The enormously popular farming and social simulation game Stardew Valley hinges on the player character restoring their family farm, including growing and selling crops. Each season in Stardew Valley, with the exception of winter, has its own crops, with the best crops delivering high payoffs for the player.
From how quickly crops yield a saleable harvest to how much each vegetable or fruit sells for, seasonal crops can vary wildly in value. And with only so much room on the farm and time to devote to growing crops, players need to choose what crops they grow wisely. Here are the best crops to grow each season in Stardew Valley and why players should prioritize them when planning how to run their farm.
Best Crops for Each Season in Stardew Valley
Best Crops in Spring
The best crop to grow on the farm during the spring is strawberries, which have an impressive base price of 120 gold each, while iridium-quality strawberries can sell for as high as 240 gold. The base plant takes eight days to mature, with new strawberries regrowing on mature plants every four days. The only catch to growing strawberries is that their seeds are only available for purchase at the Egg Festival on the 13th day of the season, so make sure to load up.
Other crops to grow in the meantime and throughout the season include potatoes and rhubarb, which each have their own perks. Potatoes mature in six days and have a base gold price of 80, with iridium-quality potatoes selling for as high as 160 gold each. Rhubarb sells for 220 gold each, with iridium-quality rhubarb for 440 gold. The downside is that rhubarb takes 13 days to mature.
Best Crops in Summer
During the Stardew Valley summer, the best crop to grow is blueberries, which have a base selling price of 50 gold and, at iridium-quality, can sell for as high as 100 gold each. The only major downside to growing blueberries is that the base plant takes 13 days to mature, but the blueberries themselves regrow every four days to ensure a steady stream of harvestable crops.
Other crops to consider for the summer are red cabbage and coffee beans, with the former selling at a 260 gold base price and taking nine days to mature. This makes red cabbage faster to mature than melon, which takes 12 days to mature and sells for 250 gold each. Coffee beans take ten days to mature and only sell at 15 gold each, but regrow at an incredible rate of two days, making them a consistent source of income.
Best Crops in Fall
The best crop to grow in the fall is cranberries, which initially take seven days to mature and regrow with new, mature berries every five days thereafter. Cranberries sell for 75 gold each and, if the player harvests iridium-quality cranberries, this superior quality crop sells for up to 150 gold each.
For players looking for a crop with a quick turnaround and decent sale price, bok choy only takes four days to reach maturity and sells for 80 gold, with iridium-quality bok choy selling for 160 gold. The big, long-term crop for autumn is pumpkins, which take 13 days to fully mature, but sell at an impressive base price of 320 gold, the second-highest base price in the game. Iridium-quality pumpkins up the ante further, selling at 640 gold.
And those are the best crops to grow each season in Stardew Valley, so go forth and make your fortunes!
