Guide to Botany

Your dream garden awaits!

Keeping it Green

When you click on a plant pot with an empty hand, you can check the plant to see how it is doing. Various indicators will appear when you do so, which describe the condition of the plant and soil - red indicators are bad, blue indicators are good:

Message	Meaning
The soil is completely dry.	The soil has run out of water. This will quickly kill the plant.
The plant is dying.	Maltreatment or harmful chemicals are killing the plant.
The soil looks rich and fertile.	Indicates the presence of compost in the soil. Remember, this dries out the soil quicker.
The plant glistens with good health!	Judicious compost and water use has resulted in a healthy plant!
The plant is flourishing!	The plant has extremely high health. Expect good harvests!
The plant looks strange...	You have managed to grow a rare mutant strain of plant. This could be good or bad!
Weeds have infested the soil.	This pot has been infested with a weed-type plant. You will have to take special measures to get rid of it.

In addition, you will receive a report of any chemical in the plant pot. Hopefully, there's at least water in it, but chemicals may also include stuff you've added like plant formula or compost. Some plants may produce nectar, a delightful treat for space bees. Harmful chemicals like toxic slurry may also appear, which usually require you to clean out the pot.

If you click and drag a plant pot onto yourself, you will completely clear out the pot. This not only empties any plant out of it, but completely cleans out all soil water, nutrients, everything. However, this will not work on pots infested with weeds! You must find a way to kill the weeds before emptying the pot if you want to get rid of them. Weeds will occasionally appear in unoccupied plant pots and may have various effects or even produce items, but remember - these are weeds and thus are useless and annoying at best, and downright dangerous at worst! Get rid of them when you can.

1986 Blue Ribbon Winner: Biggest Weed Harvest

Plants carry genes which affect various things relating to their growth and crops. While plant seeds are easy enough to come by from the dispenser or ordering crates of them from the Cargo Bay, these seeds start out completely plain and devoid of any particular genetic fluctuations. Every time a seed is planted, it mutates a bit. Any seeds harvested from this plant will carry those genes, which will mutate again when planted. This way, you can breed plants for particular qualities. Genes can degrade as well as improve, however, so be careful not to end up with completely useless seeds which produce no crops or die instantly.

To get even more in-depth with planting you have the plant analyzer, which can scan a plant, fruit, or seed for genetic variables. For each variable, higher is better.

Species	Tells you what kind of plant it is.
Generation	How many times this breed of plant has gone through a full lifecycle. Incremented by 1 whenever a seed is planted.
Maturation Rate	How fast the plant grows from a sprout to a crop-producing plant.
Production Rate	How fast the plant becomes harvestable.
Lifespan	How many harvests the plant will produce before dying. This has no effect on plants that are harvestable only once.
Yield	How many crops the plant will produce besides its normal amount.
Potency	How powerful items produced by this plant are. Higher generally means more reagents inside. Affects crop quality.
Endurance	How high the maximum health of the plant is, which affects how much it can resist dehydration, poison, and fire. Affects crop quality.

With these, you can tell how much of a certain plant you can harvest, or how long it will live, or what you need to do to keep it alive. Some plants aren't just one-off harvests: for example, you can tend tomatoes for multiple harvests if you want! In fact, should you keep the plant happy (with blue indicators above - rich and fertile, and very healthy), you will likely have a chance at harvesting MORE than you would if you had just plain watered it. Some plants may even inherit a special genetic mutation giving them indefinite life, as long as you tend to it. It pays to keep an eye on your plants! It's just a matter of knowing when to add water, or fertilizer, etc. Plants work the same way in real life - to an extent. Don't water your plants? They'll die. Overwater? Same deal. Be careful with your plants, they are fragile little angels~

Crop quality is affected by potency, endurance, and, to a limited and lesser extent, plant health. Just like life, higher quality plants taste better and thus heal more HP when you eat them, and their crops have more quality prefixes, like "good", "supreme", and "prime". Better also means bigger, for higher quality also means the crops have larger sprites. There's a limit as to how huge crops can get, but it's quite high; with some effort, you can get harvests that are almost as big as a person! You reap what you sow, and if you sow potency and endurance, you'll reap the rewards.

Apart from plain compost, botany starts with several plant formulas tailored to altering a plant's specific traits (all explained in the next section). If you want to experiment, call in the scientist or grab some Discount Dan's and test the effects of various chemicals in the soil.

Tools & Machinery

The fancy stuff you use to enhance your plants or extract useful chemicals. The Chef and Bartender also have various culinary gadgets at their disposal for making with fancy foods and drinks with your favorite plants. Feel free to check Foods & Drinks for a full list of recipes.

Icon	Name	Description
	Plant Analyzer	Provides you with a report of a plant's genes, its current condition, the presence of any mutations and other information. This functionality is also built into your PDA.
	Reagent Scanner	Click on a person, container, fluid puddle or other object with this, and it'll list the chemicals inside it. Only the hand-held version has a memory function. This functionality is also built into your PDA.
	Watering Can	Actually just a glorified beaker with a maximum capacity of 120 units. Often requested by Scientists and other people working in Chemistry. There are a few purely cosmetically different variants unlocked via earning Botanist XP. Golden watering can Weed watering can Rainbow watering can Antique watering can
	Produce Satchel	This spacious satchel makes the life of every chef or botanist much easier. Almost any type of food-related item (dishes, bottles, seeds etc.) can be stored in them, and they also interact nicely with tables (drag & drop), crates, the food processor, mail chutes and other objects. Interacting with a satchel while on grab intent will allow you to remove a specific item from its contents.
	Chainsaw	An electric chainsaw to keep weeds in check. When off, it causes 3 BRUTE, but when on, it does 12 BRUTE, making it a passable emergency weapon.
	Hydroponics Tray	The seeds go in here, obviously. You can plant them manually or by using drag & drop. The bar on the right tracks water level, and the tray has various indicators for the status of the plant: - Plant has poor health. Could use some compost. - Plant is ready to be harvested. Click with a bare hand or with a produce satchel to gather its fruits and seeds. - Plant is dangerously low water. Water it with a watering can, obviously. - Plant has too much water. - Plant is dead and should be cleared. You can also click on it with a screwdriver or wrench to secure it to the floor, so that it doesn't move when you bump into it. Clicking on it with a screwdriver or wrench again will unsecure it, allowing you to move it around again.
	Seed Fabricator	To unlock the more interesting seeds (notably cannabis), you'll have to mess with the wires using a screwdriver and multitool. (For the record, this is a fabricator, not a vending machine, so you'll have to toggle a white light.)
	Portable Seed Fabricator	This portable seed fabricator is acquired by hacking the GardenGear vendor. This device is actually more like a seed planter rather than a hand-held version of the seed fabricator. To plant seeds with this thing, do the following: Click on the device in-hand (Hotkey: C for Goon WASD, Z for /tg/-style WASD). Select your seed of choice from the list of plants. Notably, it has the same selection as a hacked Seed Fabricator, so you can pick things like grass and radweed. Click on the hydroponics tray(s) while the portable seed fab is in your active hand. Unlike the stationary version, it does not create physical seeds, but it also does not have a cooldown, making it ideal for planting several seeds in rapid succession. If you want to get a plant mutation that's only possible via random chance and have this plus an efficient method for clearing plants, you can plant seeds with the portable seed fab, and then clear them away, "rerolling" plants until you get your desired mutation.
	PlantMaster Mk3	Have a special or even new species in mind? This clever machine allows you to infuse seeds with certain reagents (drawn from an inserted beaker) and splice them together, or in other words tweak the desired genetic traits. It can also extract seeds from fruits or vegetables, which is great if you have a certain strain you want to grow more of. The PlantMaster supports drag & drop for the following objects: seeds, produce, beakers/bottles, produce satchels.
	Reagent Extractor	Processes certain produce into reagents. Comes with two built-in storage tanks capable of holding up to 500 units each. You may then transfer said reagents to an inserted receptacle. The extractor supports drag & drop for the following objects: produce, beakers/bottles, produce satchels.
	CheMaster 3000	See Chemistry.
	Compost Tank	Converts unwanted or excess produce as well as seeds and organs into compost. Use drag & drop to stuff them into the tank. Similar to trays, you can click on it with a screwdriver or wrench to anchor it down; doing it again unanchors it.
	HC Water Tank	This high-capacity tank holds 100000 units of water. If you don't have a watering can, you can use drag & drop to transfer water directly to a hydroponics tray. You can anchor it down by clicking on it with a screwdriver or wrench, so it stays still when you bump into it. Clicking on it a screwdriver or wrench again will unanchor it.
	UV Grow Lamp	Makes all plants within four tiles (i.e. a 9x9 square-shaped area of effect) grow faster. Click it to turn it on and off. Click on it with a screwdriver or wrench to secure it, so it doesn't move when people bump into it; click on it again with a screwdriver or wrench to make it movable again.
	Botanical Mister	Adds a few units of whatever reagents stored inside it into any surrounding trays within four tiles. By default, it contains 1000 units of water, so it'll effectively water your plants for you, but it'll accept all kinds of chemicals. Also, you can click on it with a screwdriver or wrench to secure it to the floor; you can click on it again with a screwdriver or wrench to make it movable once more. In addition to spawning in Hydroponics at roundstart, you might find another of these in an semi-abandoned satellite not too far from the Mining Outpost. When emagged, the range expands from four (9x9 square area of effect) to five (11x11), and instead of filling plant trays, it fills up open containers (e.g. beakers without lids, drinkware, but not people or other misters) within its area of effect. When active, its description/Examine text also has a line saying "It is humming with an oddly disturbing sound."
	Plant Pot	For decoration. Plants in clay pots don't grow and can't be harvested, but luckily don't need water or nutrients and can't die, making them ideal for sprucing up places or showing off your favorite plants. You can transfer plants to it with a garden trowel. You can't take the plant out; you can only replace it with a different one. Similar to the tray, you can click on the pot with a screwdriver or wrench to secure the pot, so it stays in place, and unsecure it, so you can move it around. Plant pots are obtained from the GardenGear.
	Garden Trowel	Click a plant in a hydroponics tray with this in your active hand to uproot it, allowing you to transfer it to a clay plant pot. You unfortunately cannot use this to transfer plants to hydroponics trays, and you can uproot the plant at any stage in its growth, from just planted to fully matured and ready to harvest. You can find trowels in the GardenGear.
	Water Pipe	Definitely not a bong for drug usage. Fill the water pipe up with water, insert your herb of choice, and then click on the water pipe while holding a heat source (e.g. lighter, igniter) to smoke the herb placed into it. Can be found in the GardenGear's, once you've unlocked its hidden items menu.
	Lava Lamp	What even is this, is it real lava, why does it bubble, can we eat it? Ponder this and more with your high friends.
	Smoke-Shield Generator	A shield generator specifically for use of smoking herbs responsibly without them getting in the way of other crewmembers. Simply put it down, power it up along with your herbs of choice inside the shield and light away. Remember to use responsibly.

GardenGear

Most basic tools and plant formulas are available from this GardenGear vending machine. It has also a few items for Ranchers, since they use hydroponics too. When the "Hidden Items" option is toggled on via hacking, it also vends some more unusual items, like a "water pipe", a random amount of grass seeds (a relic of a time when you could only get grass through the GardenGear and it was possible to directly "plant" grass by clicking on a tile while holding a seed of grass), and, if you're lucky, a single "strange seed".

List of Contents:

Icon	Quantity	Item	Hidden item?
	5	Watering can (spawns filled with 120 units of water)	No
	5	Plant analyzer	No
	5	Compost bag	No
	3	Chainsaw	No
	5	Garden trowel	No
	10	Produce satchel	No
	10	Beaker (standard 50u versions, empty)	No
	10	Weedkiller	No
	5	Mutagenic Plant Formula	No
	5	Ammonia Plant Formula	No
	5	Potash Plant Formula	No
	5	Saltpetre Plant Formula	No
	5	Mutadone Plant Formula	No
	5	Plant pot	No
	3	Nesting Box	No
	2	Chicken Carrier	No
	2	Smoke-Shield Generator	No
	1	Water pipe	Yes
	1	Portable seed fabricator	Yes
	3-6	Grass seed	Yes
	1	Strange seed (only 25% chance of appearing)	Yes

Nutrient Formulas

In addition, there are a number of plant formulas at your disposal, in a variety of containers. Bottle-based formulas hold 40 units and can be dispensed from the GardenGear. Quartermasters can order Hydroponics: Nutrient Crates, which contain jug-based formulas that come in 200 unit containers. The chemicals inside jugs aren't any different from the chemicals inside bottles (e.g. the saltpetre in the Saltpetre Plant Formula bottle is the same saltpetre in the High-Strength Plant Nutrients jug); the main difference is how much you get in each container.

The bottles and jugs themselves act fairly alike. For example, they can both go into glass recyclers, even though the latter is not made of glass. Notably, though, jugs cannot go into chem dispensers.

Icon	Name	Container	Description
	Compost Bag	Other	This basic additive improves the plant's health over time. Can be refilled at, you guessed it, the compost tank. You can get spare compost bags from the GardenGear, as well as order them from QM in the form of Hydroponics: Starter Crates.
	Weedkiller	Bottle	Also known as atrazine. As the name implies, it will quickly spell the end for any uninvited guest like lashers or space grass. The GardenGear has a few of these, as does the Hydroponics: Starter Crate the QMs can order.
	Ammonia Plant Formula	Bottle	Some plants grow slowly, so a bit of ammonia can speed up the process. Just be prepared to water them more often.
	Potash Plant Formula	Bottle	This is the chemical to go for if you want large harvests, but it will likely shorten the plant's lifespan.
	Saltpetre Plant Formula	Bottle	Saltpetre tends to have a good effect on the crop potency and is particularly useful for medical herbs, cannabis and chili.
	Mutagenic Plant Formula	Bottle	Dumping unstable mutagen into the tray is an easy option to grow all kinds of crazy stuff, however you have little actual control. If a species has multiple possible mutations, it will probably be difficult to get the one you desire. If a species has no possible mutations or stat/infusion based mutations, this won't do much besides scramble your crop's stats.
	Mutadone Plant Formula	Bottle	As seen in medbay, but mutadone also works on plants. Mutating them wildly often damages their DNA and therefore this formula may be required to address some of the genetic problems. Unfortunately, mutadone slows down plant growth significantly as long as it is present in the tray.
	Mutagenic Plant Nutrients	Jug	A big jug with 200 units of unstable mutagen, a glowing green (hence the jug color) chemical that randomizes plant stats and can sometimes induce mutations.
	Healthy Plant Nutrients	Jug	The 200 units of mutadone in this jug will fix any negative plant stats but inhibit growth.
	Quick-Growth Plant Nutrients	Jug	200 units of ammonia, when you really need to speed up plant growth. Oddly yellow...
	High-Yield Plant Nutrients	Jug	This jug holds 200 units of potash, which improves yields at cost of number of potential harvests.
	High-Strength Plant Nutrients	Jug	"High-Strength" simply means it has 200 units of saltpetre, rather than being a mark of supreme quality. For when you're deadset on getting the dankest kush possible.
	Happy Plant Mixture	Other	As the Examine text says, Happy Plant Mixture contains 250 units of chemicals plants love, specifically: 50 units of ammonia, 50 units of compost, 50 units of potash, 50 units of saltpetre, and, perhaps notably, 50 units of space fungus. This sometimes appears in abandoned crates as part of the "departmental" item pool, and it can be found in a few botany-themed "prefabs" in the Trench and Mining Level.

Available Crops

Most of these seeds are readily available from the Seed Fabricator, but some require a little hacking to access. This is indicated by the "Hack req.?" column; if it's marked as "Yes" for a certain plant, that means you must hack the machine first before it can vend seeds for that plant.

The game categorizes plant seeds into a couple of categories:

• Fruit & Vegetable: Can typically be eaten by themselves as snacks, often conferring some sort of buff, in addition to being used in dishes. There is no mechanical difference between fruit and vegetable plants SS13, merely an difference in categorization, based roughly on botanical rather than culinary definitions.
• Herb: Can be made into cigarettes and cigarillos, as well as burned in a practice called hotboxing.
• Weed: These plants can survive and grow without water, but are vulnerable to weedkiller/atrazine.
• Flower: Are flowers. They look pretty.
• Miscellaneous: Encompasses a couple of plants that, while edible, are designed to be put to a kitchen processor and made into ingredients for various dishes. This also has a few plants that yield raw resources for materials science.
• Alien: Alien plants you get from strange seeds and Botany rewards.

Name	Crop Icon	Plant Icon	Hack req.?	Type	Harvests	Time	Genome	Notes
Grape			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	20
Orange			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	21	Contains orange juice. Can be fermented into schnapps.
Melon			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	19	Contains watermelon juice, surprisingly. Can be fermented into schnapps.
Carrot			No	Vegetable	Once	Average	16	Contains carrot juice and oculine. If you put carrots into a still, you get just the carrot juice.
Lemon			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	21	Contains lemon juice. Clearly. You can also ferment lemons to make lemonade.
Lime			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	21	Contains lime juice, as you'd expect. What you might not expect: putting limes in a still yields limeade, instead of just lime juice. Tasty!
Apple			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	19	Contains apple juice. Heals 1 unit of TOX, BURN, BRUTE, OXY, and BRAIN per bite. Deals 5 damage when thrown at a doctor (or anyone with the medical training trait), because an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Banana			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	15	Contains potassium and banana juice. Yummy. When put into a still, you get just the banana juice.
Strawberry			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	18	Contains strawberry juice. Can be fermented into schnapps.
Blueberry			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	18	Contains blueberry juice. Can be fermented into wine.
Raspberry			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	7	Contains raspberry juice. Can be fermented into wine.
Cherry			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	20	Contains cherry juice. Not blood, really!
Avocado			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	18
Pumpkin			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	19	Make your own lantern or cute bowl! Contains pumpkin juice. Can be fermented into pumpkin juice.
Eggplant			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	18	Contains nicotine, a nod to how eggplants in real life also contain nicotine.
Cucumber			No	Fruit	Once	Average	19	Can be fermented into water
Garlic			No	Vegetable	Once	Average	13	Contains holy water. Not recommended for vampires.
Onion			No	Vegetable	Once	Average	13
Lettuce			No	Vegetable	Once	Slow	12	Resulting lettuce leaves can be fermented into water.
Potato			No	Vegetable	Once	Average	16	Makes great French fries, batteries and captains. Also spawns as a trinket.
Coconut			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	19	Contains coconut milk, which is distinct from regular space milk. Crack it open with some sort of cutting or sawing tool. If you're in a wrasslin' mood, you can even use a chairflip! Put it in a still and make Piña Colada! (Wait, what?)
Pineapple			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	21	Contains pineapple juice. Don't get in it your eyes. You can put pineapples into a still, which makes Piña Colada. Tropical!
Coffee			No	Miscellaneous	Variable	Average	6	Coffee berries contain... coffee. If you put them into a still, you get freshly brewed coffee specifically. (This is a form of brewing, no?) They can also be processed into coffee beans.
Synthmeat			No	Miscellaneous	Variable	Average	7	Contains synthetic flesh. Each of its organ mutations can be obtained by infusing this plant with a different chemical. The resulting organ plant can have its crop's max organ health and failure threshold greatly increased by strengthening its endurance stat.
Corn			No	Vegetable	Once	Average	10	Processes into popcorn. You can also just heat it (such as with a welder's special attack or similar) to make popcorn. Contains corn starch.
Soybean			No	Vegetable	Variable	Average	7	Processes into milk. Conveniently contains milk and space soybean oil.
Chili			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	17	Processes into hot sauce. Contains capsaicin.
Tomato			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	18	Processes into ketchup and distills into tomato juice. Contains tomato juice. Not blood.
Peanut			No	Miscellaneous	Once	Average	6	Processes into peanut butter.
Wheat			No	Miscellaneous	Once	Fast	10	Processes into flour.
Oats			No	Miscellaneous	Once	Fast	10	Processes into oatmeal.
Sugar Cane/Sugar			No	Miscellaneous	Once	Fast	8	Processes into sugar. Contains, you guessed it, sugar. (What else would it contain?)
Rice Sprig			No	Miscellaneous	Variable	Fast	8	Processes into rice.
Beans			No	Vegetable	Variable	Fast	6	Contains nitrogen. Eating it allows fart propulsion in Space!
Peas			No	Vegetable	Variable	Average	8	Plain peas. There's not much in them. Perhaps the Rancher could use these?
Pear			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	19	Can be fermented into cider.
Peach			No	Fruit	Variable	Slow	17	Contains peach juice. Can be fermented into Peach Schnapps (as opposed to regular schnapps). May contain The Presidents of the United States of America song references.
Cotton			No	Miscellaneous	Variable	Average	5	Processes into fabric when used in a material processor.
Tree			No	Miscellaneous	Variable	Slow	20	Chainsaw the resulting log to get your very own barricade.
Bamboo			No	Miscellaneous	Variable	Slow	10	Produces bamboo stalks, which can be cut down to produce edible shoots.
Contusine			No	Herb	Once	Average	3	Contains salicylic acid.
Asomna			No	Herb	Once	Average	3	Contains ephedrine. Can be distilled into tea.
Nureous			No	Herb	Once	Average	3	Contains potassium iodide.
Commol			No	Herb	Once	Average	16	Contains silver sulfadiazine.
Ipecacuanha			No	Herb	Once	Average	16	Crop is ipecacuanha root, which contains space ipecac.
Venne			No	Herb	Once	Average	1	Contains charcoal.
Mint			No	Herb	Once	Fast	1	Contains, as you'd expect, mint.
Tobacco			No	Herb	Once	Fast	11	Contains nicotine, naturally.
Catnip/Nepeta cataria			Yes	Herb	Once	Average	1	Extract catonium to synthesize cat drugs.
Poppies			Yes	Herb	Once	Fast	1	Extracts into morphine.
Cannabis			Yes	Herb	Once	Fast	2	Make your own joints by combining a leaf with a sheet of paper.
Aconite			Yes	Herb	Once	Average	1	Contains aconitine. Wards aways and smites werewolves.
Rose			No	Flower	Variable	Fast	7	Every rose has its thorn, and the ones on these might prick you if you pick them up. To protect yourself, wear gloves or augment your arms into ones made out of metal; use wirecutters to remove the thorns. Every rose has a name too; Examine it to find it!
Hydrangea			No	Flower	Variable	Average	7	The hydrangea flower makes for a very nice decorative flower and a beautiful headdress. It comes in 4 color varieties: white, purple, blue and pink. Rather than being based on the pH of the ground, the GardenGear® patented space hydrangea's colors are instead mutation-based.
Bird of Paradise			No	Flower	Variable	Slow	7	The tall bird of paradise is a plant that can be used for decorative purposes and as a nice headdress. This flower takes a long time to grow, and in the language of flowers, it denotes success and freedom, among other meanings.
Gardenia			No	Flower	Variable	Fast	7	The Gardenia flower can be used as a headdress or a decorative plant. Although it is a flowering plant within the coffee family, it does not contain or extract into coffee.
Lavender			No	Herb	Once	Average	3	The lavender flower can be used as a nice headdress. Or be extracted into lavender essence to spread some nice scent around the station.
Space Fungus			Yes	Weed	Infinite	Slow	31	Contains, as you'd expect, space fungus, which is great for boosting endurance.
Grass			Yes	Miscellaneous	Once	Average	4	Harvested leaves can be extracted into Grass Gro, which makes lovely grass grow when poured onto floor tiles.
Creeper	N/A		N/A	Alien	N/A	Fast	8	Aggressively propagates itself when fully grown, killing other plants in its path. So long as it's has at least 50% of its starting health, then every few seconds, it has a 33% chance to spread into adjacent empty pots and attack other plants (excluding the crystal plant), inflicting 20 physical damage (more than a chainsaw). Seedless renders it unable to spread (though it'll still attack other plants), while Invasive Growth makes it extra effective.
Lasher	N/A		Yes	Weed	N/A	Fast	5	Will lash out at nearby people with its thorns.
Radweed	N/A		Yes	Weed	N/A	Slow	34	"Contains" radium, although this plant never creates produce. Emits radiation, affecting nearby plants and people.
Slurrypod			Yes	Weed	Once	Average	40	Will explode if not quickly harvested, spreading toxic goop. Contains toxic slurry. If you ferment it, you'll also get toxic slurry.
Man Eater			N/A	Critter	Once	Variable	12	Seeds for this do not appear in the Seed Vendor; this plant comes a special seed that Botanists who are Traitors can order. Will climb out of the pot once grown enough. See this part for more information.
Houttyunia Cordata			No	Herb	Once	Average	1	Fish mint. Contains mercury.
Rafflesia			No	Flower	Variable	Slow	9	Corpse lily. It produces the largest flower there is; so large that you can use it as a hat! Every now and then it smokes miasma and other chemicals it might include. The amount smoked is based on yield and potency, and the more endurance it has the more often it smokes its contents.
Dripper			N/A	Alien	Variable	Average	0	Contains plasma.
Puker	N/A		N/A	Alien	N/A	Average	0	Once fully grown, it will occasionally vomit.
Light Lotus			N/A	Alien	Once	Slow	0	Also known as the lite lotus, glowberry, or glowfruit, this plant produces "glowing fruit" that contains luminol. If you put that fruit into a still, you, likewise, get luminol.
Goldfish			N/A	Alien	Variable	Fast	0	Produces goldfish crackers, which contain enriched MSG.
Synthetic Cat			N/A	Alien	Once	Average	0	Grow your own pet cat today!
Rock Plant			N/A	Alien	Variable	Slow	0	Produces rocks.
Crystal			N/A	Alien	Variable	Slow	0	Produces plasma glass shards, which causes people to fall over and seriously injure their feet!
Peeker	N/A		N/A	Alien	N/A	Slow	0	A plant with an intense stare. Don't assume you are safe just because you planted it!
Turmeric			No	Vegetable	Once	Slow	13	Produces turmeric root, which can be processed into curry powder, and contains turmeric powder.
Tea			No	Herb	Once	Fast	1	Produces tea leaves, contains tea, and can be processed or distilled into matcha.
Nettle			Yes	Herb	Once	Fast	7	Stinging Nettle. If you go directly near it, it'll sting you with histamine and other chemicals it might include, with the amount injected scaling with potency. There is a cooldown of 30 - (Endurance / 2) seconds between stings (i.e. higher endurance = shorter cooldown), with a maximum of 30 seconds and minimum of 5. Wearing clothing with chemical resistance (e.g. a biosuit) reduces amount of chems received, with 100% blocking all of it, and wearing a botanist's jumpsuit (including the senior one) prevents you from being stung in the first place. Unless you're wearing gloves or you have light cyborg, standard cyborg, or synth arms, harvesting nettle causes severe itching, knocking you down for 4 seconds and giving you 5 units of histamine, plus a variable amount of whatever other chems the plant has. Picking up nettle leaves also hurts you, though it only causes 1 BRUTE and knocks you down for 1 second (i.e. no chem injection). You can prevent this by wearing gloves or having synth or cyborg arms, i.e. same precautions as harvesting it.
Cinnamon			No	Vegetable	Variable	Slow	13	Contains cinnamon.
Mustard			No	Fruit	Variable	Average	12	Contains mustard.
Sunflower			No	Flower	Variable	Fast	7	Use a sunflower in-hand (Hotkey: C on Goon WASD, Z for /tg/-style WASD) or hit it with something (in your inventory or in the game world) to get edible sunflower seeds (different from the seed vendor kind, but still plantable). You can only do this once per flower, and better quality means more seeds.

Crop Mutations

Sometimes, whenever a plant's genes would normally mutate, i.e. when planted, when exposed to mutagen, and when infused in the gene manipulator, the plant might become a variant of itself, called a mutation. Some only occur due to random chance. Others don't appear unless the certain plant stats (usually either endurance or potency) are within certain thresholds or the seed is infused with certain chemicals. Even then, the plant doesn't always automatically mutate upon meeting those prerequisites, for it still has to randomly mutate into the variant. The requirements only ensure the plant has a possibility of becoming that mutation.

There are many different mutations, each with different effects depending on the species! Feel free to experiment or pester more experienced botanists. The following is an extensive but quite possibly incomplete table of possible mutations:

Mutations are not secret, so they do not fall under the secret content policy. That means, among other things, you can freely explain how to get them to someone in-game (or in the Goonstation Discord, or the forums, or other public communications channels) without needing to get their explicit consent or prefacing it as spoilers.

Note: If no prerequisite is listed, it means the plant only has a chance to mutate when planted.

Mutant	Crop Icon	Plant Icon	Original Species	Prerequisites	Info
Seething Tomato			Tomato	Infusion with one of the following: chlorine trifluoride, phlogiston, pyrosium, sorium	Seethers, tomatoes with hot flavor. When thrown, makes a 3x3 fireball and inflicts BURN upon the person, which scales with potency and can be reduced by heat resistance. Tomato fireballs can ignite other seethers, causing them to erupt after a delay. Use with caution. Contains welding fuel. If you put one into a still, though, you get regular tomato juice, not welding fuel.
Suspicious Tomato			Tomato	Infusion with strange reagent.	Crikey, aggressive vegetables. Killer tomatoes try to attack any non-Botanists in sight. They can bite people for 4 BRUTE, with a 10% chance of 6 BRUTE, and can also charge at people for 4-6 BRUTE and a 20% to stun the victim for 2 seconds. They have very poor health however and splat into messy stains easily. Contains blood. It goes without saying that you should be careful with these if you're not an Antagonist.
Green Grape			Grape		Heals twice the amount of regular grapes and contains insulin.
Ricin Rice			Rice	Infusion with insulin and >=60 Potency	Putting sprigs of this into a still yields space ricin, a slow but fatal poison. RIC-e + insul-IN = RIC-IN.
Grapefruit			Grape		Get it? Contains grapefruit juice. Can be fermented into schnapps.
Blackberry			Raspberry		Contains blackberry juice. Can be fermented into wine.
Blue Raspberry			Raspberry		Contains blue raspberry juice. Can be fermented into wine.
Blood Orange			Orange		Contains changeling blood in addition to orange juice. Peculiar. Can be fermented into schnapps, which is also peculiar.
Clockwork Orange			Orange	>=30 Endurance	An orange that is also a chronometer, how practical. Hurts to eat though. Extracts into iron and can be fermented into schnapps.
Rainbow Weed			Cannabis		Gets you extremely high thanks to having LSD.
Deathweed			Cannabis	10-30 Endurance, <=30 Potency	Also known as black weed. Gets you extremely dead, since it contains cyanide.
Lifeweed			Cannabis	30-50 Endurance, >=30 Potency	Also known as white weed. Contains omnizine.
Omega Weed			Cannabis	>=420 Potency	Gets you extremely high and extremely dead due to the massive amount of poisons and drugs in it. Specifically it contains: atropine, bath salts, capsaicin, cat drugs, crank, ectoplasm, hairgrownium,haloperidol, histamine, itching powder, krokodil, lithium, LSD, methamphetamine, mercury, psilocybin, space drugs, Suicider, and THC.
Chilly Pepper			Chili	Infusion with cryoxadone or cryostylane (optional).	Quite...chilling. Both the chemicals listed can give chilly peppers, but cryostylane has a higher chance of inducing the mutation. In addition to containing cryostylane, eating the pepper directly lowers your body temperature. These are both affected by Potency.
Fiery Chili			Chili	>=75 Potency OR Infusion with El Diablo chili reagent or phlogiston (optional).	Also known as ghost chilis and ghostlier chilis. Both chems can cause the mutation, but you're more likely to get it with phlogiston. Contains capsaicin. If the the capsaicin doesn't warm you up, the act of eating one of these directly raises your body temperature, with the amount scaling to Potency. If you put these chilis in a still, you get an extremely spicy chem called ghost chili juice.
Magic Mushroom			Space Fungus		Contains psilocybin, a potent hallucinogen. The crop is called "space mushroom" in-game, like its base plant, even though it's, as the Examine text says, "slightly more vibrant than usual."
White Mushroom			Space Fungus	>=30 Potency, <=10 Endurance	Contains a potent mycotoxin. You may also know this as Amanita muscaria or fly agaric, but the in-game, the crop is simply called "space mushroom." Its Examine text says it's "quite different" from the other 'shrooms.
Cloaked Panellus			Space Fungus	>=25 Yield, <=10 Potency	Cute. Also known as "cloakshroom"; the game calls the actual crop "space mushroom". The Examine text says "it doesn't smell of anything", alluding to how it contains cloaked panellus extract, a chemical that interferes with reagent scanners.
Omega Slurrypod			Slurrypod		Also called glowing slurrypod. Contains two toxins for the price of one. You really shouldn't eat this...
Synthbrain			Synthmeat	Infusion with mannitol	Grows synthetic brains
Synthheart			Synthmeat	Infusion with blood	Grows synthetic hearts
Syntheye			Synthmeat	Infusion with oculine	Grows synthetic eyes
Synthlimb			Synthmeat	Infusion with synthflesh	Grows synthetic arms and legs.
Synthbutt			Synthmeat	Infusion with simethicone	Grow your own hat!
Synthbuttbot			Synthmeat	Infusion of synthbutt seed with nanomachines.	Grow your own buttbot!
Synthlung			Synthmeat	Infusion with salbutamol	Grows synthetic lungs.
Synthstomach			Synthmeat	Infusion with charcoal	Grows synthetic stomachs and synthetic intestines.
Synthliver			Synthmeat	Infusion with ethanol	Grows synthetic livers.
Synthspleen			Synthmeat	Infusion with proconvertin	Grows synthetic spleens.
Synthpancreas			Synthmeat	Infusion with sugar	Grows synthetic pancreata.
Synthkidney			Synthmeat	Infusion with water	Grows synthetic kidneys.
Synthappendix			Synthmeat	Infusion with compost	Grows synthetic appendices.
Free-Range Egg-Plant			Eggplant	Infusion with eggnog.(optional)
Steel Wheat			Wheat, Oats	Infusion with iron reagent. (optional)	Use the food processor to convert the ears into iron fillings. Use a reclaimer/material processor on the produce to get...steel.
Durum Wheat			Wheat		A hardy wheat for a hardy palatte, fit for processing into spaghetti
Salted Oats			Oats		Contains salt and can be ground into bags of salt.
Tumbling Creeper			Creeper		Tumbling creepers, when harvested, periodically roll around the floor until they hit a hydroponic tray. On meeting a tray, they root into the ground, becoming a nasty trap and further spreading creeper onto nearby trays. Running over a rooted creeper throws the person onto the floor and deals damage, akin to a more nasty plasmaglass shard. Slipping or getting thrown into a rooted creeper deals additional damage and destroys the tumbler. Damage dealt scales with endurance. They can also be manually be rooted into the ground by using a garden trowel. Rooted tumbling creeper can be removed by using wirecutters. Tumbling creeper seeds normal creeper instead of the mutated version.
Pepper Corn			Corn		Contains pepper. Can be ground into bags of pepper and fermented into pepper.
Clear Corn			Corn		Contains ethanol.
Rainbow Melon			Melon		The ideal party snack! Full of melonium and fun to throw at people! You can also put it in a still and make schnapps, a nice, strong drink for large gatherings.
Bowling Melon			Melon	>=12 Endurance, see notes.	A melon that you can also use as a bowling ball! Damage scales with more endurance up to a point. Besides bowling with it, you can also ferment it into schnapps. Once the plant's surpassed the endurance threshold, this mutation has a 20% chance to occur whenever the plant can mutate, which is actually good since the default chance for other mutations is 8%.
Balloon Melon			Melon	Infusion with either hydrogen or helium.	Not a melon at all, just a regular balloon. Filled with whatever reagents the plant produces. Endurance can help you increase its capacity. Discounting the custom versions made through splicing, they come in two varieties, one with helium, one with hydrogen (aka "hindenballoons" or "hindenmelons").
Delicious Apple			Apple	>=40 Endurance	The actual crop is called "delicious-looking apple" in-game, but you can also call them "napples" because they contain capulettium. If you ferment them, you also get capulettium, plus cider (in fact, you get more cider than capulettium.)
Peanutbutter Sandwich			Peanut	Infusion with bread reagent.
Strange Soybean			Soybean		This "soylent chartreuse" contains high-energy plankton, promised! It also contains milk and space-soybean oil, for extra nutrition.
Money Tree			Tree	Paper tree with >= 30 potency	In space, money does grow on trees. Money grown scales to Potency. Handy shortcut to know: click-dragging a stack of cash on the floor onto a stack of cash in your hand lets you collect all the cash around you and puts it into the stack you're holding.
Rubber Tree			Tree	Infusion with glue reagent (optional).	Contains rubber, the reagent. Where all the synthrubber for the wires comes from.
Sassafras			Tree		Contains safrole. Makes sarsaparilla when put into a still.
Dogwood Tree			Tree	Infusion with aconitine (aka wolfsbane) (optional).	Bark Bark Awoo.
Paper Tree			Tree	Infusion with paper reagent (again, optional).	Creates paper. How direct!
Glowstick Tree			Tree	Infusion with radium.	Creates lit glowsticks. Their brightness scales with potency.
Shivering Contusine			Contusine		Contains salbutamol in addition to salicylic acid.
Quivering Contusine			Contusine		Contains Histamine in addition to salicylic acid.
Robust Asomna			Asomna		Contains synaptizine in addition to ephedrine. If you put the roots of the robust asomna plant into a still, you get tea, rather than those two medical chems.
Fuzzy Nureous			Nureous		Contains hairgrownium in addition to potassium iodide.
Burning Commol			Commol		Contains phlogiston in addition to silver sulfadiazine.
Bilious Ipecacuanha			Ipecacuanha		Harvests into ipecacuanha roots, which contain vomit, sewage, and bitters in addition to ipecac. Can be distilled into vomit.
Invigorating Ipecacuanha			Ipecacuanha		Harvests into ipecacuanha roots, which contain methamphetamine in addition to ipecac.
Black Venne			Venne		Contains atropine in addition to charcoal.
Dawning Venne			Venne		Also known as Sunrise Venne. Contains mannitol and mutadone in addition to charcoal.
Twobacco			Tobacco	>=30 Potency	Get it? Contains nicotwaine.
Blooming Lasher			Lasher		Tough to harvest, but worth it since the resulting lashberries contain booster enzyme! You can also ferment them into wine. But because the presence of the enzyme is tied to the plant's Enzymatic gene rather than to the plant itself or the fruit, you need to harvest it first before splicing in order to get hybrids containing the chem.
Smoldering Radweed	N/A		Radweed		Extracts into ClF3. Since it bears no fruit, you need splicing to obtain a fruit bearing the fiery compound.
White Radweed	N/A		Radweed		Completely harmless. Extracts into pentetic acid, though splicing is required to actually get fruit bearing the medicine.
Wholetuna Cordata			Houttyunia Cordata		Literal fish mint. Contains fish oil in addition to mercury.
Jelly Bean			Bean		Grows magical jelly beans that contain VHFCS and either tasty food related chemicals or something absolutely awful and unsavoury.
Golden Pea Pod			Pea Pod		Grows golden pea pods that can contain Ammonia.
Leaker			Dripper		Contains ???? and oil.
Mocha Coffee			Coffee	>=20 Potency	Contains chocolate. If you put mocha coffee berries into a still, you get freshly brewed coffee, rather than chocolate.
Latte Coffee			Coffee	>=10 Endurance	Contains milk. Surprisingly, if you brew up latte coffee berries in a still, you get freshly brewed coffee, not milk.
Syreline Plant			Rock Plant		Produces syreline.
Bohrum Plant			Rock Plant		Produces bohrum.
Mauxite Plant			Rock Plant		Produces mauxite.
Uqill Plant			Rock Plant		Produces uqill.
Holo Rose			Rose	Infusion with luminol	Even though these roses are holographic, they can still hurt! Be sure to protect your hands when handling them. These ones like to be named after cyborgs, ghost drones, and AI units. Give one to your local silicon to show your appreciation!
Spiced Pumpkin			Pumpkin	Infusion with capsaicin	Creates a "spiced pumpkin" that's filled with pumpkin spice latte; you can put it into a still or reagent extractor to obtain the autumn-themed drink. You can also use a spoon on it to turn it into a drinkable beverage or use a knife on it to make a unique carved pumpkin you can wear around!
Smooth Nettle			Nettle		Also called "dead" nettle, this nettle still stings people who go near it, but it does not inject histamine. Instead, it only injects whatever other chems it produces, so you can splice it with, say, medical herb plants to make medicinal nettle. Harvesting smooth nettle and touching smooth nettle leaves is also perfectly safe.

Advanced Gardening for Dummies

Plants are more than just big dumb objects that get thirsty and give you crops. They're complex systems with their own genetics system, complete with splicing, and are intimately affected by chemicals in different ways. Read on to learn about some of the more complicated things you can do with botany.

Extraction

Most plants will give you seeds when harvested, but some don't. Lack of seeds is naturally a problem, because some advanced botanical techniques involve manipulating seeds, and seeds are essential to passing on traits from your agriculturally-engineered plants.

Fortunately, in these cases, you can still get the seeds by inserting some fruits (one or two will do) into the PlantMaster, clicking on it to bring up its computer interface, switching to the "Seed Extraction" page, and clicking "Extract" for the fruit of choice. It's that simple--you even get to see the stats of the fruit.

Note that it is important that you insert an actual fruit. You can't, for example, get cannabis seeds from a cannabis leaf, because the leaf doesn't have seeds.

Infusions

Infusion allows you to directly modify plant traits by adding a chemical reagent to a plant seed, rather than waiting for Mother Nature and the Father Random Number to slowly evolve your seeds. For some seeds, infusing certain plants also has chance to induce a special mutation. Note that infusing a certain reagent doesn't make that plant produce that reagent, e.g. infusing water won't make the fruit of the resulting plant contain water.

Infusions are performed at a PlantMaster Mk3. Click on the PlantMaster with your seed of choice, then a container with the chemicals you want to infuse the seed with, and click on the PlantMaster. (Click-dragging also works.) Go to the "Seed List" page, scroll to your seed of interest and choose "Infuse"; if you have multiple chemicals that could be infused, you get to choose. You should see the effects immediately. Note you need at least 10 units of a chemical to infuse it, and effects don't scale by volume, not that it matters much since you always infuse 10 units at a time.

Each chem does a range of damage to the seed on infusion, increases the chance of failed splicings and reducing the health of the resulting plant. If you try to infuse past 100% damage your plant seed will be destroyed. Let's take saltpetre, for example. You put your seed in the PlantMaster Mk3, and on infusion the plant will be dealt a range of damage from 3 to 7. It also will increase the potency in a range of +2 to +8. It has a chance to increase the yield by up to 2 as well or not at all. Meanwhile, mutadone is a little more interesting in the fact that it will try to raise all stats to zero if they are below zero.

Most of the Reagents available from the GardenGear machine can boost different stats, experiment and see what you like best. If you're interested, here's a table below you can expand to see all the chems you can infuse that actually have an effect, where to get them, and what they do.

Reagent	Source	Mat. Rate	Prod. Rate	Lfspn.	Yld.	Potency	Endurance	Seed Dmg.	Notes & Additional Effects
Ammonia	Ammonia Plant Formula, Quick-Growth Plant Nutrients	+5 – +10	+2 – +5	-	-	-	-	+13 – +27	Good at speeding up plant growth. Has 5% chance to also give Accelerator gene.
Potash	Potash Plant Formula, High-Yield Plant Nutrients	-	-	-2 – 0	+1 – +4	-	-	+3 – +7	Increases size of harvests at cost of plant lifespan.
Saltpetre	Saltpetre Plant Formula, High-Yield Plant Nutrients	-	-	-	0 – +2	+2 – +8	-	+3 – +7	Increases amount of chemicals inside each crop and boosts amount of crops you get too a bit.
Space Fungus	Use a beaker or similar on fungus stains in maintenance or extract from Space Fungus.	-	-	-	-	-	+1 – +3	+3 – +7	In addition, has 3% chance of giving Damage Resistance gene. The go-to for increasing Endurance, which makes plants more hardy and is essential for certain mutations.
Mutadone	Mutadone Plant Formula, Healthy Plant Nutrients	If < 0, +1	If < 0, +1	If < 0, +1	If < 0, +1	If < 0, +1	If < 0, +1	+3 – +7	Essentially attempts to reset stats back to zero, indirectly reversing the effects of chems like unstable mutagen.
Radium	Chem Dispenser	-10 – +10	-10 – +10	33% chance to -1 – +1	-2 – +2	-5 – +5	-3 – +3	+8 – +22	Basically, randomizes plant stats! Also attempts to grant new gene and induce a plant mutation.
Uranium	Discount Dan's food products, NPC merchants.	-10 – +10	-10 – +10	33% chance to -1 – +1	-2 – +2	-5 – +5	-3 – +3	+8 – +22	Makes plant stats go up and down by random amounts and also attempts to grant new gene and induce a plant mutation.
Stable Mutagen	See Chemicals	-10 – +10	-10 – +10	33% chance to -1 – +1	-2 – +2	-5 – +5	-3 – +3	+3 – +7	Also attempts to grant new gene and induce a plant mutation, with separate 2% chance of granting the Unstable gene. One of the safer options for messing with plant genetics and randomizing stats.
Unstable Mutagen	Mutagenic Plant Formula, Mutagenic Plant Nutrients	-20 – +20	-20 – +20	33% chance to -2 – +2	-4 – +4	-10 – +10	-6 – +6	+3 – +7	Also attempts to grant new gene and induce a plant mutation, with separate 5% chance of granting the Unstable gene. Offers mostly minimal seed damage and the high randomization ranges, but with risk of a potentially bad gene.
Glowing Slurry	Extract from omega slurrypods.	-30 – +30	-30 – +30	33% chance to -3 – +3	-6 – +6	-15 – +15	-9 – +9	+3 – +7	Also attempts to grant new gene and induce a plant mutation, with separate 25% chance of granting the Unstable gene. Good at inducing mutations and randomizes stats significantly, with a high chance of a potentially bad gene.
Blood	Ask Medbay for some, Stab yourself and scoop up blood with beaker or similar.	+4 – +6	+4 – +6	-	-	-	+4 – +8	+3 – +7	Hastens growth and makes Man-Eater stronger, but otherwise has no effect on other seeds.
Toxic Slurry	Extract from slurrypods.	-	-	-	-	-	+4 – +8	Resets to 0	Toxic stuff is good for Slurrypod seeds! And only those seeds.
Green Vomit	See Chemicals	-	-	-	-	-	+4 – +8	Resets to 0	Fixes seed damage and boosts endurance of Slurrypod seeds, and only slurrypod seeds.
Weird Cheese	Extract from weird cheese.	-	-	-	-	-	+4 – +8	Resets to 0	Yet another gross chem that clears seed damage and raises endurance of Slurrypod seeds, and only slurrypod seeds.
Charcoal	Extract from venne, ask Medbay for some.	-	-	-	-	-	-	Sets to 100	Only applies if seed is Slurrypod
Pryosium	See Chemicals	-	-	-	-	-	-	+83 – +107	Firey chems hurt plants.
Phlogiston	Extract from Burning Commol or see Chemicals.	-	-	-	-	-	-	+83 – +107	Liquid fire is bad for seeds. What else is new?
Chlorine Triflouride	See Chemicals	-	-	-	-	-	-	+83 – +107	ClF3 hates scientists and firefighters, and it hates plant seeds too.
Sorium	See Chemicals	-	-	-	-	-	-	+83 – +107	Fun for sending objects flying, but hurts seeds a lot when infused.
Fluorosulfuric Acid	See Chemicals	-	-	-	-	-	-	+78 – +87	This powerful acid hurts seeds a lot. Who knew?
Sulfuric Acid	See Chemicals	-	-	-	-	-	-	+43 – +57	This common acid is bad for seeds. Were you expecting something else?
Atrazine	Weedkiller bottles	-	-	-	-	-	-	+53 – +67	Weedkiller harms weed seeds too (and only weed seeds), less if it has the Toxin Immunity gene.
Plasma	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	Turns out plasma is not good for seeds. Damage is reduced if seed has Toxin Immunity gene.
Toxin	Certain insect bites.	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	Naturally, toxin is bad for seeds. It's not so bad if it has the Toxin Immunity gene.
Mercury	Extract from fishmint or get from Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	Bad for soil, bad for people, bad for seeds too. Toxin Immunity gene reduces most of the damage.
Oil	See Chemicals	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	Oil hurts the seed. Less damage if it has the Toxin Immunity gene.
Space Cleaner	Ask the Janitor for some.	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	There is less damage if seed has Toxin Immunity gene.
Chlorine	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	Chlorine hurts you a bit, and it hurts seeds a bit too. Less damage if seed has Toxin Immunity gene.
Fluorine	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	Fluorine damages seed less if it has the Toxin Immunity gene.
Welding Fuel	Get from handheld fuel tanks and big tanks.	-	-	-	-	-	-	+18 – +37	Less seed damage if it has the Toxin Immunity gene.

Tray Chemistry

Certain chemicals have certain effects that occur every few seconds when they're in inside plant tray. Whilst infusion effects are immediate, tray effects can add up. Due to the funny way BYOND uses numbers, a plant absorbs roughly half the reagents in its tray every while or so, but never actually runs out, like some sort of chemical Zeno's motion paradox. Since chems in trays don't actually scale by unit (e.g. 0.25 units of saltpetre is the same as 250 units in the tray), then given enough time, a batch of chemicals in a tray can have a greater effect than infusing it into a seed.

Different chemicals affect different statistics. Besides the self-explanatory health and the previous discussed Maturation Rate, Production Rate, Lifespan, Yield, Potency, and Endurance, some plants also boost a hidden "Growth" stat that tracks how mature a plant is. Some chemicals also damage the plant, taking away health, and there are different types of damage. This is less like how humans take BRUTE and BURN damage and more like how toolboxes and knives both inflict BRUTE but the first causes it through blunt trauma while the second stabs. RAD and POISON damage can by negated by certain genes, but ACID and FIRE damage cannot be resisted.

While most chemicals don't affect plants that much, many others do. Don't be afraid to experiment and find out for yourself. If you just want to get straight to the data or are pathologically curious, expand the table below.

Reagent	Source	Growth	Health	Mat. Rate	Prod. Rate	Lfspn.	Yld.	Potency	Endurance	Dmg. (Type)	Notes & Additional Effects
Phosphorus	Chem Dispenser	+0.66	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Slightly boosts plant growth speed, not as good as other chems though.
Ammonia	Ammonia Plant Formula, Quick-Growth Plant Nutrients	+4	+0.66	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	End-all-be-all for accelerating growth speed, assuming it has water, which might be an issue because ammonia also increases water consumption and amount of chems consumed.
Diethylamine	Ammonia Plant Formula + Ethanol + Heat	+1.23	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Midtier plant growth speed booster.
Potassium	Extract from bananas or get from Chem Dispenser	+0.40	+0.40	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Low-tier growth speed and health booster. Before you add it, it's be best to remove the water first, because when water and potassium mix, they explode!
Ash	Heat up paper or oil in a beaker or similar container.	-	+1.60	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Your best chemical for healing plants.
Compost	Compost Bag	-	+0.66	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Okay at restoring plant health. Ammonia offers the same benefits and more. But it's pretty common. Compost can substitute for water, so if a plant runs out of H2O, it can still subside off compost.
Potash	Potash Plant Formula, High-Yield Plant Nutrients	+0.50	+0.50	-	-	If > 1, -0.24	+0.24	-	-	-	If plant dies after one harvest, separate -1.23 GROWTH if GROWTH > 2. More crops per harvest, but plant doesn't live as long.
Saltpetre	Saltpetre Plant Formula, High-Yield Plant Nutrients	+2.4	-	-	-	-	If >1, -0.24	+0.5	-	-	Gives crops bigger volume of chems, but you get less crops per harvest. Also surprisingly good at making plants grow faster.
Space Fungus	Use a beaker or similar on fungus stains in maintenance or extract from Space Fungus.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+0.50	-	Probably your best choice for boosting Endurance to get specific mutations or make plants more robust.
Water	Sink, water tank	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Essential for plant growth to occur at all.
Holy Water	Garlic, ask Chaplain or Bartender	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	It's still water, so you can water your plants with this.
Mutadone	Mutadone Plant Formula, Healthy Plant Nutrients	If >5, -4 GROWTH	-	If <0, +0.5	If <0, +0.5	If <0, +0.5	If <0, +0.5	If <0, +0.5	If <0, +0.5	-	Attempts to restore plant stats to 0 if they're negative, but inhibits growth.
Charcoal	Extract from venne, ask Medbay for some.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Removes 2 units of these harmful chemicals: chlorine, mercury, plasma, radium, sulfuric acid,toxin, toxic slurry, and welding fuel.
Blood	Ask Medbay for some, stab yourself and scoop up blood with beaker or similar.	+3	-	-	-	-	-	-	+0.80	-	Growth speed and endurance boosts occur only if plant is a man-eater. Blood is also a water substitute for them, so they can live off blood instead of water.
Radium	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-1.6 – +1.6	-1.6 – +1.6	33% chance of -0.16 – +0.16	-0.32 – +0.32	-0.8 – +0.8	-0.48 – +0.48	+2.4 RAD	Also attempts to give plant new gene and transform plant into a mutation. Damage does not occur if plant has Radiation Immunity gene. Radioactive stuff hurts plant growth and randomizes plant stats, naturally.
Uranium	Discount Dan's food products, NPC merchants.	-	-	-2.4 – +2.4	-2.4 – +2.4	33% chance of -0.24 – +0.24	-0.48 – +0.48	-1.2 – +1.2	-0.72 – +0.72	+2 RAD	Also attempts to give plant new gene and transform plant into a mutation. Damage does not occur if plant has Radiation Immunity gene. It makes sense a radioactive element would scramble plant stats and sometimes induce new genes and mutations.
Polonium	Traitors' poison bottles, pill bottles marked ????	-	-	-2.5 – +2.5	-2.5 – +2.5	33% chance of -0.25 – +0.25	-0.5 – +0.5	-1.25 – +1.25	-0.75 – +0.75	+4 RAD	Also attempts to give plant new gene and transform plant into a mutation. Damage does not occur if plant has Radiation Immunity gene. This radioactive substance is a little better than other elements at scrambling plant stats and causing genes and mutations, but causes more damage.
Stable Mutagen	See Chemicals	-1.6	-	-1.6 – +1.6	-1.6 – +1.6	33% chance of -0.16 – +0.16	-0.32 – +0.32	-0.8 – +0.8	-0.48 – +0.48	-	16% chance to attempt to give plant new gene and transform plant into a mutation. Unstable mutagen is better in almost every way.
Unstable Mutagen	Mutagenic Plant Formula, Mutagenic Plant Nutrients	If >1, -0.40	-	-2.4 – +2.4	-2.4 – +2.4	33% chance of -0.24 – +0.24	-0.48 – +0.48	-1.2 – +1.2	-0.72 – +0.72	-	Also attempts to give plant new gene and transform plant into a mutation. Like its name suggests, it scrambles plant stats and sometimes causes new genes and mutations.
Glowing Slurry	Extract from omega slurrypods.	-1.5	-	-10 – +10	-10 – +10	33% chance of-1 – +1	-2 – +2	-5 – +5	-3 – +3	-	Also attempts to give plant new gene and transform plant into a mutation. Arguably best of its kind for randomizing plant stats and inducing genes and mutations, with a relatively low growth penalty.
Atrazine	Weedkiller bottles	-3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2 POISON	Damages plant and inhibits growth only if plant is a weed and does not have Toxin Immunity.
Plasma	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2 POISON	Turns out plasma hurts plants, for the most part. No damage if plant has Toxin Immunity gene.
Acetaldehyde	See Chemicals page.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4 POISON	This chemical precursor hurts the plant if it does not have Toxin Immunity gene.
Formaldehyde	Ask Chaplain or Medbay, see Chemicals page.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4 POISON	Embalming fluid hurts plants. No damage if plant has Toxin Immunity gene.
Toxin	See Chemicals page	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 POISON	Toxin hurts you a little, and it hurts plants a little too. No damage if plant has Toxin Immunity gene.
Miasma	See Chemicals page	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 POISON	Miasma is harmful for both plants and people. No damage if plant has Toxin Immunity gene.
Acetic Acid	See Chemicals page	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 ACID	It's a weak acid, but it still hurts plants.
Fluorosulfuric Acid	See Chemicals page	-5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10 ACID	As with people and items, this nasty acid wrecks plant health and severely stunts growth. Did you expect anything else?
Aqua Tenebrae	Outside of Nadir (and inside if leaks aren't repaired)	-4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8 ACID	The acidic ocean surrounding Nadir hurts plants too. Almost as bad as fluorosulfuric acid.
Sulfuric Acid	See Chemicals page	-3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5 ACID	Not as bad as its fluoro- version, but still hurts plant health and slows growth.
Phlogiston	Extract from Burning Commol or see Chemicals page	-12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8 FIRE	To nobody's surprise, adding phlogiston destroys most plants and acutely stunts growth.
Phlogiston Dust	See Chemicals page	-12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8 FIRE	Just like regular phlogiston, the dust form hurts plant health and growth.
Napalm Goo	See Chemicals page or notes.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 POISON	Unsurprisingly, napalm is bad for plants, though you might be surprised it poisons them rather than burns them. No damage if plant has Toxin Immunity gene. It's also possible to make this if you make some clever splices with seething tomatoes.
Welding Fuel	Get from handheld fuel tanks and big tanks.	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 POISON	Damages plant if it does not has Toxin Immunity gene.
Chlorine	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3 POISON	Hurts people, hurts plants too, if plant lacks Toxin Immunity gene.
Fluorine	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3 POISON	No damage if plant has Toxin Immunity gene.
Mercury	Chem Dispenser	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 POISON	Mercury hurts plants, who knew? No damage if plant has Toxin Immunity gene.

Gene Strains

Also known as "traits" or just "genes" or "strains", plant gene strains also affect plants in ways beyond just simple stat boosts. Certain plants can develop certain gene strains whenever they have a chance to mutate, whether naturally or induced through certain chemicals, and some chemicals can induce specific gene strains. Chemicals such as Unstable Mutagen increase the chance of a plant acquiring random gene strains, be it positive or negative. Gene strains can be passed on through splicing as detailed below.

Gene Strain	Source	Effect
Toxin Immunity	Can develop in Bean, Carrot, Coffee, Chili, and Pea plants.	True immunity to many poisonous chems. Having certain toxic chemicals in the tray does not hurt the plant, and infusing certain toxic chems does not damage the seed, though it still suffers the usual seed damage due to splicing.
Radiation Immunity	Can develop in Cotton, Nureous, and Rose plants.	No damage from any radioactive chemicals polluting a plant tray, but other effects can still occur. Radioactive chemicals, specifically polonium, radium, and uranium, cannot harm the plant when the plant's in the tray. However, those chems can still affect the plant's stats/alleles and cause it to mutate, both when they're infused with the seed or sitting in the plant's tray. This also doesn't affect similar chems that emit radiation, e.g. unstable mutagen.
Unstable	Can develop in Apple and Synthmeat plants OR Infusing seed with stable or unstable mutagen has a small chance of inducing this gene.	Plant's genetics sometimes randomly changes, with the effect basically like having glowing slurry in the tray. Every so often, the plant can potentially acquire a new gene strain (if available from its 'natural' pool), mutate into another form, and/or have its alleles/stats go up and down by certain ranges (specifically: Maturation Rate & Production Rate: -1.8 to 1.8, Lifespan: 33% chance of -0.18 to 0.18, Yield -0.36 to 0.36, Potency -0.9 to 0.9, and Endurance -0.54 to 0.54). Unstable also randomly lowers and raises quality, and for fungi (and its two mutations) specifically, it can also increases/decreases amount of mushrooms harvested and the amount of health directly healed when eaten by random amounts.
Accelerator	Infusing seed with ammonia has small chance of inducing this gene.	Plant matures and bears fruit faster with no strings attached. Every few seconds, the plant gains +0.1 Maturation Rate and +0.1 Production Rate.
Drought Resistance	Can develop in Cannabis, Commol, Ipecacuanha, Tobacco, and Tree plants.	Less damage from wilting, indirectly. As in real life, when the tray runs out of water, plants take damage from lack of water every so often. This gene makes it so the plant takes damage less frequently.
Fast Metabolism	Can develop in Soybean, Tree, Grape, Gardenia, and Cherry plants.	Increase the effect of any process involving chemicals in trays, growth or gene strains by 50% as well as doubling the base water consumption. This means things like water consumption, stat gain from chemicals in it's tray or growth rate are increased by 50%.
Slow Metabolism	Can develop in Bean, Cinnamon, Coffee, Cotton, Mustard, Pea, Treeplants.	Decrease the effect of any process involving chemicals in trays, growth or gene strains by 25% as well as halving the base water consumption. This means things like water consumption, stat gain from chemicals in it's tray or growth rate are reduced by 25%.
Rapid Growth	Can develop in Bamboo, Wheat, Oat, Garlic, and Sunflower plants.	Increases growth rate without drawbacks.
Stunted Growth	Can develop in Chili and Banana plants.	Decreases growth rate of the plant. In fact, it can cause a plant to un-grow!
Enhanced Yield	Can develop in Rice, Hydrangea and Synthmeat plants.	Increases plant yield without drawbacks.
Stunted Yield	Can develop in Commol, Ipecacuanha, Cannabis, and Tobacco plants.	Decreases plant yield.
Superior Quality	Can develop in Apple, Pear, Peach, Lavender, and Sugar plants.	The plant acts as if it has 20% more Potency. This doesn't actually raise their Potency, but it does influence effects that scale based on Potency. For example, if you have an apple tree, and it gains this gene strain, their Potency stat won't go up, but apples from it will have more reagents than apples from a tree with the same Potency, but without this gene. If Potency is negative, it still increases the effective Potency, e.g. a plant with -10 Potency functions like one with -8.
Inferior Quality	Can develop in Tomato and Soybean plants.	The plant acts as if it has 20% less Potency, effectively making it the mirror opposite of the Superior Quality gene strain. While the actual Potency stat stays the same, it does adversely affect interactions that depend on Potency. For example, a money tree with this gene strain produces less cash than one without it, even if it has the same Potency. It works with negative Potency too, so it basically makes negative Potency even worse.
Splice Enabler	Can develop in Tomato, Orange, and Onion plants.	Seeds with this gene strain are spliced more easily, i.e. have a higher splice success chance. The splice chance increase is additive, meaning that this may enable some splices that are otherwise impossible.
Splice Blocker	Can develop in Lime and Corn plants.	Seeds with this gene strain have a lower splice success chance.
Splice Disabler	Seeds of Hydrangea, Bird of Paradise and Gardenia plants start with this gene strain. Temporary Spliceability turns into this after splicing.	Seeds with this gene strain cannot be spliced at all.
Damage Resistance	Can develop in Bird of Paradise, Cinnamon, Cucumber, Mustard, Potato, and Pumpkin plants OR Has a small chance to arise in any plant upon injection with Space Fungus.	The plant takes less damage from harmful things, such as toxins and chainsaws.
Vulnerability	Can develop in Lettuce, Rose, Orange and Nureous plants.	The plant takes more damage from harmful things.
Variable Harvest	Can develop in Lavender and Hydrangea plants.	This gene randomly affects the amount of harvests the plant has left. Each time the plant is harvested, it rolls a chance to not consume, to increase or to additionally decrease the amount of available harvests.On average this strain results in 20% more harvests out of a plant.
Mutagenic	Can develop in Eggplant plants.	The plant has a higher chance of randomly mutating (see Crop Mutations). It works by increasing the mutation chance during new mutation checks, which trigger upon infusion with certain chemicals and upon planting of the seed.
Anti-Mutagenic	Can develop in Carrot plants.	The plant has a lower chance of randomly mutating.
Poor Health	Can develop in Bamboo, Wheat, Oat, Rice and Grass plants.	The plant continually receives 0.24 damage from frailty. Damage Resistance reduces damage taken, but other gene strains e.g., Toxin Immunity, have no effect.
Seedless	Can develop in Grape, Cherry, and Melon plants.	This plant will not produce any seeds, either from harvesting or from extraction. 'Tis a dead end!
Immortal	Can develop in Banana and Melon plants.	This plant can be harvested an infinite number of times. The plant can still die by other means, such as toxin damage or chainsawing!
Terminator	Can develop in Garlic, Sugar, and Eggplant plants.	This plant has a small chance to spontaneously die. How rude.
Stabilizer	Can develop in Creeper, Cucumber, Potato, and Pumpkin plants.	This gene strain prevents plants from randomly mutating. This also protects it against mutation by other sources, such as the Unstable gene strain or mutagenic reagents. On the flip side the plant's stats can no longer be influenced with tray chemistry (infusing seeds still works though).
Advanced Photosynthesis	Can develop in Corn and Lime plants.	This plant grows much faster in general. If you provide it with enough light, it will grow even faster.
Hyperaquacity	Can develop in Lettuce plants.	Produce from this plant contains (more) water, scaling with potency. Makes your lettuce even less nutritious. Just kidding, stay hydrated!
Toxic	Can develop in Onion plants.	Produce from this plant contains Toxin, scaling with potency. A favorite for the chefs and ogres.
Enzymatic	Develops in seeds harvested from Blooming Lasher plants.	Produce from plants with this gene contains booster enzyme, scaling with Potency.
Inert	Develops on mutation to a Wholetuna Cordata plant.	Whenever this plant tries to produce chemicals, it has only a 5% chance to succeed at doing so.
Invasive Growth	Can develop in Creeper plants.	If the plant is fully grown and is above 50% its starting health, then every few seconds, this plant has a 20% chance to attempt to hurt other surrounding plants (except the crystal plant), inflicting 10 "physical" damage to each one, and replant itself, akin to how Creeper behaves. Plants with the Inhibited Potential or Seedless gene strain cannot plant new copies of themselves. A Creeper with this gene strain spreads more often and more aggressively, and you need to hurt it more to keep it down. Now, it can spread if it has more than 35% of its starting health (down from the 50% threshold). Every few seconds, it has a 50% chance (up from 33%) to attempt to spread to other trays and attack plants, this time inflicting 25 damage (up from 20).
Overpowering Genome	Always appears in Man-Eater seeds.	This plant is always considered the dominant plant during splicing. In other words, the resulting plant will inherit most of its characteristics from the plant with this gene strain.
Temporary Spliceability	Always appears in Man-Eater seeds.	This plant can be only be spliced once. Afterwards, this gene strain is replaced with Splice Disabler, i.e. you can't splice it again afterwards.
Inhibited Potential	Always appears in Man-Eater seeds.	Produce from this plant won't contain any of the following chemicals: ghost chili juice, lithium, and potassium.

Splicing

Splicing allows you to combine two individual plant genomes together into a entirely new hybrid plant, with the interesting side effect of the resulting hybrid extracting into whatever the parent plants extracted into. This results in things like superherbs that heal burns, fix genetic defects, and remove toxin damage simultaneously; "prank" bananas that explode when eaten; and peanuts so sugary that they put people in diabetic comas. The resulting seed packet will be an average of the color of the two parent seed packets. The splicing process also combines the names of the plants spliced, potentially yielding Amusing & Entertaining (TM) results.

The actual splicing process is pretty simple. To start, click on an PlantMaster with two of your seeds of choice, or click-drag them onto the machine. Then click on the PlantMaster, go to the "Seed List" page, scroll to your seeds of interest, and click on "Splice" for both. You'll get a number describing how likely it is the splicing will go through, and once you confirm you want to proceed with the splicing, you should get a new seed, with a name along the lines of "Hybrid [roughly half of name of one plant][roughly half of name of other plant].

Meanwhile, the mechanics of splicing, especially regarding splicing chance, are considerably more complicated than a few mouse clicks and are described below. Each plant species has a variable called "Genome" which is used to track how similar two species are to one another. Generally two species from the same group (eg fruit, veg, herbs) will have genomes which are close to each other, and thus easier to splice.

When splicing, the formula for your chances is worked out like so:

1. Start Splicing Chance at 100%
2. Compare the genomes of the two seeds, subtract the lower one from the higher one
3. Multiply the sum of step 2 by 10, then subtract that from the splicing chance
4. If either seed has damage from infusing, subtract damage amount from splicing chance
5. Cap splicing chance between 0 and 100 to prevent bugs
6. Perform the check to see if splicing succeeds or not

So, an example.

• You're trying to splice Weed (genome 2) with Synthmeat (genome 7).

• You start with 100% splicing chance.

• Subtract low genome from high genome: 7 - 2 = 5

• Multiply that by 10: 5 * 10 = 50

• Subtract that from the splicing chance: 100 - 50 = 50

Assuming you haven't damaged either seed with infusion, you have a 50/50 chance for this splice to succeed. That's not so good odds, of course. So how can we improve them?

When seeds are successfully spliced, the hybrid has a new genome which is the average of the two, calculated by adding the two plant's genomes together and then halving it. Assuming you successfully spliced Weed and Synthmeat, the new genome would be (from (2 + 7) / 2) 4.5.

What you need to do is chain. The genomes are generally done by group: Herbs have very low genomes, grasses and veg are in the middle, and fruit has very high genomes. Alien plants and weeds have genomes that are all over the place. This isn't a general rule either, there are exceptions here and there! Commol has a genome that's more in the vegetable group than the herb group with it being a root rather than a leaf, for example.

Dominance

All plant seeds have a dominance allele, which determines whether the given seed is dominant or recessive. Dominant seeds have bolded names in the splicing screen, whilst recessive seeds do not. During splicing, one of the two seeds is always picked as the dominant splice seed and the other one as the recessive splice seed. If both seeds are initially dominant or recessive, this is picked at random. The seed resulting from the splice inherits most of its physical properties from the dominant seed, i.e. a dominant potato spliced with a recessive coconut still looks like a potato, distills into vodka, and inherits its alleles (growth rate, potency, etc.) from the potato seed. However, its name will be a combination of 'potato' and 'coconut', any gene strains will be combined into the resulting seed, and any reagents in the coconut plant will also appear in the resulting spliced plant. If both original seeds are dominant or both are recessive, the resulting splice's alleles will be averaged between the two seeds.

Hotboxing

Crops of plants in the "Herb" category can be burnt to release smokepowder-based clouds made from the reagents inside, a process called hotboxing. Generally, this is considered bad practice if it is not contained in a Smoke-Shield Generator or if it is not done in a private area. This may also get you yelled at if not contained properly, especially if the herbs are filled with harmful chemicals.

Under normal circumstances, the number of reagents per burned herb that can become smoke is 20 units. For example, if you burn 13 leaves of cannabis with 50 units of chems inside each one, the resulting cloud has 260 units of chems, not 650; the other 390 units disappear. The Syndicate hotbox lighter bypasses this limit. Additionally, hotboxing herbs is disabled on the shuttle on the RP servers.

Out of this World

Out in the Debris Field, Adventure Zone, and Trench, you can find several strange, truly alien seeds (though, despite the similar appearance and name, they are not man-eater seeds) Experiment!

Grow your own murder plant today!

Botanists who are Traitors can order special seeds that grow into man-eaters, which behave a bit differently compared to other plants. Instead of sitting around waiting to be harvested, they hop out of their trays (read:one harvest per seed) and eat other people once fully grown. When you modify the plant's stats, you're also modifying the resulting mob that's going to go around and eat people. Maneater seeds are quite cheap, so you can order a bunch and rely on numbers, but you can also focus on nurturing a few select ones and carefully cultivate your maneaters into killer green murder machines, like the good botanist you are.

By default, man eaters start with 25% disorient resist, 120 health, 200 stamina, and 10 stamina regen; those last three are affected by certain stats (more on that later.) They also have a number of weaknesses. First, they receive 25% more damage from fire. Second, they're slower than the crew members they eat, being comparable to someone who's drowsy. Lastly, they're very vulnerable to atrazine, aka weed killer. This chem deals 3 damage per tick to maneater plants, and uniquely, it can penetrate their skin (membranes?) and enter their system directly, at a rate of 30% (e.g. splash 1 unit, 0.3 units goes inside them, which causes about about 2 damage during the time it's inside the man eater).

You can't splice out those weaknesses, but you significantly improve their resilience by raising their endurance and potency, whether through infusions and/or tray chemistry. Every point of endurance increases its health by 3 (capped at 2000, at around 666 endurance), while each point of potency adds 3 extra maximum stamina (capped at 5000, at around 1666 potency) and 0.1 extra stamina regeneration (capped at 30, for 300 potency). Besides the usual stat-boosting chems, you can also use blood. If man-eaters run out of water, they can live off blood instead. In fact, it's even better than water, because when it's in a tray, it increases endurance and speeds growth. Same if it's infused.

Besides the usual methods, you can also raise a man eater's stats directly by feeding it monkeys and humans while it is still in its tray. Just click on the victim with Grab intent and click on the plant to feed the creature to them. Every time you give your green friend a delicious snack it will increase their endurance by 20 - 30 points.

Splicing is also different for man eaters. They have a genome of 12 and always have these 3 strains: Overpowering Genome, Temporary Spliceability and Inhibited Potential. If you splice your man eater with a plant that contains a chemical, that causes the man eater's attacks to inject 3+(yield/20) units of that chem, to a max of 10 units. The Inhibited Potential strain prevents the man eater from producing some chems and thus using them in its attacks.

---