. See #Indoors for more analysis.

Not all crops may grow in hydroponics. The following plants can't be grown in a hydroponics basin:

• Corn
• Haygrass
• Cocoa tree
• Devilstrand mushroom

Power is absolutely critical to use, as plants will quickly die without it. It is recommended to have batteries and/or alternative power sources in the case of breakdowns and conduit explosions. A long solar flare will kill all hydroponic crops, though colonists can harvest crops to prevent a total loss.

Indoors

24 hydroponics basins inside a sun lamp.

Full hydroponics setup vs 3 sun lamps, including power & resources.
Resource cost includes generators and batteries shown
(but not heaters / coolers or power conduits).

When making a "greenhouse", you must consider other plant needs. Sun lamps are required to grow crops in a roofed room. You need a mostly roofed room in order to control the temperature for heaters and possibly coolers. Sun lamps, consuming 2900 W of power for 13 hours, are very power demanding. You also need to power the hydroponics themselves. A sun lamp and 24 hydroponics set up would cost 4580W at day and 1680W at night.

For indoor farming, hydroponics should be compared to placing extra sun lamps and building generators. Hydroponics can be used to grow crops with a sun lamp, but a lamp can also be used to grow indoors without hydroponics. You can fit up to 24 basins per sun lamp, for a total of 280% growth for 1 sun lamp. Alternatively, you could place 2 more sun lamps, for a total of 300% growth (relative to 1 sun lamp).

• 24 hydroponics basins would cost  2400 Steel,  24 Components and 1680 W.
• 2 extra sun lamps would cost  80 Steel for the lamps, and  400 Steel,  12 Components for 4 solar generators used to power the lamp. Outside of the planet's poles, these generators are enough to power 2 sun lamps with a battery or two.

As 3 sun lamps are much less expensive than 1 sun lamp with a full hydroponics set up, placing sun lamps will be the preferred option for many stages of the game. Even considering the cost of extra batteries and heaters, this is still cheaper.

In the late game, when steel and components are trivial to obtain, then hydroponics have a few key advantages over sun lamps. They take up less space, meaning they are easier to defend. As they take up less space, colonists will need to walk less, which increases efficiency. Finally, hydroponics are more stable - if a blight takes out the greenhouse, then only 1.98 days of growing is lost. Even when considering solar flares, rice in hydroponics grows so fast that it remains a consistent source of food.

Notes

• The DLC-exclusive plants fibercorn and nutrifungus do not require a sun lamp to grow indoors, but their extremely low Fertility Sensitivity means that building hydroponics basins provides a minimal benefit.
• It is possible to leave up to 25% of a room unroofed, which lets sunlight through, without needing a sun lamp, whilst allowing temperature control. However, this is inefficient for temperature.

Outdoors

Hydroponics are not limited to indoor farming. As mentioned previously, it is usually better to grow in more soil than it is to build hydroponics. But if soil is limited, but temperature permits - namely in a desert - then hydroponics can be viable as a farming tool.

Note that hydroponoics basins can be destroyed by raiders. You may want to build a hydroponics room, and just leave it unroofed. You could roof it in later in case of an event like toxic fallout or cold snap.

See also

• Growing zone

Version history

• 0.0.245 - Balanced down hydroponics growth rate.
• 0.3.410 - Fertility increase and requires power or the plants die. You can also now set what to grow on them.
• Since Beta 19 it now requires components to build, and the default crop was changed to rice (from potatoes). It also received a remodel.

• 

  The Old Hydroponics Texture

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Architect

Production | Neolithic

Art bench • Brewery • Butcher spot • Butcher table • Campfire • Crafting spot • Fueled stove • Fermenting barrel • Simple research bench

Medieval

Fueled smithy • Hand tailor bench • Stonecutter's table

Industrial

Biofuel refinery • Deep drill • Drug lab • Electric crematorium • Electric smelter • Electric smithy • Electric stove • Electric tailor bench • Fabrication bench • Hi-tech research bench • Hydroponics basin • Machining table • Nutrient paste dispenser (Hopper)