Ways for botanists to make fertilizers

[Ryumi]

what if you could recycle plants somehow to make nutrient compounds with a quantity based on the stats of the recycled plant

in other words, you could make a "potency nutrient compound"  at some kind of efficiency rating that's like, 1u per 1000 total potency stat recycled

functionally it wouldn't actually be any better than saltpetre at increasing stats, but it could eliminate concerns about giving botanists infinite easy black powder while also letting them target specific genes at an expensive rate of exchange

This. I like this.

I was worried about my suggestion because it could potentially mean easy renewable black powder, but this solution sounds more elegant and would still require a botanist to actually do their job of growing good plants. And since you can easily mass produce high potency plants once you get the ball rolling, it'd be a great way to spend all your excess produce instead of turning it into even more compost than you'll ever need.