It is like… you know man, when you grow little… the little plants in the ground? And like, you go and grow happy mushrooms? And like, when people harsh your mellow, you can just take a nettle out, and whack them to death with flower power, maaaaaan.
Well, ahem, yes! You are a hippie. You can make some of the best healing foods in the game, and the most lethal too. Also, you can grow hallucinogens and toxins! Just make sure you know what plants you are growing, or you will wind up dead from eating a bad shroom, which is generally a total bummer.
For the full chart with plant types, what they look like, and what they do, please check out the Guide to hydroponics.
E-Z-Nutriment: Makes your plant mutate once between harvests, resulting in different stats or even species. Does not affect yield.
Left-4-Zed: Makes your plant mutate twice between harvests. Downside: Plants take longer to germinate, and you'll need another fertilizer to actually harvest things.
Robust Harvest: Doubles the amount of plants you'll get when it's time to harvest. Does not affect stats.
Head to the vending machine, get some seeds. There may be hidden seeds in the machine, if you know how to PROPERLY HACK IT, then do so and collect the rewards.
Take your yummy vegetables to the fridge on the left side where the chef will be, then have him cook them up! There are many different dishes the chef can make from different foods you grow. Only YOU can prevent all-burger diets!
You get a few fun tools as a botanist that will make your life so easy when growing plants:
There is a crate in the back room. It contains:
Things you should get from the outside:
People like to break into hydro and steal your spray bottles, because they can fill them with water. Keep all the bottles in a safe enough spot in hydro, or actually stay in the hydroponics bay. You can also hand them out like candy as long as you remember to keep a few for yourself. It's not like you need all of them.
BEG the chemist to make you stuff, namely unstable mutagen. You will go through this stuff fast, so make sure they aren't stingy. If chemistry is helpful they can also give you a dropper for more precise mutations.
Different chemicals do different things to your plants when injected. Experiment until you find a blend you like!
Most of your crops can be blended down into chemicals themselves. Keep this in mind.
An alternative to chemicals is a floral somatoray. You can get it from the scientists unless they and/or the shaft miners are being lazy fucks (which is always). It is a gun that shoots mutation rays that either increases yield or tries to change the plant's stats. (Guide to hydroponics).
If you happen to come across a Shaft Miner that hasn't taken a hardsuit and gone off to explore space, then you're halfway there. Get some sand, use it to make sandstone, then take three sandstone to make dirt. Another method is to grow grass in your existing hydroponics trays, then plant the grass tiles and dig them up with the spade found in the back room! This will dig up some sand. Congratulations, you are no longer restricted to tiny water tubs for growing now! Be warned though, it is not the most efficient method of planting, as there are no lights to indicate needs for water, fertilizer, etc. Have fun surrounding the theatre with bananas and watching the clown collapse in sheer joy.
As a traitor, if you are lucky and fast you have access to so many horrifying things: death nettles that are as strong as e-swords and automatically disintegrate, plants that slip people for ages, multiple robust poisons, koibeans to grind for free parapen juice, bluespace tomatoes for break-ins and getaways, nitroglycerin ingredients, KUDZU, and so much more! Unless you set up a secret garden it will be extremely obvious which horrors you're growing, but luckily no one generally gives a shit about botany.
If you have an easy objective, quickly rush out and get it out of the way, hthen ead back and get your plants growing. You have limited maintenance access through your back room. Your leather gloves give no prints onto a crime scene, so if you ditch your equipment (or hide it) you should be fine enough so no one knows it was you. You can also intoxicate some food with a syringe or dropper, even buddy up with a traitor chef – just hope whoever you want to die eats it.