Rapid Food Growth?

[nja]

Is there any way to hurry food growth?  I have a save that I've been repeatedly restarting.  In it, I've just had a crop blight, and the food stores are running quite low.  I've tried setting every colonist (still just the default 3) to only grow, as well as building a grow light, but I can never seem to grow enough to harvest before they start going mad from starvation.  I have not yet researched hydroponics, so this is just a growing area I'm talking about.  It's unfortunate that there's currently no way to get food from the wildlife, as that would seem like a viable option in a pinch.

In fact, I'm thinking of Minecraft.  If I were faced with a similar crop situation there, I could either find some wildlife to kill or obtain some bonemeal to force the crops to grow faster.  Seems to be a reasonable game mechanic; maybe I'm missing it in the current RimWorld game?

[nnescio]

Is there any way to hurry food growth?  I have a save that I've been repeatedly restarting.  In it, I've just had a crop blight, and the food stores are running quite low.  I've tried setting every colonist (still just the default 3) to only grow, as well as building a grow light, but I can never seem to grow enough to harvest before they start going mad from starvation.  I have not yet researched hydroponics, so this is just a growing area I'm talking about.  It's unfortunate that there's currently no way to get food from the wildlife, as that would seem like a viable option in a pinch.

In fact, I'm thinking of Minecraft.  If I were faced with a similar crop situation there, I could either find some wildlife to kill or obtain some bonemeal to force the crops to grow faster.  Seems to be a reasonable game mechanic; maybe I'm missing it in the current RimWorld game?

Have you tried foraging from wild plants (agave and raspberry bushes)?

I usually do that while one colonist rushes for tech in the beginning of the game. I go hydroponics if I don't have much food or nutrient resynthesis if I expect my food stores to last for some time. (Or Gun turret cooling, on Randy Random)

That said, having everyone with only a 3 in growing does make it somewhat harder in the early game.

[Semmy]

you can just cut random plants for food.

And if you don't have a blight and start with 2 growing areas with a sunlamp than you have plenty of food.

[nnescio]

you can just cut random plants for food.

And if you don't have a blight and start with 2 growing areas with a sunlamp than you have plenty of food.

Use two adjacent standing lights instead. They cost less metal, require less power to operate, and has a bigger "brightly lit" radius than sunlamps.

[Dragula]

Start early with growing.
As soon as you have found a good site for the colony and built some housing/dining area, immediately set one colonist to growing pot... uh crops. I drop 3 fields but two should be sufficient i guess.
Perhaps even before building, since two is enough to build the basics. Also have a look out for food laying around that you can easy gather.
Normally the first things i research are either Hydroponics or Nutrient resynthesis.

lamps near the fields, never thought of that

[nja]

Start early with growing.

That doesn't necessarily help with blight.

Cutting other plants seems like a possibility.  What I'm getting at here is that for some things, like blight, it can be extremely hard to recover from them.

[Semmy]

Start early with growing.

That doesn't necessarily help with blight.

Cutting other plants seems like a possibility.  What I'm getting at here is that for some things, like blight, it can be extremely hard to recover from them.

Yup it is.
But do all people who strand on a deserted island survive.
Nope they don't d-;

[Mansen]

Sun lamps will let your fields grow at night as well - They are rather pricy powerwise though (They sorrily need a day toggle so they only run when needed though)

[Dragula]

As mentioned earlier; two standing lamps have the same effect as one sunlamp with much less costs, metal and power-wise.

[Mansen]

That's just plain silly. The Sun Lamp needs to have a tradeoff to make it worth it. Longer radius, stronger growth effect - ability to stay outdoors without shorting out in rain.