Mealwood

Mealwood is an early-game food crop that can be planted in a Planter Box, Farm Tile, or Hydroponic Farm. It is one of the easiest stable food sources to establish because it does not require irrigation, only Dirt as fertilizer, and it grows in the common Oxygen, Polluted Oxygen, or Carbon Dioxide atmospheres.

A domesticated Mealwood takes 3 cycles to mature, while a wild Mealwood takes 12 cycles. To grow properly, it needs a temperature between 10 °C and 30 °C, air pressure between 150 g and 10 kg, and 10 kg of Dirt per cycle. Mealwood Seeds can be obtained by digging up wild Mealwood or from buried objects.

When a Mealwood plant reaches maturity, it produces Meal Lice. Each domesticated plant yields 600 kcal every 3 cycles, or 200 kcal per cycle on average. That makes it a reliable source of food for early bases: roughly five plants are enough to feed one Duplicant if the Meal Lice are eaten directly. Meal Lice can also be cooked into Liceloaf or Pickled Meal. Liceloaf increases the calorie output per plant, while Pickled Meal does not increase calories but lasts longer in storage and provides Cooking skill training when prepared.

Mealwood is especially useful in the early game because it is simple to support and does not compete with water supplies. This makes it a strong choice for bases in dry starts, including Forest Biome starts, where water is often too limited to spend on crops. Its low maintenance cost also means it can keep a large colony fed for a long time, even if the food quality is poor compared to later options. The main long-term limitation is Dirt: sustained Mealwood farming requires a continuing source of fertilizer, since rotten Meal Lice does not return enough Dirt to maintain production.

A few practical points:

• Mealwood can be grown in Planter Boxes, Farm Tiles, and Hydroponic Farms.
• It is fertilized only with Dirt, at 10 kg per cycle.
• It grows in Oxygen, Polluted Oxygen, or Carbon Dioxide.
• The plant itself has a -10 decor value within a 2-tile radius.
• Meal Lice is relatively low in calorie density compared to many foods, so it is mainly valuable as an easy-to-produce staple and for food storage, rather than for high efficiency by mass.
• As with other seeds, Mealwood Seeds can be fed to Pacus to domesticate them.