Pollination
Cross-breeding happens in the field through pollination — no machine required.
Passive adjacency
When two mature crops of a matching breeding pair sit next to each other, each has a small, rate-limited chance to pollinate and drop a child seed. The roll is server-authoritative and deterministic (seeded from position and world time), and the child seed carries the spliced — and possibly mutated — genetics of both parents. Because it rides on the crops' own random ticks, there is no per-tick farm scan and no growing entity count.
Pollination Beacon
The Pollination Beacon is an optional, NF-powered booster. Over a bounded region around it (configurable range, worked a few columns per pass on an interval) it drives the same pollination as passive adjacency, just at a higher rate. It is never required, spawns no insects or drones, and simply speeds up crossing on a dense mixed farm. Right-click it for its status.
Bounds
All pollination rolls, mutation rolls and child genetics use the deterministic, capped genetics maths, so nothing pollination produces can exceed the trait caps. Optional insect/drone visuals, if added later, remain presentation only — pollination itself never depends on entities.