Key Takeaways
- Tulips may not be profitable, but they make great gifts and boost friendship levels with villagers.
- Blue Jazz flowers are slightly more expensive but offer better returns, making them a good investment.
- Coffee beans are expensive but yield a high return, providing a speed boost and making great gifts.
Spring is the start of a new year and a fresh start. In Stardew Valley, it’s a time to refresh and begin anew, planning the year’s productivity. Players should dedicate farm space to their crops and harvest them to generate the most income.
There are ten exclusive Spring crops to choose from, varying in value and growth times. Each crop featured on this list has unique growing times and selling points. These are the best crops to plant and harvest during Spring in Stardew Valley.
Updated September 21, 2024 by Matthew Weideman: Stardew Valley continues to delight players over eight years after its initial release in 2016. Update 1.6, now out on PC and nearing console release, has given many players the urge to return to their farms and explore all the new content available. Extra info was added to the entries to help readers get info on them a little easier.
14 Tulips
Pretty Flowers That Make Good Gifts
- Seed Price: 20g
- Perfect for building friendships with villagers
- Time to grow: 6 days
- Tulips aren’t used in any recipes
Though not the most profitable option, tulips make beautiful additions to any farm. The price of Tulip seeds and 
Jazz Seeds is 20g when bought from Pierre’s. Once harvested, these flowers sell for only 30-66g each, meaning they aren’t really worth investing time and farm space in. However, Tulip Honey can be very profitable for players with the Artisan perk, since that raises its price to 224g.
The best part about growing tulips is that they make perfect gifts and are great for raising friendship levels with certain villagers. Evelyn loves tulips, while most of the other villagers like them.
13 Blue Jazz
A Nearly-Universal Gift
- Seed Price: 30g
- Perfect for building friendships with villagers
- Time to grow: 7 days
- Best recipe: Lucky Lunch
Blue Jazz seeds are slightly more expensive than Tulip seeds, but the flowers are consequently worth more. They sell for 50-110g, depending on the player’s perks, which makes this flower a slightly better investment than Tulips. It also produces more expensive 
Honey, which also helps players make a good return on investment.
Like other flowers in the game, the best way to use them is to make friends. The majority of villagers like Blue Jazz, while only 
Clint, 
George, and 
Sebastian dislike them. This nearly-universal gift is sure to help players who want to make friends quickly.
12 Carrot
Classic Farming Vegetable
- Seed Price: Cannot be bought
- Perfect for feeding horses
- Time to grow: 3 days
- Carrots aren’t used in any recipes
Carrots were introduced with Update 1.6, which was released a full eight years after the initial game came out. The update added new crops, new events, new tools, and even some new characters. Carrot seeds can be obtained through one of these new characters by trading maple seeds for them. They can also be dug up, looted from certain enemies, or found in several other ways.
This classic vegetable only sells for 35-70g, which does not make them very profitable. However, feeding them to a horse grants the steed a speed bonus, making riding around the valley even better than before. They can also be given as gifts since only a few villagers dislike them.
11 Garlic
Quick Money
- Seed Price: 40g
- Perfect for cooking recipes and making Garlic Oil
- Time to grow: 4 days
- Best recipe: Escargot
Garlic Seeds can be purchased for 40 gold and sold for a minimum of 60 gold or 120 gold at maximum quality. This is a quick money-making method, as these crops only take four days to grow and mature, ready for harvesting.
Garlic is also a staple in many recipes and can be used to make oil of garlic. Players can consume this as a buff to keep insects and other threats at bay when mining.
10 Parsnips
Cheap And Fast Way To Make Profits
- Seed Price: 20g
- Perfect for cooking recipes
- Time to grow: 4 days
- Best recipe: Farmer’s Lunch
A Stardew Valley staple. Parsnips are cheap and easy to maintain, as they only take four days to grow. Players are guaranteed to make at least 10 gold net profit from these, so it is worth dedicating a section of land to these essential crops.
They are also essential for cooking recipes like Farmer’s Lunch and Parsnip Soup and fulfilling bundles at the Community Center.
9 Coffee Beans
Brew Coffee To Drink Or Give Away
- Seed Price: 100-1,000g
- Perfect for making friends or getting a speed boost
- Time to grow: 10 days; 2 days to regrow
- Best recipe: Coffee
Coffee Beans, while expensive, are a great investment for a number of reasons. After the initial growth period of 10 days, coffee plants can be harvested every other day for both the Spring and Summer. Each of these times grants the player four coffee beans, which means that players can have a giant stock of coffee beans very quickly.
It takes five coffee beans in a Keg to brew coffee, which gives the player a speed boost when drinking it. Having a good amount of coffee on hand is a great way to make the early game more efficient before the player can afford a horse. Most villagers like it as well, which means that extra coffees can be given as gifts.
8 Unmilled Rice
One Of The Most Profitable Crops
- Seed Price: 40g
- Perfect for making substantial profits
- Time to grow: 8 days; 6 days when irrigated
- Best recipe: Rice
In the second year of farming, players will discover the versatile and rewarding crop known as 
Unmilled Rice. This unique crop requires a scythe for harvesting and is ideally processed using a mill, transforming it into a convenient bag of rice. Available for purchase at Pierre’s General Store for the price of 40g, rice shoots provide the foundation for cultivating this profitable grain.
While selling the rice directly can bring in a substantial profit of 100g, opting to sell the unmilled rice itself can still yield returns of up to 66g. This crop takes 8 days to grow.
7 Kale
Level Up Farming Skills
- Seed Price: 70g
- Perfect for making substantial profits, leveling up farming skills
- Time to grow: 6 days
- Best recipe: Stir Fry
Available at Pierre’s General Store for a reasonable price of 70g, this leafy green holds remarkable profit potential. At its highest quality, a single harvest of 
Kale can fetch a handsome sum of up to 242g, making it a lucrative choice for those seeking substantial profits.
Beyond its financial rewards, Kale proves to be an excellent tool for leveling up the player’s farming skill, granting a generous 17xp with each harvest. This crop takes 6 days to mature, making it a worthwhile investment for ambitious farmers.
6 Green Beans
A Great Investment Option
- Seed Price: 60g
- Perfect for multi-harvest crop
- Time to grow: 10 days; 3 days to regrow
- Best recipe: Bean Hotpot
Players can purchase green bean seeds for 60 gold, which is quite pricey. However, one seed can produce a multi-harvest crop. The crop can then be sold for anything between 40 and 80 gold.
After the initial growth rate of ten days, the crop will regrow more beans every three days. These are an investment crop that is entirely worth it.
5 Potatoes
The Must-Have Crop
- Seed Price: 50g
- Perfect for player’s diet
- Time to grow: 6 days
- Best recipe: Hashbrowns
Potatoes, being a root vegetable, are a solid staple in both a player’s diet and their farm. They are available for 50g from Pierre’s.
Once harvested, they can sell for as little as 80g or double that if they are at the maximum quality. Potatoes take six days to mature, meaning they are a reliable source of income.
4 Rhubarb
The Pricey Option
- Seed Price: 100g
- Perfect for substantial profits
- Time to grow: 13 days
- Best recipe: Rhubarb pie
Rhubarb Seeds cost 100 gold from Sandy’s Oasis Store in the Calico Desert. The Calico Desert can be accessed by repairing the bus, by either completing the Community Center Vault bundle or through the Joja Community Development form.
It is pretty pricey but worth it, as it can sell anywhere from 220 to 440 gold with high-quality crops. Rhubarb takes 13 days to mature, so stock up and get planting.
3 Cauliflower
Takes Time, But Worth The Wait
- Seed Price: 80g
- Perfect for substantial profits
- Time to grow: 12 days
- Best recipe: Cheese Cauliflower
Cauliflower Seeds are 80 gold to purchase from Pierre’s. These hefty vegetables have one of the longest growth times at 12 days, meaning they can only be planted twice in Spring.
They make up for it in profit, though, at 175 gold each, meaning a profit of at least 95 gold at normal quality. At the highest iridium quality, they are worth 350 gold. Having the Tiller profession will help with this, as all crops are worth 10% more.
2 Ancient Fruit
Get Ready To Be Rich
- Seed Price: Obtained through a recipe given by Gunther
- Perfect for whopping profits
- Time to grow: 28 days
- Ancient fruit isn’t used in any recipes
This strange fruit isn’t a spring exclusive; it can be grown in Spring, Summer, and Fall and harvested each season until Winter. The selling price for these rare fruits ranges from 550 gold to a whopping 1,100 gold. Spring is the perfect time to plant any spare Ancient Seeds to reap the rewards.
Ancient Seeds are incredibly rare to obtain, though. The typical method is to donate the first discovered Ancient Seed artifact to Gunther in the Museum. Gunther then gives players a crafting recipe to turn the artifacts into seeds and one packet of Ancient seeds as a Kickstarter.
The Traveling Cart also sometimes rarely sells a packet of Ancient Seeds.
1 Strawberries
The Best Spring Crop
- Seed Price: 100g
- Perfect for good profits, perfect gifts, and multi-harvest
- Time to grow: 8 days; 4 days to regrow
- Best recipe: Strawberries aren’t used in any recipes
By far, the best spring crop is 
Strawberry. These cost 100 gold at the Spring Egg Festival. Players should stock up on these seeds and save them for the following spring season to make the most out of them. Once harvested, they can be sold for anything between 120 and 240 gold, depending on the quality.
Like green beans, strawberries regrow every four days, meaning they’re one of Stardew Valley’s reliable money-makers during the spring season. They are also a perfect gift for villagers like Demetrius and Maru, who absolutely love them.
