Stardew Valley: Best Summer Crops to Grow

Publish date: 2024-08-18

The Best Crops to Grow in the Summer for Stardew Valley

There are five big crops we want to talk about that I feel you should be growing throughout the summer in Stardew Valley. The big ones I want to highlight are Blueberries, Hops, Radishes, Starfruit, and Wheat. I feel that those are the best, critical ones to grow, given the overall yields and they have the best return investment for your time while playing the game.

Blueberries

If you’re looking for a large amount of gold for a single crop, blueberries are a great crop to go with. A blueberry seed costs 80 gold, and the item sells for 50 gold, but the crop produces three, so you’re really getting 150 gold minimum, which is near twice the amount. They take 13 days to grow but regrow every four days in Stardew Valley.

What’s extremely important to know is that you can turn blueberries into blueberry wine if you have a keg. Blueberry wine is seen as a truly efficient money maker in Stardew Valley, but you need to make sure you have those kegs at the ready to accept the wine, and sell it on the market.

Hops

Speaking of kegs, another solid crop to make some serious experience points and money with is hops. These take 11 days to grow and cost 150 gold to purchase, but they regrow once a day. If you plant them down at the start of summer, you can produce 17 crops, and each one gives you 25 gold. But you want to avoid selling these crops and instead save them for a keg to make pale ales, which sell for 300 gold, so you’ll make far more profits that way.

It’s a waiting game in Stardew Valley, but hops can be extremely useful if you’re willing to jump on that payday at the end of it.

Radish

To make sure you’re not sitting around most of the summer waiting for a crop to grow, radishes are another good crop. You can purchase them for 40 gold, and they take six days to grow to their full height. You’ll be able to have at least four of them a month, and they sell for 90 gold each. It’s not a huge crop, but the fact you can make them multiple times, it’s a solid choice for any farmer growing crops in the summer while playing Stardew Valley.

Starfruit

The Starfruit plant is an excellent single-harvest crop you can add to your farm. While the seeds cost 400 gold to purchase in the Oasis, they sell for 750 gold, so that’s a fairly hefty plant. The downside is that you’ll need quite a bit of upfront cost to buy enough of it, but if you purchase multiples of them and add them right at the start of summer, you can make quite a bit of money off of it. Starfruit takes 13 days to grow, so at most, you can only have two full harvests for all of summer in Stardew Valley.

This is not the best option for every player when they first start out on their farm. Again, Starfruit requires a good amount of startup costs, so you don’t have this, one of the better options might be Wheat, Radiashes, or Blueberries.

Wheat

The final reliable harvest I recommend for you to grow in the summer is Wheat. You can grow it both in the summer and fall, but it’s a reliable option in the summer. You’ll be able to purchase it for 10 gold each, so it’s super cheap, and it sells for 25 gold for each bundle you sell. What makes Wheat a solid choice is how much you use it in other factors in Stardew Valley, and how cheap it is. I’ve found that it’s never a bad idea to have any type of Wheat growing on my farm, especially if I’m planning to craft beers throughout the winter and spring.

About the author

Zack Palm

Zack Palm is the Senior Writer of Gamepur and has spent over five years covering video games, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Oregon State University. He spends his free time biking, running tabletop campaigns, and listening to heavy metal. His primary game beats are Pokémon Go, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and any newly released title, and he finds it difficult to pull away from any Star Wars game.

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