Hydroponic Farm

Hydroponic Farm is a plantable building that functions like a pipe-enabled Farm Tile. It lets Duplicants automate crop irrigation through liquid delivery, which reduces traffic and saves labor compared to manually watering plants. Crops grown on Hydroponic Farm are treated as domesticated even if they are normally produced by a Pip, and they grow four times faster than wild plants, but they still require fertilizer and the correct liquid input.

Hydroponic Farm is best used for crops that need liquid irrigation, since it can handle that part automatically while leaving fertilizer delivery to Duplicants. Useful crops include Bristle Blossom, Sleet Wheat, and Oxyfern, which use Water; Waterweed, which uses Salt Water; Nosh Sprout, which uses Ethanol; Pincha Pepper, which uses Polluted Water and must be planted downward; Arbor Tree and Thimble Reed, which use Polluted Water; and Gas Grass, which uses Liquid Chlorine.

A Hydroponic Farm supplied with the wrong liquid will stall plant growth until the incorrect liquid is manually emptied from the building. Because of this, it is important to match the input pipe to the crop being grown and to keep irrigation lines dedicated where possible.

• Hydroponic Farm automates irrigation, but not fertilization; solid fertilizer still has to be supplied by Duplicants.
• It can be further automated with an Auto-Sweeper.
• Make sure Duplicants can reach the farm tile from above or below, since they cannot reach hanging Pincha Pepper installations from below without help when the room height is four or higher.
• The building can store fertilizer and liquid content for several cycles of crop growth, so it helps smooth out supply delays.
• If the fertilizer stored in the building drops below the amount needed for half a cycle of growth, Duplicants will come to refill it.