Best Summer Crops in Stardew Valley: Improve Your Crop Game

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Lillie Forteau

Lillie grew up in a digital content family, writing for her family's travel and food website from a young age. So she knows a thing or two about eye-catching content and SEO. However, her true passion has always been gaming, and her mission moving forward is to cover every Nintendo game known to man. Her main squeezes when it comes to games are Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and any Zelda title past or present.

Latest posts by Lillie Forteau (see all)

• Best Summer Crops in Stardew Valley: Improve Your Crop Game - January 11, 2023
• How to Make Money in Stardew Valley - December 28, 2022
• Stardew Valley Clothes Guide: Clothing, What About It? - August 25, 2022

Stardew Valley: my absolute favorite cross-platform game. It’s versatile, it’s fun, and it’s definitely stressful at times, especially when you’re starting (or maybe you’re in year five), and you NEED money. I used to struggle with farming, which crops were worth it, which crops weren’t, and what was my favorite, but after two years of playing on virtually every platform with Stardew Valley, I consider myself a summer crop connoisseur.

Bottom Line Upfront

Summer isn’t the most profitable season, but it’s a great second place, and the crops are extremely fun and the essence of summer. Summer crops are diverse, and really, there’s a crop for everybody. The game features a great range of crops (and a few crops with multiple seasons, as well.)

But it can be tough to narrow down a list of what you want on your farm and what isn’t worth your time. I know I used to swear by hot peppers, and now you literally couldn’t pay me to plant them. This article will help you slim down that list of crops and get a precise, great money-making summer farm, so when the time comes, you’ll have a backup of money sources or enough money for winter.

As well as that, all bottled-type goods, wine, and preserves can sell for 40% more when you have the artisan profession, which can be unlocked when you’re at level ten in farming. It’s the tiller, and not only do you get 40% more on those types of goods, but crops can also grow 10% faster. So if you’re looking for the most money, this is the profession you want.

Selection Criteria

So what makes one crop better than another? There are a few elements, not too many, but enough to narrow down the selection.

• Value for price: can you get enough money back when you sell to make it worth it?
• Ease of harvesting
• How easily can you get this crop? How easy is it to keep up?
• Does it make for good artisan goods?

Best Stardew Valley Summer Crops

Overall Best Crop: Blueberries

Ah, one of my favorite crops. I love multi-harvest crops; they’re easy, they tend to give a lot, and even though blueberries aren’t worth as much as some single-harvest crops (think melons, sunflowers, etc.), they can absolutely rack up the G. Blueberries can be a love-hate crop; most people love it, some people despise it.

It’s very controversial to love blueberries, but I’m from a place where blueberry picking is one of the best summer activities, so it reminds me of my own home. Plus, in my opinion, they’re the cutest crop.

But it’s really the best crop possible for summer. It’s also highly profitable, being a regrow crop that gives an average of three blueberries per harvest. It takes 13 days for them to grow and be ready for harvest fully, and then regrows every four days after that, so you’ll be able to get a maximum of four harvests for the summer per blueberry plant.

Also, since it doesn’t regrow every day, which can be a plus and minus (minus for me, since I always forget to harvest frequently), it’s easier to remember when to harvest.

Blueberries take a while to actually produce (13 days, four days after that for regrow), and since it’s on a tight schedule to get as many harvests as possible, you definitely need to be attentive. Also, use any growing fertilizer to speed up the process if you’re prone to forgetting about crops.

Math: you can get 12 blueberries per plant every season, so you’ll get at least 500g per plant on a harvest, and the cost of one seed is 80g.

This makes it an excellent crop for early and mid-game, as you can spend a mid-amount of money and make it all back exceptionally quickly. You can get blueberry seeds at the general store, the night market for 80g each, and the traveling cart for 120-1000g (I don’t recommend this since you can buy them elsewhere).

The selling price increases with quality (as with everything else!).

So if you want something fast and have access to the preserves maker (and maybe not the keg), it is a fantastic way to up the price without your money-making activities with fruit taking as long as beer or some wines.

Pros

• Low starting price for seeds at 80g, which is made back plus some after the first harvest
• One of the most profitable summer plants, coming in at 20g per day, one of the highest per day rates of summer crops
• Easy to harvest
• Multiple drop crop = money honey

Cons

• Takes a while to grow fully
• Not useful in profit with one blueberry
• I found it hard to get iridium-quality blueberries

Best for Lazy Farmers: Corn

Ah yes, corn—it’s a big lump with knobs, and it definitely has the juice. It’s so beautiful! I mean, it’s both a summer AND fall crop and can give you up to 11 harvests.

Especially with sprinklers, it’s an easy crop that you don’t have to worry much about, and it lasts two whole seasons, so you won’t have to worry about whether you planted it in time to harvest before the next season comes along. While the payout isn’t immediately good because it’s multiple harvests, it makes up with mass and ease.

A reason I  always keep corn on my farm is aesthetics; it looks freaking amazing. It’s like decoration, but I don’t waste money on it. But besides that, corn is just a good crop that makes a mid-amount of money and is something you can forget about and be surprised by when it’s finally ready (assuming you have some sort of auto watering; please water this crop).

Corn, when planted right away in summer, can make a lot of money because it also runs through fall. If you decide to plant corn, plant it on the first day. They take 14 days to mature and regrow every four days. But really, why is corn on here? Most people hate corn.

I understand; corn has its place for new farmers or lazy farmers. It is extraordinarily easy—and because it lasts two seasons, you don’t have to plan out the next season’s crops. It’s perfect for first- or second-year farms, or people who don’t want to work too hard early in the game. It’s also easy to get as it’s at every store (general, Joja, traveling cart, night market)

 Pros

• Multiple harvests and a two-season plant
• While it doesn’t make much at first, it really adds up over the course of summer and fall
• Any fertilizer will stay when fall start
• Regrow is every four days

Cons

• Low selling price
• Can’t turn into wine, so there are fewer options to make more money
• Not for late-game playthroughs, best for early and early-mid game 

Best Money Maker: Starfruit

Starfruit is a costly investment, running 400g per seed, which you can only get at the oasis (unlocked when you get the bus running again).

Also, it takes 13 days to grow, so you’ll only be able to get two harvests, assuming you plant one right after the other crop is harvested. Starfruit is definitely a crop to do in your second or later year, as you can get more out of some other cheaper base-priced crops, but when you can afford a stack of starfruit, you’ll be stacked for life. Or for another year, if you’re a big spender like me.

Even better, starfruit wine is hugely profitable! I know many people hate the process of kegs, but I promise it’s worth it. Growing starfruit itself isn’t that hard, but making wine can be a bit annoying. Overall it’s not a hard crop at all.

Since it’s such a tight deadline for planting, at 13 days until harvest, I definitely recommend getting sprinklers so you don’t miss a day of watering (or at least an upgraded watering can). I have accidentally missed one too many days to harvest a crop before the new season (it’s so traumatic), so get in those full two harvests if possible.

 Pros

• In its base form, you’ll make double what you paid
• Fantastic crop to have in the greenhouse for an all year round money maker
• Extraordinary pay when turned into wine, pretty good improvement turning into preserves (1,550g)

Cons

• Pretty expensive start; it can be difficult getting more than a few seeds to start
• Not great for the seed maker, so you’ll have to buy the seeds each time, and they aren’t a regrow crop

Best Value Early: Melon

When I was deciding the spot for melon in my recommendation list for you, I was flip-flopping between melons and red cabbage (which was the best value of these?) since you can get one more harvest from red cabbage. However, the melon costs 20g less, and you can get it in your first year!

The melon is unlike the red cabbage, which is only available after year two, with a tiny chance of getting them in the traveling cart (not guaranteed unless you turn on the ability to do the community center in year one).

Then I realized everyone hates red cabbage. It’s needed for the dye bundle, and that’s the only time I ever grow it. So if you’re thinking of getting red cabbage instead of melons? Don’t.

But my favorite part of melons (besides color; I LOVE pink) is that it is one of three crops with a 1% chance of becoming giant. Only cauliflower, melons, and pumpkins can become giant crops. So as long as you have a 3×3 grid of these crops, you have a tiny chance of getting them to be giant (and when they turn giant, that doesn’t mean they’re ready to harvest!

They can turn giant at any time, so don’t try and pick it immediately!). Giant crops also never decay, so it can be a permanent showcase of how lucky you are if you don’t want to harvest it; otherwise, when you harvest it, it’ll explode into many melons instead of just being big.

Melons cost about 80g per seed in summer. They also take 12 days to become mature and ready to harvest. You can get melon seeds everywhere (general, Joja, traveling cart, night market)

Pros

• Melons are easy to get, selling at the general store, Jojamart, the traveling cart, and the winter market
• It’s a mid-priced seed, coming in at 80g for the general store, 100g for Jojamart, and at the traveling cart, between 120g-1,000g (traveling cart being more capitalist than the general store)
• Again, it can turn into a giant crop, which gives you about double the amount or more than a normal-sized fruit

Cons

• Sometimes it feels like you should get more in g than you get for the amount of work since you can only get two harvests from melons per season
• Not a great fruit to turn into preservatives. It’s a way better investment to turn into wine.

Easiest: Coffee Beans

Coffee beans seem like a meh crop, especially considering the 15g selling price, but it drops four coffee beans per harvest, regrows every two days, and can be put in kegs to make coffee, which sells for much, much more. AND it’s a multi-season crop that can be planted in spring and fall and won’t die out when summer starts.

You’ll get nine harvests from spring alone and one every other day in summer if planted in spring.

Math: in spring alone, you’ll get 36 coffee beans, assuming base price, and in summer, you’ll get 14 planted).

It’s a great side hustle and usually better than the fruit or mushroom cave in terms of passive income. Sure, coffee beans won’t make you the most, but it is a great crop if you can get some coffee bean seeds. Alas, this can be hard since you can only get them from the traveling cart and dust sprites (rare drop). So it’s not as easy to get as the rest of the crops on the list, but generally, you can find a coffee bean in year one anyway.

But the biggest reason to plant coffee beans is to make coffee and use it. Coffee is a crop most utilized by speedrunners and Skull Cavern enthusiasts. Why? Coffee gives you some extra speed, and because time is very much of the essence.

So getting from A to B can take far less time than average. It’s best consumed immediately—and be ready to keep more or make more. So if coffee doesn’t interest you money-wise, look into using coffee to boost your use of every minute in Stardew.

Figuring out how to effectively plant a crop you cannot walk through is a personal struggle of mine, so make sure you have a path to walk to collect.

 Pros

• Makes about 20g a day, which is a very high number compared to most other crops
• Even more profitable if you make the beans into coffee (five beans each needed)
• When I plant a ton of coffee crops, I save the coffee beans for winter, when I put them all in kegs and sell a ton of coffee, which usually triples (or more) my money for winter
• The coffee beans themselves are the “seed” for coffee crops, so if you get one coffee bean, you can get an endless supply of coffee beans and crops.

Cons

• The price goes up very little with quality
• It takes a while to make a good amount of money
• Needs to be remembered to harvest every other day (I forget every single time)
• Only gives four farming XP

My All-time Favorite Crop

SURPRISE! I saved the most underrated crop, probably in the game, for LAST. Did you expect that? You probably didn’t, but you’re welcome for the plot twist.

WHEAT

Yes, wheat is the best summer crop (in my humble but true opinion). With only 10g per seed, it could make a better return price when sold as is, but when you pop these bad boys in a keg? That’s a whole new story.

Wheat can be turned into beer with a keg. And while it has an extraordinarily long processing time, at 29 in-game hours, it only takes one wheat to get one beer, and beer sells A LOT, with an incredible return rate. I also put it in a cask to age it further, improving the beer’s quality. The longer it’s aged, the higher quality it will be.

Math: if you have the artisan profession, you’ll get a 40% increase in selling price. SO, that 10g wheat can make you a whole 560g if done right. Sure, it will take a while (iridium quality beer takes 14 days in a cask to get to that big ka-ching), but ANOTHER PLOT TWIST!

Wheat is a multi-season crop, so when planted in summer, it’ll stay ‘til fall, and you can still plant more in fall. This effectively doubles the amount of wheat you can process, AND, not a plot twist but pretty cool, like any multi-season crop, it won’t take away the fertilizer, which usually happens when a new season starts. So if you want to save that good stuff, corn, wheat, and coffee are great crops not to waste any fertilizer or watering stuff.

If you’re a person who makes your crops into wine and juices, this is the best value you can do. Yes, it’ll take a while, but if you already use kegs, this is a fantastic option, especially in the winter months when you don’t make anyyyything. Just store up on that wheat and get going.

 Pros

• Cheapest crop in the game
• Fast crop to grow, clocking in at four days until able to harvest
• Takes the scythe to harvest, so very easy to harvest in bulk
• While it’s not the best in its base form for selling, it can be turned into beer and into flour in the mill, so essential for cooking

Cons

• Literally no cons; this is a god-tier crop, and I’ll die on this hill
• I guess it can take a while to get the full value

FAQs

Best Summer Crops in Stardew Valley: Conclusion

Summer could be better for making money easily, but it does have some of the most profitable crops. I need to remember to even farm because of all the forage, shells, and summer fish.

However, it’s an enjoyable season for crops, which includes melons (an extremely cute crop) and starfruit (the COOLEST crop there is), and it’s only for the rich so bougie, wheat being the GOAT of all GOATS, coffee beans being an auspicious early game item if you can get it, etc.

There are a lot of money-making and aesthetic ways to farm in summer. It’s a lot of people’s favorite season for crops and fishing, and I can see why. Excuse me while I go water my crops before I forget.