Best Crops per Season in Stardew Valley: Spring, Summer and Fall
The best crop changes with the season, so the right plant depends on when you are planting. Here are the strongest picks for Spring, Summer and Fall and how to compare them yourself.
In this article
The best crops per season in Stardew Valley are strawberries in Spring, blueberries in Summer and cranberries in Fall. [1]
The best crop is the one that earns the most gold per day it spends growing, not the one with the highest single sale price. A cheap crop that keeps producing can beat an expensive one you harvest only once.
Spring's pick is strawberry, but only after the Egg Festival, so it's not the choice on your first days. [2] Fall is the most profitable season, and cranberries sit at the top of the list. [3]
This article covers the Spring, Summer and Fall picks one season at a time, so you can plant the right crop when each season starts.
How do the top crops compare by season?
Strawberry is the top Spring crop after the Egg Festival, Blueberry leads Summer, and Cranberry tops Fall. The table shows how the picks line up by season.
Season | Top pick | Other strong options | Re-growable top pick |
|---|---|---|---|
Spring | Strawberry (after the Egg Festival) | Potato, Cauliflower | Yes |
Summer | Blueberry | None listed | Yes |
Fall | Cranberry | Pumpkin, Sweet Gem Berry, Grape | Yes |
Strawberry becomes the best Spring crop after the Egg Festival, while Potato and Cauliflower are reliable Day 1 choices [2]. If you haven't reached the Egg Festival yet, plant Potato or Cauliflower first and switch once Strawberry is available.
Strawberries, blueberries and cranberries are all re-growable, so one planting can give you more than one harvest [1]. That matters more than a single high sale price, because a crop that keeps producing saves you replanting time and seed money.
For Fall, Pumpkin, Sweet Gem Berry and Grape are the next strongest options after Cranberry [3]. Fall is also described as the most profitable season for these crops [3].
The main difference between the seasons is how many good choices you have. Spring depends on when you reach the Egg Festival, Summer has one clear pick, and Fall offers the most strong alternatives.
What should you plant in Spring?
Strawberry is the best crop to plant in Spring once you can get it, which is after the Egg Festival. Until then, Potato or Cauliflower are the dependable choices from your first day on the farm. [2]
Day 1: Potato or Cauliflower
Potato and Cauliflower are reliable Day 1 choices. [2] Either one gives you a crop to sell while you wait for Strawberry to unlock.
You can plant a full field of one, or split your plots between the two. Water them each morning, then sell the harvest at the shipping bin so the gold goes back into more seeds.
After the Egg Festival: Strawberry
Strawberry becomes the best Spring crop after the Egg Festival. [2] Once you have access to it, use the plots closest to your house so the daily watering and harvesting take less walking.
Strawberries suit Spring because they regrow. Guides name strawberries as the re-growable Spring crop. [1] That means one planting keeps producing harvests, so you do not have to replant and buy new seeds after every sale.
A simple plan: plant Potato or Cauliflower on Day 1, then switch your main plots to Strawberry after the Egg Festival. Each switch keeps your fields earning through the season.
Is blueberry the best crop for Summer?
Blueberries are the recommended Summer crop, mainly because they are re-growable. A re-growable crop keeps producing after each harvest, so one planting gives you harvest after harvest. You do not have to clear the field and replant every time you pick a batch.
The general rule is to grow re-growable crops in each season. Strawberries fill that role in Spring, blueberries in Summer and cranberries in Fall [1]. The same logic explains why the answer changes with the season, even though the reasoning stays the same.
Why re-growable beats single-harvest
Compare blueberries with a single-harvest crop. You plant it, pick it once, and then the plot is free again, so you have to spend time and gold replanting to earn more from that same space. A re-growable crop keeps the same plot working for you.
Here is a simple example. Plant blueberries at the start of Summer and keep harvesting from the same plants through the season, instead of planting a new batch each time. Spring works the same way with strawberries, so the field stays productive in both seasons.
If you are deciding what to plant next, start with the re-growable option for the season you are in. Then compare it to the other picks using gold per day.
Which crops pay best in Fall?
Cranberries are the top Fall crop, so start there if you want the strongest pick for the season. [3] They are also re-growable, so one planting keeps producing harvests instead of asking you to replant each time. [1]
The next strongest options
Pumpkins, Sweet Gem Berry and Grapes come next, in that order. [3] Together with cranberries, they make a solid Fall lineup, and each one can fill plots that cranberries don't cover.
For example, if you have eight open plots, you might give cranberries the largest share and split the rest among the other three. That way you spread your effort across several strong crops instead of betting everything on one.
Plan Fall around your sales
Fall is the most profitable season for these crops, so it pays to plan planting around when you will sell. [3] Count backward from the day you want the gold, and make sure each crop finishes growing in time to reach your shipping bin or market. A crop that is ready too late won't help with the money you need that week.
Staggering planting dates keeps money coming in across the season instead of all at once. Plant your longest-growing crop first, then fill the remaining plots with crops that finish sooner.
How do you check profit per day yourself?
Minimum gold per day is the number to compare, because it shows how much a crop earns for each day it holds your soil. A crop with a high sale price can still earn less per day if it takes a long time to grow.
The wiki gives the calculation as a formula:
Minimum Gold per Day = ((Max Harvests × Sell Price per Harvest) − Seed Price) / Growing Days
Follow these steps for each crop you are considering:
- Find the maximum number of harvests the crop gives. Crops that regrow give several harvests from one planting, so this number can be well above one.
- Multiply that number by the sell price of a single harvest.
- Subtract the seed price from that total. This leaves your profit over the whole growing period.
- Divide the result by the number of growing days. The answer is your gold per day.
Here is a made-up example to show the math. The profit is (400 − 20) = 380 gold, and 380 divided by 10 gives 38 gold per day.
Run the same steps for a second crop and compare the two results. The one with the higher gold per day earns more for every day it takes up your soil, which matters most when two options are close.
What else do players ask about seasonal crops?
What should I plant on Day 1?
Potato and Cauliflower are reliable Day 1 choices [2]. Either one is a sound first planting, so you don't need to overthink the decision. Pick one, plant it in your first open plots, and water it each morning until it's ready to harvest.
Do the best crops change in later years?
They can. A forum discussion about Year 2 names Hops and Starfruit as strong options [5].
Hops need extra work to pay off. The thread notes that Hops take a fair number of kegs [5], so Hops suit you only if you're ready to set up kegs. Starfruit needs no kegs, so it's the simpler option of the two.
Where do these picks come from?
The picks come from a forum discussion and a crop guide written for version 1.6.15 [5][2]. Before you follow the list, check which version you're playing. A guide written for one update can differ from the game you have, so compare your version number with the guide's before you plant.
So which crop should you plant first?
Your first pick depends on the day you start. On Day 1, plant Potato or Cauliflower, since they are reliable early choices [2]. Once you have the Egg Festival behind you, plant Strawberry in Spring, because it becomes the best Spring crop after that festival [2].
For the rest of the year, keep the same pattern. Plant Blueberry in Summer and Cranberry in Fall [1][3]. Those two are the strongest picks for their seasons, so you can build your plan around them.
When two options look close, compare their minimum gold per day. The Stardew Valley Wiki defines it as the maximum harvests times the sell price per harvest, minus the seed price, divided by the growing days [4]. Run those numbers for both crops and plant the one that earns more per day.