Can you automate fertilizing plants?

[Bosh]

Like with conveyor rails and auto sweepers or something?

[Tiger]

Not sure if you know this but you can use pips to plant in the ground and it won't require anything beyond normal items, temp/atmo, to grow, no need for watering or supplying.

[snuggleform]

I don't think you can automate fertilizing plants no. I googled around a bit all the threads seem to mention they can't automate the fertilization part itself, just about everything else. I don't see any machine in the build menu either that would do that, just a robo miner for mining and auto sweepers for sweeping.

[Monoxide]

Originally posted by Tiger:

Not sure if you know this but you can use pips to plant in the ground and it won't require anything beyond normal items, temp/atmo, to grow, no need for watering or supplying.

This increases growth time though, correct? Natural plants dont take any resources but take something like 3x longer to mature - or at least I thought I read that.

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by Monoxide:

Originally posted by Tiger:

Not sure if you know this but you can use pips to plant in the ground and it won't require anything beyond normal items, temp/atmo, to grow, no need for watering or supplying.

This increases growth time though, correct? Natural plants dont take any resources but take something like 3x longer to mature - or at least I thought I read that.

Wild plants take significantly longer to mature; you can see this information when you hover over a plant and check its properties it mentions its growth cycle for wild/domesticated, it's much longer for wild.

[Tiger]

Originally posted by Monoxide:

Originally posted by Tiger:

Not sure if you know this but you can use pips to plant in the ground and it won't require anything beyond normal items, temp/atmo, to grow, no need for watering or supplying.

This increases growth time though, correct? Natural plants dont take any resources but take something like 3x longer to mature - or at least I thought I read that.

Not sure if it takes longer but not using resources, let alone a dupes time beyond harvest (this can be automated), helps productivity. Even if your low on water or polluted water or other various foods for plants helps keep food up and productive time up.

edit: guess it does like WSC150 said. But the reduction in mats used and production time up it worth it IMO. These can be fertilized but dupe needs to do it.

[hacksaw12]

The growth to maturity for wild plants is 4 times as long, not including fertilizer. It's fine for harvesting naturally growing plants like pincha peppernuts or sleet wheat, but relatively useless in farms. You can't automate the growth boost fertilizer for bristle berries, but it's well worth the dupe labor.

[Hedning]

Auto sweepers and hydroponic tiles can supply the plant with what they need without dupe interaction. Doing this makes them grow 4 times faster than wild plants.

Giving the plant micronutrients doubles grow speed, but this can not be automated. The dupe is needed both to create the micronutrients and to apply the farmers touch buff.

All plants are auto harvested after 4 cycles at which point an auto sweeper can pick up the food.

[Prometheus]

The problem with your question is fertilization is used two ways in game. Since you didn't specify which I'll answer for both.

First way: Giving a plant what it needs to grow. Like dirt for mealwood. This can be done by a sweeper. For example if a sweeper has dirt and a planted mealwood in its range it will provide the mealwood dirt as needed.

Second way: Using micronutrient fertilizer from a farm station to boost a plant's growth speed. This cannot be automated. It must be done by a skilled dupe.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Promethian:

The problem with your question is fertilization is used two ways in game. Since you didn't specify which I'll answer for both.

First way: Giving a plant what it needs to grow. Like dirt for mealwood. This can be done by a sweeper. For example if a sweeper has dirt and a planted mealwood in its range it will provide the mealwood dirt as needed.

Second way: Using micronutrient fertilizer from a farm station to boost a plant's growth speed. This cannot be automated. It must be done by a skilled dupe.

Yes, I meant the first way. Thanks

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by Bosh:

Originally posted by Promethian:

The problem with your question is fertilization is used two ways in game. Since you didn't specify which I'll answer for both.

First way: Giving a plant what it needs to grow. Like dirt for mealwood. This can be done by a sweeper. For example if a sweeper has dirt and a planted mealwood in its range it will provide the mealwood dirt as needed.

Second way: Using micronutrient fertilizer from a farm station to boost a plant's growth speed. This cannot be automated. It must be done by a skilled dupe.

Yes, I meant the first way. Thanks

If you tried the autosweeper, remember Autosweeper will always take from low priority (ground is 0) and deliver to higher priority. Make sure that whatever is delivering your materials is lower priority than your farm plots.

[intenselygoodtime]

For an amazingly-fun time with the "use Pips and leave as much dirt un-dug / intact as possible" concepts here, start a new game on the forest/green asteroid. Recommend RACING to insulated tile as quickly as possible, because you're surrounded by ice-cold and burning-hot biomes. But it has been my favorite thus far.

Who needs Algae when you have a bunch of Oxyferns?!?

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by intenselygoodtime:

For an amazingly-fun time with the "use Pips and leave as much dirt un-dug / intact as possible" concepts here, start a new game on the forest/green asteroid. Recommend RACING to insulated tile as quickly as possible, because you're surrounded by ice-cold and burning-hot biomes. But it has been my favorite thus far.

Who needs Algae when you have a bunch of Oxyferns?!?

Well, anyone who has more than 3 dupes really. Oxyferns in a farm plot produce enough O2 for 1/3.5 dupes. That means for every 2 dupes you need 7. If you are using pips, 1 dupe needs 14. Oxyferns are a nice boost, but not a primary source of O2.

[Sunswords]

To OP - the way I've automated some of my mealwood farms for dreckos is by placing a storage bin with dirt and an autosweeper UNDERNEATH the farm tile - auto-sweepers cannot supply to farm tiles from above. My dupes fill the bin with dirt and the autosweeper takes care of the rest!