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Agriculture Guide: Farming & Food Production Tips

Agriculture in Oxygen Not Included covers growing plants, farming industrial plants, and ranching critters that interact with farms. Properly designed agriculture supplies food, cooking ingredients, fertilizer, utility resources (dirt, slime, bleach stone, lumber, etc.), and specialized materials (ethanol, nectar, gas conversion plants). This page summarizes core mechanics, plant and ranching categories, common setups and practical tips for stable production.

Core mechanics and requirements

  • Plants share a growth system: each has a temperature range, atmospheric/pressure needs, illumination preference, irrigation and/or fertilizer requirements. If any requirement is unmet the plant becomes stifled and stops growing.
  • Most plants require at least some atmospheric pressure to grow (commonly ~150 g up to 10 kg); some (Nosh Sprout, Dasha Saltvine, Oxyfern) can grow at much lower pressures. Waterweed grows submerged and has separate tile/pressure rules.
  • Domestic (planted) crops grow much faster than wild (wild = ~4× slower) and often require regular fertilizer (Dirt, Slime, Phosphorite, Bleach Stone) and irrigation (Water, Polluted Water, Salt Water, Ethanol, Liquid Chlorine).
  • Hydroponic Farms accept liquid irrigation directly; Planter Boxes and Farm Tiles require resources delivered to the tile. Farm Tiles have no decor penalty and are compact for inline farms.
  • Plants auto-harvest themselves 4 cycles after reaching full maturity; some plants yield harvests that then rot if not processed or stored.

Illumination and light-sensitive plants

  • Many plants are indifferent to light; a few require or forbid light:
    • Bristle Blossom: requires >0 lux.
    • Gas Grass: requires 10,000 lux (practical only on surface sunlight or heavy artificial lighting).
    • Dusk Caps and other dark-preferring mushrooms (Spaced Out! DLC plants) require darkness (even 1 lux halts growth).
  • Mutations or DLC effects (Bountiful, Leafy, Exuberant, etc.) modify illumination requirements for affected plants.
  • Sun Lamps, Ceiling Lights, or arrays of lights can be used; be mindful of heat produced by lamps and ceiling lights.

Fertilizers and inputs

Food plants — quick references and roles

  • Mealwood: very early-game staple, needs Dirt (10 kg/cycle), fast grow time (3 cycles). Produces Meal Lice which can be cooked into higher-quality food.
  • Nosh Sprout: grows in ethanol (liquid irrigation), needs Dirt (5 kg/cycle) and lots of ethanol irrigation (20 kg/cycle on hydroponics). Used for tofu variants; water-efficient.
  • Sleet Wheat: cold-temperature specialty (very low growth temperature range), used for Frost Buns / Berry Sludge (rocket food); tricky early due to irrigation freezing.
  • Bristle Blossom: produces Bristle Berries, needs light and water; useful for water->dirt conversion via composting.
  • Grubfruit / Spindly Grubfruit: requires a Divergent critter present to farm; raw Grubfruit is low calorie and spoils fast but can be cooked into Grubfruit Preserve (requires sucrose) which greatly improves shelf-life and calories.
  • Waterweed: aquatic crop producing Lettuce; requires Salt Water irrigation and must be submerged (upper tile empty gas/vacuum). Common in briny biomes.
  • Dusk Cap: mushroom grown on Slime; pairs well with Puft ranching to create sustainable mushroom farms.
  • Arbor Tree: industrial food/wood plant that produces lumber and feeds many pips; requires Dirt and large Polluted Water irrigation; branches spawn and are edible to pips or processed into lumber/ethanol.
  • Thimble Reed: industrial plant producing Reed Fiber; high Polluted Water irrigation cost but fiber does not rot.

Utility and industrial plants

  • Wheezewort: passive cooling utility plant (heat sink) — does not grow and cannot be harvested; useful in temperature control strategies.
  • Oxyfern: consumes CO2 and produces oxygen; requires CO2 atmosphere and Dirt + Water inputs; useful for CO2-heavy biomes.
  • Gas Grass: used to feed Gassy Moos; consumes Liquid Chlorine and at 1 kg growth yields biomass used by Gassy Moos to produce Natural Gas (1:10 conversion chain when including Moo output). Requires high light and typically liquid chlorine cooled to liquid state.
  • Balm Lily: low-maintenance industrial plant; produces Balm Lily Flowers (medicinal use) and can be used as feed for Dreckos in certain setups.
  • Dasha Saltvine: consumes Chlorine and produces Salt/Sand; useful for chlorine cleanup and salt production.

Ranching and plant synergy

  • Many critters depend on or benefit farms and vice versa:
    • Pips eat Arbor/Bonbon Tree branches and produce eggs, meat and dirt. Cuddle Pip variant allows more dense ranching (4 tiles per cuddle pip) and can increase dirt/food throughput.
    • Pufts consume Polluted Oxygen and excrete Slime (95% efficiency); slime feeds Dusk Caps or is distilled into Algae. Squeaky Puft (chlorine variant) produces Bleach Stone to support Waterweed.
    • Puft Prince and breeding mechanics let you influence egg types (Dense, Squeaky, etc.).
    • Sweetles produce Sucrose (from Sulfur) and Grubgrubs convert sucrose into Mud when fed — combining Sweetles + Grubgrubs is the efficient way to turn Sulfur into Mud and ultimately into Grubfruit Preserve / food chains.
    • Drecko eat plant fibers (Pincha Pepper, Balm Lily, Mealwood) and produce Phosphorite or Reed Fiber depending on variant; ranching Dreckos can supply fertilizer for Pincha Peppers.
    • Pacu are aquatic fish used for meat/eggs; they can be fed seeds or algae to reproduce rapidly when domesticated.
    • Shove Voles, Pokeshells, Hatches and other critters each have specialized diets and outputs (meat, eggs, dirt, coal) — plan ranches around available plant/ore resources.

Common farm designs and tips

  • Separate farms by plant requirements: isolate mushroom farms to collect CO2, isolate cold farms (Sleet Wheat) with dedicated cooling and insulated piping, and keep chlorine-dependent farms (Gas Grass, Squeaky Pufts) in controlled chlorine loops.
  • Use Hydroponic Farms when liquid delivery and temperature control are manageable; they simplify irrigation but add piping complexity and heat risks.
  • Use Planter Boxes or Farm Tiles for simpler early farms; Farm Tiles are compact and avoid planter decor penalties.
  • Greenhouse room + Farm Station: placing a Farm Station in the greenhouse lets duplicants craft Micronutrient Fertilizer and tend plants even if the Farm Station is the only building in that room. Micronutrient Fertilizer speeds domestic growth — note only one can be made at a time.
  • Stagger planting times to avoid synchronized harvests that cause bulk spoilage (important for long-cycle crops like Grubfruit).
  • Store harvested food in Refrigerators / Ration Boxes and prepare long-life food (Grubfruit Preserve, Pickled Meal, Nutrient Bars) before shipping or long-term storage.
  • Manage light and heat: lamps produce heat; for light-hungry plants on the surface prefer sunlight or Sun Lamps with light sensors to limit runtime and conserve power.
  • Use critter-based loops for sustainable inputs: Puft->slime->Dusk Cap, Squeaky Puft->Bleach Stone->Waterweed, Sweetles + Grubgrubs for sucrose->mud conversion.

Advanced strategies

  • Convert byproducts to food or inputs via multi-step chains: e.g., Sulfur -> Sweetle sucrose -> feed Grubgrub -> Mud -> combined with Grubfruit to make preserves; this is mass-efficient for sulfur-rich biomes.
  • Use Oxyfern farms in CO2-heavy biomes to both produce oxygen and clean the atmosphere, pairing with plants that prefer CO2 (Dusk Caps in CO2 pools).
  • Gas Grass + Gassy Moo farms convert liquid chlorine into large amounts of Natural Gas if you can afford the energy and surface area for high-light setups; this can turn chlorine vents into high natural gas yields.
  • Use arbor tree farms and ethanol distillers to generate ethanol fuel and lumber; Arbor Tree branches are heat-affected — keeping branches cool increases net heat benefits or reduces heat produced.

Practical production numbers and ratios (design guidance)

  • Many plants list specific daily or cycle resource needs (e.g., Mealwood needs 10 kg Dirt/cycle; Oxyfern needs 4 kg Dirt and 19 kg Water/cycle; Arbor Tree needs 10 kg Dirt and 70 kg Polluted Water/cycle; Pincha Pepper needs 1 kg Phosphorite + 35 kg Polluted Water/cycle). Consult the specific plant pages when building.
  • Ranch capacities: stable tiles are sized by critter type (most critters need 12 tiles per critter; Pufts and some variants require 16 tiles). A maximally sized stable supports up to 8 non-Puft critters or 6 Pufts before overcrowding penalties.
  • Use critter-to-plant ratios from detailed species guides when planning sustainable loops (for example, Sweetle:Grubgrub professions or Pip:Arbor Tree feeding ratios). These vary by critter and plant domestic/wild status.

Common pitfalls

  • Forgetting specific liquid/soil requirements will stifle plants (e.g., Nosh Sprout needs Ethanol; Waterweed must be submerged in Salt Water).
  • Lighting a dark-mandatory crop or letting even 1 lux reach a dark-preferring plant will stop growth (mushrooms).
  • Heat from lamps, refrigerators, distillers, and research buildings can overheat farms—always plan heat exchange and insulation.
  • Clumping plantings leads to harvest spikes and spoilage — stagger and cook/preserve surpluses.
  • Ranch overcrowding causes glum/overcrowded debuffs and reduces production; respect critter tile requirements.

This covers the essential concepts and practical advice to design effective agriculture in Oxygen Not Included. For any specific plant or critter build, follow the plant’s detailed page for exact input numbers and precise growth timings when laying out production chains.

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