Benefits of Rich Soil?

[Goldenpotatoes]

I know its suppose to make crops grow faster when planted on, but are there any numbers, or a percentage per plant on how much faster it grows compared to a hydroponics table or regular soil? Curious if its worth the effort of boxing in these areas for all-year growing.

[Argelle]

Seems to be a legit question, as my search for answer point here (as 517 other readers of this topic ). So far I came up with a sound yes, at last for devilstrand :
http://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Devilstrand
"Devilstrand takes 49 (gravel), 43 (soil), 37 (rich soil), 28 (hydroponics basin) days to grow before being able to be harvested. This is even longer than it takes to grow most trees."
Anyone with better stats?

[mumblemumble]

Is that info updated to reflect alpha 13?day lengts were doubled after all,  so days to grow stuff were roughly halved

[Argelle]

Yes, it does. It was only to give an estimated of the benefit of rich soil (when hydroponics is too expensive).

[makapse]

rich soil is best used by growing corn on it, potatoes on gravel and rice on hydrophonics. Gravel should have nothing other than potatoes. devilstrand, healroot and hops have same % effects on soil, i think while rice and corn get the most benifit out of richer /fertile soil

[ChimpX]

It never ceases to amaze me just how much depth Rimworld has. On the surface it seems relatively simple, but there's so much going on behind the scenes.

Brilliant work Tynan @ team!

[Limdood]

Low soil impact:
Potatoes

Medium Soil impact:
berries, healroot, devilstrand, hops, cotton

High soil impact:
corn, rice

soil impact works both ways.  Plants like potatoes grow nearly normal on "bad dirt" like gravel -  only a few % under full.  Potatoes also only grow a few % above normal on rich soil.

While corn and rice both give high returns on good soil, corn is inherently a higher yield crop unless you need food FAST. 

I suggest using your rick soil to grow corn, and have a small healroot plot (at least until you've built up a stockpile of herbal medicine...even though the soil impact is only medium, everything still grows better on rick soil...only difference is how MUCH better).  If you have huge rich soil areas, its a good way to mass produce devilstrand.  Reducing the overall grow time of devilstrand greatly improves overall yield as you reduce the likelihood of a blight or cold snap.

Finally, if you want hard numbers...plant the plant, then select it (during the day) to see the growth rate.  Check the info tab for even more numbery stuff.