Medicine, textiles and feed crops
Healroot
A renewable route to herbal medicine that supports medical care when wild patches or a suitable growing area are available.
WHERE & HOW TO FARM
Healroot
A visible wild Healroot patch, or a separate viable growing zone near the colony and medical storage.
Before you go
- A Grow-capable colonist; cultivated Healroot requires a grower meeting its minimum skill.
- A no-sow zone over wild plants, or a zone configured to sow Healroot.
- Suitable terrain, temperature, light, and a season that supports the crop.
- A medical stockpile or other safe storage for harvested medicine.
Farming steps
- Inspect the map for wild Healroot. If using a wild patch, place a growing zone over it and turn sowing off while leaving cutting enabled.
- For cultivation, place a separate zone on viable ground and select Healroot in the inspect pane.
- Check the plant’s conditions and local season; cold resistance does not remove its need for suitable light and growth conditions.
- Assign Grow work and keep animals from consuming the plants. Protect the area from cold, fire, and traffic where practical.
- Allow plants to mature, then have a Grow-assigned colonist harvest them.
- Haul the resulting herbal medicine to a medical stockpile and retain it for treatment before considering any surplus use.
- Use separate wild-harvest and cultivated zones so changing crop settings cannot accidentally cut or replace the patch you want to collect.
- A skilled grower’s harvest can improve yield; prioritize higher Plants skill for collection if staffing allows.
Repeat, collect and use
Wild Healroot collection is limited by the plants present and their regrowth; it is not an unlimited harvest from a fixed patch. Cultivated Healroot can be replanted and harvested while growing conditions permit.
Common mistakes
- Leaving sowing on over a wild patch: turn it off so the zone harvests mature wild plants instead of planting over them.
- Assuming cold tolerance means growth is unaffected by all cold: check the plant’s current growth information and protect cultivated plants from unsuitable conditions.
- Using all herbal medicine for nonmedical purposes: keep a treatment reserve before redirecting surplus.
When to stop or switch
Stop collecting from a patch when its plants are gone or immature; switch to a cultivated plot or another medicine source until it recovers.
Sources & fact checks
What you can get here
Open a guide to find other locations and see what the item is used for.