Rice plant

Rice plants yield rice, a fast growing crop. While its speed nets a high overall yield per tile per day, each plant gives the least food per harvest, so rice takes a high amount of labor for a given amount of food. Therefore, it is a good option for newer colonies, but may be gradually phased out as a food reserve is established. For further details, see Analysis.

Temperatures

Maximum growth temperature 58 °C (136.4 °F)
Minimum growth temperature 0 °C (32 °F)
Some Rice plants may die around -13 °C (8.6 °F)
Most Rice plants may die around -15 °C – -18 °C (5 °F – -0.4 °F)

Light requirement

At least 51%.

Advantages

Grows quickly, so food supply is consistent
Grows well in rich soil and hydroponics

Conditional

Can be used to farm XP in order to open something like Healroot sooner.

Disadvantages

Grows poorly in gravel
Very labor-intensive

Usage

Start off your food production by growing this first.
Grow in hydroponics basins for rapid production.

Growing

Ground Type	Gravel	Soil	Rich Soil	Hydroponics
Fertility (%)	70	100	140	280
Real Grow Time (days)^[1]	7.91	5.54	3.96	1.98
Base Yield/day^[2]	0.76	1.08	1.52	3.03

↑ Actual days to grow, taking into account rest time.
↑ Per plant, assuming Crop Yield Multiplier of 1.0.
Note that Difficulty settings change the Crop Yield Multiplier.

Analysis

Rice plants' daily nutrition is fractionally higher than corn and potatoes (102.7% and 105.4% in regular soil), though rice's greatest strength is its quick growth: the short maturation time makes it ideal for establishing a colony, as an 'emergency' food crop when food runs low, for biomes with short growing seasons, and as a 'last planting' crop when winter is fast approaching. The frequent harvests also mitigate the damage of losing of a crop to blight, cold snap, heat wave, or fire, and provides a steadier flow of nutrition than slower-growing crops.

However, this also means rice requires far more labor to reap and sow for the same nutrition compared to potatoes (183%) and especially corn (366%). While corn gives less nutrition per tile, most colonies can use the extra time to simply plant more tiles of corn, assuming they can afford to. Rice is usually not recommended past the midgame unless the colony is limited by growing space.

While rice is no more affected by soil fertility than corn, rice will grow even faster with high fertillity, magnifying the innate strengths (quick food) and weakensses (work) of that fact. While rice provides significantly more nutrition over time than any other hydroponics basin crop, it requires a harvest and replant every other day to do so.

Version history

0.9.722 - added.

Plants

Domesticated plants: Cocoa tree • Corn plant • Cotton plant • Devilstrand mushroom • Haygrass • Healroot • Hop plant • Potato plant • Psychoid plant • Rice plant • Smokeleaf plant • Strawberry plant • Tinctoria • Fibercorn • Gauranlen pod • Nutrifungus • Toxipotato plant
Decorative plants: Dandelions • Daylily • Rose • Bonsai tree
Wild plants: Agarilux • Agave • Alocasia • Ambrosia bush • Astragalus • Berry bush • Brambles • Bryolux • Bush • Chokevine • Clivia • Giant rafflesia • Glowstool • Grass • Low shrubs • Moss • Pincushion cactus • Tall grass • Wild healroot • Anima grass • Gauranlen moss
Trees: Bamboo tree • Birch tree • Cecropia tree • Cypress tree • Drago tree • Maple tree • Oak tree • Palm tree • Pine tree • Poplar tree • Saguaro cactus • Teak tree • Willow tree • Timbershroom • Gray pine tree • Pebble cactus • Rat palm tree • Witchwood tree
Special: Anima tree • Gauranlen tree • Polux tree • Harbinger tree
Tree stumps: Burned stump • Chopped stump (Gauranlen , Anima , Polux , Harbinger ) • Smashed stump (Gauranlen , Anima , Polux , Harbinger )

[1] Actual days to grow, taking into account rest time.

[2] Per plant, assuming Crop Yield Multiplier of 1.0.
Note that Difficulty settings change the Crop Yield Multiplier.

[1]

[2]