Farm tiles vs planters

[lemmethink]

Is there a thread explaining when to use a  hydro or farm tile instead of planters and what pro/cons from each?

Thanks.

[GreatGameDota]

I don't know where a post just talking about this would be, but the differences are pretty obvious. Planters don't allow you to fertilize or irrigate, farm tiles allow you to fertilizer your plants, and hydroponic tiles allow you to fertilize and connect pipes to it and irrigate your plants. I don't know how the tiles v planters will work in the next update though since they are removing yield.

[Lifegrow]

1 hour ago, lemmethink said:

Is there a thread explaining when to use a  hydro or farm tile instead of planters and what pro/cons from each?

Thanks.

If you click on the farm tile from your build menu, you can see the effect that each tile applies. If you build one of every farm tile, you can then click on them - choose your plant, and view the changes it makes to the yield if they receive the correct irrigation/fertiliser etc.

I used to keep an empty farm tile of each in my bases when I was learning all the crops  

[RemyG]

In the coming outbreak upgrade farming is getting another very serious overhaul and judging from the tooltips we've seen in the streams plants will clearly indicate the value of domesticating them and what they will require if you choose to do so, making it more obvious when to use which tiles. In general it is looking like more valuable crops will require more attention and need hydroponics while easy crops like dusk caps can handle being in planters just fine.

[Kasuha]

Planter: can't fertilize, can't irigate. Usually means you get lowest yields. You cannot plant pincha pepper in it. Good when you have lots of seeds of something and want some crops without much care.

Farm tile: can fertilize, cannot irrigate. Since irrigating isn't mandatory even using hydroponics tile, this is just cheaper variant of it.

Hydroponics tile: can fertilize, can irrigate. So you can decide if you want to go for excellent yields or are fine with less seeds and/or harvest and save on irrigation.

When using hydroponics or farm tile, it's up to you to decide if you'll irrigate and how close attention will you pay to the temperature of the air around the plant. Getting excellent yields is challenging, resource intensive (particularly on water) and not always worth the effort.

 

Future planting is different, if the plant requires fertilizing or irrigation it won't grow without them. On the other hand, you don't need to replant your plants, a growing plant will produce periodic harvests as long as you keep it happy. There's no yield rating so all harvests are the same except for seed production which is random. Plants require certain gas around them but most accept multiple gases (e.g. both oxygen and carbon dioxide are fine). They weigh 1 kg and the temperature they need regulated is the temperature of the plant, not of the surrounding gas. Also note that anything of it may still change before the release. Remember seed splicer from one of earlier streams? That machine is gone from the closed testing builds now.

[suicide commando]

@Kasuha

Oh, so you mean to say that even if a harvest doesn't produce a seed, we won't lose the current plant, but simply won't be able to add in a second plant?
That would be a nice way to Ensure that people don't suddenly lose their farm due to bad RNG.

 

[RemyG]

Yep, that seems to be the direction they're going with the overhaul in the near future. So long as you can meet the requirements of the plant in its given planter it will continue to grow, and presumably the better care you take of it the more you'll get when harvested. Not having to replant them constantly is a dream on its own, not losing seeds is a miracle.

[brummbar7]

11 hours ago, RemyG said:

and presumably the better care you take of it the more you'll get when harvested

No, it's going to be simply and either/or system.   Either you've met all the required conditions, in which case you will get a harvest, and have a random percent chance to get a seed, or you will have NOT met some of the conditions, in which case the plant will be stifled and not grow.  There is no variable harvest component any longer.  Though as Kasuha has noted, things  could always change.