Help request: Agriculture-related stuff (trees as crop category?)

[Telkir]

Hi all, just today I started working on a simple "Agriculture" mod for my own amusement. The main thing I wanted to do was give the colonists a bit more variety in what they could grow and make meals from.

I understand the basics and have added a couple of new growable plants with their own graphics (tomatoe vines and lettuce). I even managed to tweak the MemoryThoughts to add more specific "raw veg" and "raw fruit" thoughts. But I'm wondering how to proceed...

What I was hoping to work toward having was this:

• A "tree" category of growable which would probably take up a 2x2 tile space
• A "grove" zone for growing trees normally (and slowly) outdoors
• A second tier of Hydroponics research would unlock a new type of basin that let colonists grow trees faster

It would also be nice if I could gate the new "normal" crop types behind research, the logic being that crashing on an alien planet would need the colonists to learn how to adapt Earth-like crops to their new conditions. But I think I'm right in saying that new growables can't be set to researched in the current design?

If anyone could offer any advice on the technicalities of this then that would be great!