Best Crops in Stardew Valley

This guide is for 2nd+ playthroughs. If you’re brand new to the game, I recommend playing the first year just exploring and trying out whatever you like. Stardew Valley has no time limits and there’s no reward for rushing through the game as quickly as possible. Having said that, here’s my guide to rushing through the game as quickly as possible.

General Advice
The best overall late game crop is ancient fruit, plus some starfruit for aged wine. Processing crops in kegs and preserves jars dramatically increases profitability, so make as many as you can. You can place them around town. There are two good types of crop: berries (strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries) and giant (cauliflower, melon, and pumpkin). Berries generate a large number of low value crops and earn the most profit when you sell them without processing. Berry seeds are expensive when bought from Pierre or Jojamart, but each berry can produce 1-3 seeds in the Seed Maker. Giant crops can be harvested twice per season and are high value, which is the best for turning into wine and juice. They also can turn into giant versions if planted in a 3×3 grid or larger, which yield 15-21 crops instead of the normal 9.

Year 1, Spring
The goal is to get strawberries at the Egg Festival on the 13th. You can harvest a round of potatoes on the 7th, and then plant parsnips in time to harvest them by the 13th. Since Pierre’s is closed for the festival, you do not have enough time to harvest and sell cauliflower or a 2nd round of potatoes in time to get money for strawberries.  If it’s on or before the 5th, you have time for potatoes. If its the 6th or 7th, you have time for parsnips. If it’s after the 7th, just save your money for the Egg Festival.

Save some strawberries for the Seed Maker so you can start your second year Spring with strawberry planting on day 1. Plant cauliflower in any extra farm space you have left over after planting all your strawberries. Save a gold cauliflower for the Luau.

Other tips: Remember that when the seasons change, all of your plants die, so add the growing time to the date and make sure it’s 28 or lower before planting. Use the scythe to cut weeds so you can get free mixed seeds. Use any profits from fishing and mining to buy more seeds. Fishing is the best non-farming early game way to make money. You can eat the cheap fish or algae if you’re running low on energy. Use preserves jars as much as possible.

If you’re doing the Community Center, plant enough parsnips to get 5 gold ones for the quality crops bundle, and one green bean plant for the Spring Crops bundle.

Year 1, Summer
Blueberries make the most money if directly sold, but melons have higher base value and can become giant.

For the Community Center, also plant the following: hot pepper, 5 corn, sunflowers, poppy, tomato plant, and 2 spaces of wheat (7 harvests each during summer). If you have extra cash, get a pomegranate and/or apple tree.

Year 1, Fall
The three most profitable crops are:
Sweet gem berries – Seed cost is 1000 at the Traveling Cart and it sells for 3000 base yielding at least 2000 (more if higher quality). Sweet gem berries cannot be used in kegs.
Cranberries – Each plant produces 10 cranberries per season, earning 750 base profit. Seeds cost 240, yielding 490 base profit. Because they are multiple crops per harvest, it is harder to process cranberries than pumpkins. Since the seed price is high, using the seed maker to create more seeds is highly recommended.
Pumpkins – You can plant 2 rounds of pumpkins per season, earning 220 profit (320 sale price – 100 for the seeds) each time for a total of 440, before the giant crop bonus.

For bundles, plant a yam and eggplant as well. Corn, sunflower, and wheat should be completed in the summer, but if not, you can plant them now too.

Year 1, Winter
The only thing you can grow outside is Winter seeds. Save some winter seeds for planting next year. Use normal quality crops to produce seeds if you can.

Greenhouse Crops

There are 5 crops that are worthy of a coveted spot in a greenhouse.
Ancient fruit – The best endgame crop, both for kegs and for direct sale. If you’ve gotten an ancient seed, plant it here asap and turn the fruit you get into more seeds until the greenhouse is full. It is unlikely you’ll have enough ancient fruit year 1 though to fill a greenhouse.
Starfruit – The highest value base crop, which translates into the most valuable aged wine. Do not bother with starfruit if you’re planning on selling it.
If you don’t have ancient fruit or starfruit, there are 3 other good options, each with their own advantages.
Blueberries – The highest profit/day for direct sale of crops. Since they produce 3 berries with a base price of 50 each, they are a poor option for kegs, although you can make jam if you have enough preserves jars.
Strawberries – The same profit/day as cranberries, but they only produce 1 instead of 2, making them more manageable for processing into wine and jam.
Pumpkins – Lower profit per day and requires continual replanting, but since they only produce one crop every 13 days, they can be turned into juice quite easily.

A note about sweet gem berries: Although it might seem like these are a great option for the greenhouse, they cannot be processed in kegs. A sweet gem berry sells for 3000-4500, whereas starfruit wine sells for 3150. Since starfruit seeds can be bought for 400, whereas sweet gem berries seeds must either be bought one at a time for 1000 at the traveling cart or created in the seed maker, it is much more difficult to farm them in large numbers. On top of that, starfruit grows nearly twice as quickly.

The second best fruit trees for the greenhouse are peach and pomegranate. They are the same profitability and are universally liked gifts. Bananas are better, but are harder to get.

Year 2, Spring
Now we’re into the turbocharged part of the game. Whatever excess ancient fruit seeds you have that don’t fit in the greenhouse should be planted as quickly as possible. Any remaining crop space can be filled with strawberries. Since the crop bundles/Joja Mart bundles should be complete by now, you don’t need to worry about that and can just go for pure profit. Get iridium sprinklers and Junimo huts harvesting them for maximum automation.  Rhubarb (purchased in the desert) is the best crop if you want to make wine, followed by cauliflower.

Year 2, Summer
Plant starfruit in the non-ancient fruit spaces. Save some starfruit wine for use in casks because it is the highest value iridium quality wine.

Year 2, Fall
Same as Summer, but with sweet gem berries, pumpkins, and cranberries instead of starfruit. Do not plant any ancient fruit this late in the year.

Year 2, Winter
You should have plenty of winter seeds from last year. Although this is a low value crop, every little bit helps.

If you follow this guide, you should earn 5,000,000 + by the end of the second year, enough to set up your farm however you like and get all the fancy buildings in Year 3, such as the Gold Clock and Warp Obelisks.

Ginger Island Crops

Pineapples are good, but inferior to Ancient Fruit. They have a higher base price (300) than melons, but only require 7 days to regrow compared to 12 for melons. For direct selling, it is superior to any berry. Taro Root is not a very profitable crop. My recommendation for Ginger Island is to grow as much ancient fruit as you can and with the leftover spaces, grow pineapples.

Crop planning tool:

https://exnil.github.io/crop_planner/