Hemp Clone

Cloth runs out before almost anything else in a wipe. Bandages, sleeping bags, tarps, clothes and later C4 all draw on the same pile, so a base that farms its own cloth wants every hemp plant to be a good one. A clone is how you get there: a cutting from a growing hemp plant that comes up with that plant's genes instead of a new roll.

The usual start is a bed of hemp seeds. Most plants turn out average and one turns out great. Clone that one, and the next large planter box holds nine copies of it.

Picture the middle of a wipe. Your neighbours run a big hemp farm and sell clones of their best plant from a vending machine. A stack costs a little scrap and saves you several rounds of sorting seeds, which on a short wipe is the better deal. Weak plants you pull on the way can go into the composter.