Stardew Valley: 10 Best Crops To Grow In Summer

Many players love farming Stardew Valley and selling crops to expand their farms and upgrades. However, to effectively progress through the game, making the best use of your farm is the way to go. Selling crops can allow you to make and buy gifts for your favorite NPCs and better tools, equipment, and decorations for your house and farm.

Stardew Valley simulates how life on a farm changes with the varying seasons. Very few crops can be grown throughout winter, whilst summer and spring are abundant in plant life. With so many different seeds and crops, you may feel overwhelmed about where to start. Summer is the second season in the calendar, and it is the time when you can grow some of the most profitable crops. Which ones should you be growing on your farm to optimize it fully?

10 Wheat

Cheap But Reliable

Though not the best choice for profit, wheat is one of the best crops to have in excess in Stardew Valley. It takes four days to grow and can be used to keep animals fed and happy. It can be grown throughout two seasons - summer and fall, so you should have plenty of time to stock up on it to have enough to last you through winter and spring.

Beer Quality	Days In Casket	Aged Value
Regular Quality	0 Days	200g
Silver Quality	7 Days	250g
Gold Quality	14 Days	300g
Iridium Quality	28 Days	400g

Wheat can also be put through kegs to create beer. This is a cheap way of making a profit, as beer sells for at least 200g, a massive difference from the 10g needed to buy wheat seeds. If aged in a casket, you can improve the beer's quality. Outside the children, Penny and Sebastian, beer is also a universally liked gift and is loved by Pam and Shane. Meanwhile, all the characters are neutral towards receiving wheat on its own as a gift.

9 Hops

Pale Ale Is More Valuable Than Beer

You can purchase Hops Starter from the general store for 60g each. Hops grow in 11 days, but after that, the plant produces every day and can be harvested continually until the end of summer. Despite its low selling point of 25 gold, it still makes a profit since it can be harvested 17 times in one season.

Hops can be placed into kegs to make pale ale. This has a base selling price of 300g, or 420g, with the artisan profession. It can also be purchased from the Ginger Island resort for 1000g, but making it yourself is a lot cheaper. Similarly to beer, the value of this item can also increase when aged in a casket. Villagers usually react to pale ale in the same way as beer, but only Pam loves pale ale, whilst both Pam and Shane love beer.

8 Poppies

Improve Honey Production

Poppies are a strange flower in Stardew Valley, as they are a universally hated gift, except for Penny, who loves them. However, if they’re made into muffins, they’ll also be loved by Leah and liked by everyone else apart from Krobus, Leo, and Willy. Poppy seeds can be bought for 100g from Pierre and take seven days to grow.

As full flowers, they have a base selling price of 140g. If you grow poppies next to a beehouse, poppy honey will be produced. The value of regular honey is 100g, whilst poppy honey sells for 380g - or 532g if you're an artisan. This makes them quite a useful crop to keep around during summer.

7 Corn

A Good End-Of-Season Option

If you don’t have a lot of options for planting crops near the end of summer, then corn is a safe bet. The crop can be grown in both summer and fall, which means it will continue to grow after the season has ended. Corn Seeds can be purchased for 150 gold from Pierre, and the crops have a base selling price of 50g. However, the crop can be re-harvested every four days after the initial 14.

Corn is a widely liked gift throughout the valley, with few residents disliking or hating it. It can also be used to make oil, which is used in lots of different recipes, such as stir-fry and radish salad. Though sunflowers and wheat can also be grown in both summer and fall, corn has a much larger profit than sunflowers, assuming both were obtained using purchased seeds - and whilst wheat has to be re-planted, a corn plant will stay standing throughout summer.

6 Red Cabbages

Sells For High Prices When Turned Into Juice

Starting from the second year, Red Cabbage Seeds are sold at Pierre’s for 100g. They take nine days to grow, and the vegetable has a base selling price of 260g. Red Cabbage can be pickled or turned into juice for a much higher profit - red cabbage juice sells for 585g normally and 819g with the artisan profession.

Unlike most crops, red cabbage seeds cannot be purchased from JojaMart.

In year one of a Stardew Valley playthrough,you may also come across red cabbage seeds in the Skull Cavern or being sold on the traveling cart. However, they are more expensive when purchased from the traveling cart, starting at 150g. This means you will see a lot more profit if you wait until the second year to start planting this crop.

5 Tomatoes

A Very Useful Item For Making Consumables

Tomato plants take 11 days to grow and can then be harvested for one tomato every four days, though you have a slim 5% chance of receiving multiple. Tomato seeds cost 50g, and a single tomato sells for at least 60g, meaning you can make a quick, albeit small, profit. It can be made into juice and jelly, but these don’t sell for much. The best use of the tomato is to make various consumables, such as a Fish Stew or Shrimp Cocktailto replenish your energy and receive bonus effects.

4 Hot Peppers

Fast-Growing Multi-Harvest Crops

Hot pepper seeds cost 40g when purchased from the general store. Once planted, they take an initial five days to grow, and then the same plant can be harvested again once every three days. With a base selling price equal to the price of the seeds, you won’t get a massive profit from them, but they do grow fairly quickly when compared to other multi-harvest crops. There is also a small chance that the plant will drop multiple peppers when harvested.

Both Shane and Mayor Lewis love receiving hot peppers as a gift. Since they’re quite convenient to grow and do so quickly, they’re a cheap way to build up your relationship with them. This is an especially good idea if you are considering Shane as a marriage/romance candidate, as unlike beer with wheat, you don’t have to put the peppers through any type of artisan equipment to achieve the desired effect.

3 Melons

A Source Of Income And Energy

In terms of convenience, Melons are one of the best crops to grow in summer, being a good value for money and being easy to produce. Melons can be brought from Pierre’s for 80g and have a base selling price of 250g. They take 12 days to grow and can be used to make wine and jelly. From my experience, when I haven’t used them to make a profit, I’ve found that they’re also a good source of food to bring to the mines, as they’re easily stackable and restore over 100 energy.

Like poppies, melons are one of Penny’s loved gifts.

When placed in a 3x3 grid, melons are one of five crops with a slim chance of randomly combining into a giant crop. When harvested, a giant melon will yield anywhere from fifteen to twenty-three regular melon items. Giant crops also do not die at the end of a season. However, with the exception of qi fruit, they can only occur in one allocated season, and giant melons can only be grown in the summer.

2 Blueberries

Surprisingly Profitable

Planting blueberries can lead to some of the most profit in Stardew Valley.Blueberry Seeds can be purchased for 80g, and single blueberries will sell for 50g. However, you will receive multiple fruits with each harvest and will obtain at least three every time they collect them. They can also be re-harvested every four days after the initial thirteen days since planting the seeds.

'Blueberries' can be made into wine, but this wine has some of the lowest-selling prices. However, you can prioritize turning other crops into wines, as selling blueberries on their own still can be quite profitable. Per season, one blueberry plant can yield over 500g - which is an excellent value compared to the original 80g needed for seeds.

1 Starfruit

The Best Summer Crop

Starfruit is objectively the best fruit to grow in the summer in terms of profit. Though they take 13 days to grow, they’re the second-highest-selling crop in the game, being only second to the sweet gem berry. With a base selling price of 750g, Starfruit seeds can be purchased from Sandy for 400g and are occasionally found in the Skull Cavern.

The ancient fruit is a decent contender to the Starfruit, especially since it can be harvested more than once. However, especially earlier in the game, the Starfruit is much more convenient since it can be purchased and is the best summer-specific crop to plant.

Turning Starfruit into wine yields some of the highest profits, selling for at least 2,250g per bottle. However, the crop is still very profitable on its own. Starfruit is one of the best crops to grow in Stardew Valley and sells for 1,500g at its highest quality—1650g with the Tiller profession.

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