Plan your orchid god clone

An orchid is the thirstiest plant in the game files: a water intake of 20, where every other crop has 4 or 5. Its base clone count is 1, the lowest of any plant, so cuttings are scarce until Yield genes raise it. No recipe uses the flowers.

Orchid growth stages and times

Base times from the game files (minutes at default server settings). An orchid seed is a Seed for 1 min and already counts as a neighbour, a Seedling for 10 min, then a Sapling for 10 min: from about 11 to 21 minutes after planting its cuttings copy its genes exactly, before any crossing. At 21 min the orchid enters Crossbreed for 1 min; its new genes are worked out once, as it enters, from the plants touching it in the same planter. Orchid's Mature stage lasts 1 h, tied for the longest of any crop: the time to read the genes and take cuttings. Fruiting takes 30 min, so a orchid plant is ripe about 1 h 52 min after planting, stays Ripe for up to 28 h, and then turns Dying: the harvest and cuttings are gone, and 1 h 40 min later the plant dies. Poor light, water, temperature or soil stretch all of that for orchid; each G gene speeds its growth by 25%.

When Hardiness matters for orchid

H Hardiness copes with cold, heat and poor soil, so it earns its place in a snow or desert base, where GGGYYH orchid beats a plant that dies before it fruits. Anywhere else it is the weakest green for orchid too: the calculator scores H at 0.5 against 1 for G and Y, and you can raise it in Options when you farm in the cold. Orchids drink a lot (water intake 20 in the game files, against 4 or 5 for other crops), so W Water genes, each +10% water need, hurt them more than anything else.

How to breed an orchid god clone

1. Plant orchid seeds in one planter and wait about 11 minutes for the Sapling stage, then take a cutting from each and read the genes in its name.
2. Add the clones above (the calculator on this page is already set to orchid) and press Calculate. It tries every way of putting your orchid clones around a centre plant and shows the layouts that give GGGYYY or GGYYYY, the planting order when a tie needs it, and the chance of each.
3. Plant the layout in a planter with nothing but orchid in it. The centre crosses once, about 21 minutes after it went in (12 if it has 3 G); from Mature (1 h long for orchid) read its genes and clone it.
4. Clone the orchid while it is Mature or Ripe. An orchid plant gives 1 cutting a cut with no Yield genes, 2 with GGGYYY and 3 with GGYYYY (one more per two Y, game code), so the god clone multiplies itself.

Which of the two to aim for with orchid depends on what you want from it: more Y means bigger harvests and more cuttings, more G means a faster bed. When to plant and the triangle planter cover the timing for orchid and the small planters.