Orchards massively overproduce at the moment, a single one can basically supply the whole galaxy’s technicians and that’s only if no one tries to compete with you. So inevitably they’re an extremely expensive building to build and maintain that you’ll have to tear down sooner or later because you can’t sell everything it’s making. And that everything is pretty much tech+ luxury resources, very low demand.
One or two alternative recipes that supply low tier goods would help keep orchards running even when their primary goods are not in demand. Similar to how hydroponics farms are only economically viable to make coffee, but can do other things when the coffee market is saturated.
A couple ideas I stated out:
ORC: 2 DDT + 240 H2O → 480 HCP (48 hours)
ORC: 1 DDT + 150 H2O → 200 VEG (22.6 hours)
These maintain the same water to crop ratios as the farmsteads and produce more crop per unit of area than the hydroponics farms for HCP and a little less for VEG.