Top 15 Most Profitable Stardew Valley Crops

Updated:

18 Mar 2023

Stardew Valley is a fantastic game with features that any gamer would love. You don’t necessarily have to be a crop farmer to earn the big bucks in Stardew Valley, but if you’re like me and love to make the most of your farm, these are the crops you’ll want to plant to maximize your return on investment.

Let’s get started!

15) Parsnips

This just had to be on the list. It isn’t the flashiest of crops, but it’s tried, true, and dependable.

You get a small bundle of Parsnip seeds right at the beginning of the game, and it’s the best beginner crop for Spring.
4 days is a short time to grow for this crop, so you’ll get your return on investment in no time.
Considering the seed cost is only 20g and the base selling price is 43g, this is a great way for beginners to quickly expand on their beginning farm in no time

How to get the crop: If and when you run out of parsnip seeds, there will be more available for sale at Pierre’s shop throughout Spring, so don’t get your overalls in a twist.

14) Green Beans

Your trellis and you.

Green Beans are another dependable Year One crop for Spring. This is the first crop in the game you encounter that regrows! These seeds cost 60g a pop, and the base selling price is 40g, which doesn’t sound like much profit, but we’ll get into that below.

This crop takes 10 days to grow, but regrows 3 days after harvesting. Be sure to plant Green Beans with at least 13 days left in the season to receive a better return on investment, as the seed price is higher than the base sell price of the crop itself.
This crop uses trellises, so be sure to plan your farmland accordingly. Once planted, it is an object that can’t be walked through in game, so no 3x3 grids for this crop or some of your Green Beans will be trapped!
Green beans are almost a universally liked gift, with only six villagers who dislike receiving them as a gift! (Abigail, Haley, Jas, Sam, and Vincent are the party poopers; who would’ve guessed the kids don’t like their vegetables?)

How to get the crop: This crop is readily available at Pierre’s shop throughout your first Spring.

13) Potato

Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew!

Everyone’s favorite versatile root vegetable made the list, and you can get it in Spring Year One, no less!

Potatoes have the chance to produce two crops when you’re harvesting, so your profits may be higher than expected on harvest day.
At a low cost of 50g for seed and a base selling price of 80g, this crop is sure to help beginners out when filling their coffers.
Potatoes only take 6 days to grow and harvest, giving our dependable parsnips a run for their money for best beginner crop.

How to get the crop: This is another beginner crop that can be purchased from Pierre’s shop during your first spring, so plant away.

12) Corn

It’s Corn! A big lump with knobs, it has the juice!

This next crop can be a pro play in your first year. And look at that — we made it into Summer!

Corn, much like the beans, is a crop that regrows, but no trellises! You don't need to put as much thought into spacing when planting with these easy crops.
Corn has a long growth time of 14 days (half a season!), but regrows every 4 days after. 150g is pretty steep for seed prices early game, especially with a base selling price of 50g but —
Corn is a multi season crop! If you can manage to plant this crop on the first of Summer, you can get 4 yields before the end of Summer, and then you still have all of Fall to continue harvesting your corn, making this a highly profitable crop with a bit of planning.

How to get the crop: This is another solid beginner crop(albeit an expensive beginner crop) that's readily available at Pierre’s shop in Summer Year One.

11) Cauliflower

Back to spring with Cauliflower!

This is the first powerhouse on the list in Spring Year One. This crop’s seeds are the most expensive for your first season in game, but with good reason.

Cauliflower’s base seed price is 80g, but the base selling price for a Cauliflower is a whopping 175g. That's 95g profit per crop in your first season!
Cauliflower also has the longest growth time than any other Spring One crop at 12 days per crop, so be sure to at least plant these by the 15th of Spring!
Cauliflower is the first crop on the list that can grow into a giant crop! Plant these seeds in a 3x3 grid and, once fully grown and everyday after, they have a chance to turn into a giant crop! A giant crop must be harvested with your trusty axe and will produce a number of Cauliflower greater than the amount you originally planted in that area. You are guaranteed to get at least ten crops from a giant Cauliflower.

How to get the crop: Cauliflower is available at Pierre’s during Spring Year One.

10) Melons

Melons are a Summer favorite!

Melon seeds are 80g during your very first Summer and should fetch you a nice profit with a base sell-price of 250g per crop. A hefty profit of 170g per crop is waiting for you with this crop in the Summer!
Keep in mind, this is one of the few crops that can grow into a giant crop. Plant your melons in a 3x3 grid and, once they’re all fully grown, you’ll have a chance of 9 Melons forming into a Giant Melon to get your profits even higher!
Once again, this high value crop has a longer growth time of 12 days, so plan your crop rotation with this in mind.

How to get the crop: Melons are available to purchase from Pierre’s shop in Summer Year One, making it a good starter crop if you’ve got the gold for these annoyingly expensive seeds. Nine seeds can be gained from good ol’ Gunther after donating 10 items to the museum.

9) Pumpkin

Who doesn't love a good ol' fashioned Pumpkin patch?

The Pumpkin is the powerhouse crop of Fall, and you’re going to want to plant a few in your Year One if you value making that sweet, sweet cha-ching.

The seed price of Pumpkins is 100g, a steep price for a beginner crop that doesn’t regrow. However, the base selling price for one of these bad boys is 320g! That's 220g profit per crop in Year One!
A profitable crop like this has a longer growth time, longer than any of the other crops that don’t regrow with a 13 day growth time, so plan accordingly because you can only get two harvests of Pumpkins before the season ends.
Once again, Pumpkins are one of those exciting crops that has a chance of growing into a Giant Crop, so remember to plant them in 3x3 grids for a shot at even higher profits

How to get the crop: Pumpkin seeds can be purchased from Pierre in Fall of Year one. And, if you’ve been making those donations to Gunther, you can get 9 Pumpkin seeds as a gift once you’ve donated 35 items to the museum.

8) Hops

Back to trellises!

Be careful while planting these in the Summer so you don’t lock any crops behind other crops (You can’t walk through this crop). This is a crop that may take a bit more experience to make profitable and may be better for Year Two to prepare to maximize your profits.

Hops only have a base selling price of 25g, and when compared to the price of the hops starter, which is 60g, it can be hard to see what makes this crop so profitable early on.
Hops have a growth rate of 11 days, but once matured, will produce more crops every other day. With such a great regrowth rate, selling the hops themselves is sure to get you your return on investment before the season ends, but —
You should throw these bad boys in a keg for one of the best return on investment stats in the game! Only one and a half days in a keg and you’re looking at 300g per Pale Ale that one hop produces. It may be difficult to get enough kegs to turn this out in your first year, but you can save up quite a few hops with only a few starters if you want to use your Winter for crafting kegs. Brewing with kegs is a great way to turn a profit on your farm during the Winter season.

How to get the crop: This crop is sold at Pierre’s in the Summer of Year One, so it shouldn't be too long a wait to begin your brewing empire.

7) Coffee Beans

Everybody loves a strong brew!

Coffee Beans can be a super profitable crop if you know what to do with them, but may be better to put off until your Second Year.

Coffee Beans are a multi-season crop, growing throughout both Spring and Summer! You’ll have a bit of trouble getting these in your first spring, so don’t sweat it until later.
Coffee Beans are both a crop and the seed needed to grow more coffee beans! Luckily, Coffee is a crop that both regrows and has a high yield of 4+ coffee beans per plant. What this means is that you can start with one coffee bean and quickly start multiplying your crops after your first harvest. You could fill your greenhouse in just 20 days starting with a single coffee bean!
The trick to making these beans profitable once again lies with the keg! Five coffee beans can be brewed into a coffee after only 2 in-game hours in the keg (did someone say reliable speed buff?), and can be sold for 150g. Later on, when you’ve purchased the recipe for the triple shot espresso, you can turn three of those lowly coffees into a 450g espresso.

How to get the crop: So there are a couple of ways to get a coffee bean. One is waiting on the traveling cart to sell one, which can be priced anywhere from a reasonable 100g to a ridiculous 2500g. This isn’t the method I suggest if you’re trying to get your caffeine fix, but if you do spot it for its lowest price of 100g, more power to you. The second way to get your hands on a coffee bean is killing dust sprites in the mines. Dust sprites, which show up in en masse on floors 40-79 in the mines, have about a 2% chance of dropping a coffee bean, and you were probably on your way there anyways for a bit more iron, so this is the method I’d suggest in making them practically free with a bit of elbow grease.

6) Cranberries

Back to the basics!

Cranberries in Fall of Year One.

This is simply one of the most profitable crops to be planted at the beginning of Fall. The seed prices may be a bit steep for your first year at 240g per seed, but each yield has a chance of producing one to two crops at 75g base selling price per crop.
If you haven’t noticed yet, crops that regrow and don’t require more seeds after harvesting have a terrific return on investment, so be sure to plant these as soon as possible at the beginning of the Fall season to get the most out of your cranberries.
Cranberries have a short growth rate of 7 days, and then will produce another yield every 5 days after the initial harvest.

How to get the crop: No hoops to jump through on this one. Pierre’s shop is selling them in Fall in Year One.

5) Strawberries

Maybe you can sell some of these to the Haunted Chocolatier...

Strawberries are a delightful yet tricky crop to plant, if only for when and how they’re sold, but they can be obtained in your first season in game.

Strawberry seeds can be purchased for 100g per seed, but just as with Cranberries, you’ll have a chance of producing two crops per yield, giving you a base selling price of 120g-240g per crop per harvest.
This crop regrows! The growth time for strawberries is 8 days, but you’ll get additional harvests every 4 days after the initial harvest.
This crop is only obtainable through Pierre’s pop up shop at an event in game, so don’t go shrugging off the Egg Festival just because you don’t care to participate in the Easter egg hunt. (Not that I’ve ever encountered anyone who’d pass up a good Easter egg hunt, but you get the idea.)

How to get the crop: Strawberry Seeds are available exclusively at Pierre’s stand at the Egg Festival on Spring day 13 every year. Where he keeps those seeds the rest of the year is a good question, but if we kept asking questions, we’d be installing the murder Pierre mod. Since it isn’t available until halfway through the season, you're only guaranteed a couple of harvests if you plant them the same day you've purchased them. Pro play: purchase a bunch of these seeds for the following year to get your maximum return on investment after planting them on the first day of the next Spring.

4) Blueberries

Second verse, same as the first!

Blueberries are a high yield crop that regrows in the Summer.

Blueberries have a long growth rate of 13 days until they start producing fruit, but will have additional harvests every 4 days after your initial harvest.
Luckily, these seeds are very affordable for a Year One beginner at just 80g a seed. Blueberries should be planted on the first day of Summer for maximum return on investment.
The base selling price for this crop is only 50g, but this crop produces three blueberries per yield! That’s 150g on your first harvest per plant for a profit of 70g, which will only climb with your second, third, and even fourth harvests if you planted them early enough.

How to get the crop: This crop is good for beginners and is available at Pierre’s in Summer Year One.

3) Sweet Gem Berries

Kind of like the very expensive hood ornaments of Stardew crops.

This crop is a bit different than the rest, but will definitely yield you a great profit.

Sweet Gem Berries can be grown from Rare Seeds, they grow during Fall, and they take about the entire season of Fall (24 days) to grow. DO NOT forget to harvest the few you've collected at the end of Fall (I’ve learned this the hard way).
These Rare Seeds can be purchased from anywhere between 600g-1000g, with the highest buy-in from any crop, but have a base selling price of 3000g, easily making it the highest selling crop in the game.
Sweet Gem Berries are almost exclusively for selling. Other than getting a certain Stardrop from old man Cannoli, these berries have no other use than selling. They're considered only a neutral gift for every villager, can’t be made into jelly, or brewed in a keg. This crop is a bit of a time-eater, but has the highest selling price in the game for a grown crop.

How to get the crop: Rare Seeds can only be purchased through the traveling merchant. In both Spring and Summer, Rare Seeds sell for 1000g and sell for anywhere between 600g-1000g in Fall and Winter.

2) Starfruit

Max your profits with everbody's favorite crop: Starfruit!

This crop is probably the most iconic one in the game, with a high buy-in and high pay-out. Plant a field of these in the beginning of Summer for a huge payout.

Starfruit are a later game crop that you won’t have access to through Pierre. The seed price is 400g per seed, but the base selling price for a Starfruit is 750g (almost twice the price of the seed!)
Starfruit has a 13-day growth time, so if you’ve got the coin (which you will after the first harvest), try to get two harvests of them throughout your Summer for some huge paydays.
Although Starfruit already sell for a whole bunch, they begin to become ridiculously profitable when turning them into artisan goods. Popping one of these into a preserves jar will result in a 1550g Starfruit jelly, or throw it in a keg for a base selling price of 2250g per Starfruit Wine.

How to get the crop: Starfruit seeds can be purchased from Sandy in the Oasis Shop, which needs to be unlocked through the Vault Bundle at the Community Center, so needless to say this crop is better suited for Year 2 and onwards.

1) Ancient Fruit

This is it.

The endgame of Stardew Valley fruits.

Ancient Seeds cannot be purchased; if you find one in the wild within a bundle of fiber or under the ground when murking some worms with your hoe, immediately take it to Gunther to get these bad boys growing. Ancient fruit has one of the longest growth times of 28 days (an entire season!).
There is no purchasing price for the seeds of this fruit, so it can be difficult to figure your return on investment, but let's just say it's really, really good. Especially once you can start turning Ancient fruit into wine and jelly. Ancient Fruit is multi-seasonal in the best of ways; this crop will grow in all seasons EXCEPT for Winter, so be cautious and don’t go planting any Ancient Fruit seeds in the fall, as it takes the entire season to mature.
These crops regrow fruit every 7 days after initial harvesting, with a base selling price of 550g per crop. If you plant these on the first day of Spring, you can get 8 harvests per seed planted throughout the year!

How to get the crop: At first, you may find an ancient seed as a random drop while hoeing for artifacts, clearing brush, etc. After you find an Ancient Fruit seed, you take it to Gunther for a plantable version of this seed. Gunther will give you a recipe to transform a naturally found ancient seed (artifacts) into a plantable ancient seed. Afterwards, they have a small chance to be found with the traveling merchant for anywhere from 100g-1000g. This high profit crop is a shoe-in for top pick in the greenhouse. A pro play to get you stocked up on these crops is to pop one in the greenhouse until it starts yielding and put those fruits into your seed-maker for 1-2 more ancient seeds, replant, and repeat. It’s a long process, but I can't recommend enough having a greenhouse full of this fruit for relatively passive income (use those sprinklers!).

Welp, there you have it! If you play your cards right with these 15 most profitable crops in Stardew Valley, you’ll be a money making machine in no time!

Happy Farming!