I want a compact way to feed the recycler, so I figure I should try and max out (or at least push it till the harvester can't keep up), what the the general strategy for improving a stat rather than getting a new crop?
Once I have a good seed, can I duplicate it, or do I need to be breeding huge number at once?
Just breed reed + reed + cropnalyzer until you have seeds with 21/31/any. {crop growth >23 = weed everywhere}
A good seed can be "duplicated" as the crop resultant stats from a crossbreed is the average from the parents with a variation of -2 to +2.
For example a crossbreed of a crop with 10/10/10 and another with 20/20/20 would result in a 15/15/15 +-2 (from 13/13/13 to 17/17/17).
Just keep breeding your higher stat crops with other higher stat crops as they come out and sort them.
Does it start getting mandatory to have managed hydration/fertilizer at any point?
reeds are a low tier crop. It wouldn't require much nutrients, however for other crops you may need:
4 dirt blocks deep farmland , a decent biome (forest, swamp and alike), skylight and a decent height (well, higher the better, caps at 128 ).
I will remember that for trying to expand some of the metal producers I'm getting at random. Mutants seem a lot easier than I remember.
Does crop-matron hydration do any good for crops that are already hydrated by nearby water? And what is the difference between using a "hydration cell" vs water cell vs pumped in?
Crop matron hydration (pumped water or water cell, its just water) increases the humidity level of the crops around it, thus increasing the growth speed of them.
So yes, it does any good.
Thank you. I had skipped crop-matron on the big sugar patch I set up for my recycler>mass fab, it'll be interesting to see the change it provides.
