Best Plant

[MarcTheMerc]

I have been playing rimworld since alpha 8 and i was wondering...
What is the best plant?
Now i personally like berries as they can be eaten raw with no detrimental effects.
Whats yours and why?

[RickyMartini]

Let's see.

Can be eaten raw without negative thought:

- Berries
- Corn

Give negative thought when eaten raw:

- Potato
- Rice


Growing time (in days):

Potato: 4.76
Berries: 4.08
Rice: 3.76
Corn: 10.52


Yield: (in %)

Potato: 8
Berries: 6
Rice: 6
Corn: 16


This gives us the following production: (yield/day)

Potato: 1.68
Berries: 1.47
Rice: 1.59
Corn: 1.52


So the summary basically is:

Potato: 1.68 food per day, bad when eaten raw
Berries: 1.47 food per day, can be eaten raw
Rice: 1.59 food per day, can be eaten raw, not available in hydroponics, immune to blight
Corn: 1.52 food per day, bad when eaten raw


Now there are two factors that have to be considered:

- they have overall different stats when planted in hydroponics
- they have overall different stats when planted on rich soil

I'll expand this if you want. Someone correct me if I got something wrong pls.


And to answer your question: Basically, since I don't care if something can be eaten raw, when planted on normal soil I like the potatoes because of the best yield.
Now when over rich soil, Rice wins the race.
On hydros I think potatoes and strawberries are on the same level with yield per day, so I would take strawberries because they have one simple advantage (to be eaten raw, even if it makes no big difference)

[Kraehe]

Potatoes and one other plant can be destroyed by blight as i know. Corn not. In m opinion in summer i favorite corn outside and potatoes in hydroponics.

[RickyMartini]

Potatoes and one other plant can be destroyed by blight as i know. Corn not. In m opinion in summer i favorate corn outside and potatoes in hydroponics.

Oh damn, I forgot that one. Good point.

[Euzio]

For me, rice is no.1 since it provides a steady stream of food. It grows relatively fast, has a decent yield, and is immune to blight. That and coupled with the "Finer Things" mod I use, I use it to make Saki (or Sake) to keep my colonists happy and also as a product to earn money.

The second would be a split between either potatoes or strawberries. I tend to go for strawberries despite the lower yield simply because I prefer how it looks. I don't exactly have food issues since I'm constantly stocked with meat.

[Xanting]

In the short run I always plant potatoes when starting out but i usually also plant a large field of corn and then continue planting just corn. I never really touch hydroponics as solar flares tend to kill anything planted in them. The biggest reason why I use corn is because while it takes longer to grow you also have a bigger yield and as pointed out earlier it has a somewhat comparable growing time to yield ratio with other plants in soil. Another reason is that it saves on labor for my colonists to do other things like hauling and while the amount you have to haul from the fields is the same you do not have to plant and harvest as often as other crops giving more time for other tasks.

[Boboid]

Well you've got Rice and Corn mixed up in your summary.

1st. Corn can be eaten raw without penalty, Rice cannot.

2nd. Corn yields 18 per harvest, not 16. (Meaning it actually generates the most food-per-time-per-crop)

3rd. Only Corn isn't susceptible to crop blights.

4th. Spoil times are as follows (In days)
Corn: 60
Potatoes: 30
Rice: 40
Berries: 14
How relevant that is depends on your circumstances obviously.

More important than all of that is this: Corn requires less work per food than any other plant by a significant margin.

Quite simply you have to walk to it less often, plant it less often, harvest it less often, haul it less often.
The result is that you can generate more corn per time than the other crops not only because it genuinely does yield more food/time but because your colonists can plant more of it because of all the spare time you have due to not having to constantly walk/replant/harvest/haul.

Damn stuff is even immune to blights, can be eaten raw, and spoils the slowest. There's really not any competition at all.

Edit: Oh and Corn is tied for most valuable at 2.1 silver each with Berries. Potatoes/Rice are 1.9 each

[Xanting]

wow I never knew corn was that good, I kinda wish we had crop specific blight events instead of the current blight event that kills 90% of what you have planted.

[RickyMartini]

You're right Boboid. Now that I think about it, work per yield has also to be considered. And as you said it, it takes the least amount of work for crop to be harvested!

[Adamiks]

Skissor you need also add to this work per plant, space per plant, spoiling and correct the stats on rich soil, because corn is winning on rich soil (200% efficiency or something like that), second place is for potatoes.

For me corn is the best plant. Why?
+
1. Immune to blight (fixed in A11 however)
2. Long time growing + a lot of food = growers have free time.
3. Space = corns don't need so much space to produce let's say 100 of food per day.
4. Can be eaten raw.
5. Spoil time.

-
1. You can't plant it in hydrophonics.
2. If you are low on food corn isn't good.

But potatoes are winning in hydrophonics:
+/Stats in general
1. Medium spoil time, growing time and food per plant.
2. Medium amount of space required.
3. Can grow in hydrophonics.

-
1. Can be destroyed by blight.

Sorry for English, but this post is kinda long and i'm too lazy for correcting it

[ZestyLemons]

Corn is pretty great, but it just takes a long time to grow.

Potatoes are usually my early game crop of choice, then I transition to corn + rice.

[Boboid]

Corn is now affected by Blights in A11. There might be some other changes but I haven't the time to play at the moment so someone might want to double check.