If a story has some things needing to be researched, I do that. Doing so can help with new ideas. I'll search Google and Youtube usually. For this story, researching hydroponics a little first might be a good idea. If I come across anything interesting, I will note it in the outline.
Ok. I noticed special, odd color lighting for the plants in hydroponics. Would make sense the alien plants would need their own lighting based on what they got on their planet. We'll mark this in the outline later to help set the scene where required.