The Best Summer Crops in Stardew Valley

In Stardew Valley, the Summer season is the most lucrative time for farming. There’s a large variety of crops to grow and most sell for a high price. There aren’t many poor options to choose from in the Summer, which can make deciding which crops to grow that much more difficult. If you’re looking to max-out your gains during peak season, you’re going to want to make a beeline towards the best Summer crops in Stardew Valley. The following crops are the ones to be on the lookout for.

Melon

Melons are going to be one of your bumper crops during your first Summer in Stardew Valley. Despite its long 12-day growth cycle, one melon will sell for triple the amount of its seed price! This beats out most of the year one crops available to you, save for one other crop on this list. What makes Melons a viable option is its potential to become a giant crop. A giant melon essentially turns a 3×3 square of melons into one giant, harvestable melon. At minimum, it’ll yield 15 melons, just under twice the amount of the regular harvest! There’s no risk to growing giant crops, making the melon a stable, safe, and sturdy crop to grow your farm around.

Blueberries

Blueberries are one of the best crops in the game let alone the Summer. Taking 13 days to mature and producing more fruit every four days after that, a blueberry plant will yield three blueberries per harvest at minimum. Not only does the initial harvest cover the cost of the seed and then some, but every subsequent harvest is pure profits into your pockets. If you’re using a greenhouse, blueberries become a self-multiplying crop. For the low cost of 80 gold and some patience, you can grow a field of blueberries. You can plant one blueberry, harvest the three blueberries it produces, chuck them into a seed maker, and get more blueberry seeds to repeat the process! Blueberries only have one negative quality about them: there’s a better summer fruit out there once you’ve got the setup for it.

Starfruit

Only available in the desert at Sandy’s shop, the starfruit won’t be your first Summer crop choice. The seeds are 400 gold a piece, preventing start-up farmers from filling their fields with it. Once you’re able to foot the bill, however, the starfruit becomes massively profitable. One starfruit seed will yield one starfruit, which sells for 750 gold at base quality. The real money to be had is in artisan goods; starfruit wine triples the value of every starfruit, creating a much higher return on investment. It does take some effort to be in a good position to do this. You’ll need a level eight in farming to mass-produce the kegs necessary to ferment all the starfruit you’ll be growing. This makes starfruit the crop of choice for late-game farmers who are looking to diversify their production, and are more focused on long-term plans over quick profits.

Hops

Hops are an honorable mention due to their flexibility. It’s still one of the longer growth cycles to deal with, but they produce a harvest every day once fully grown. You can put your hops in a keg to generate Pale Ales, which sell for 300 gold, or you can throw them into a seed maker and sell the hop starters for a quicker profit. The money you’ll be making won’t come close to what you could earn with the other crops on this list, but it’s an easy crop to focus on if you’re just starting out with producing artisan goods. Just be mindful of the space you lose with hops. The trellises they grow on can’t be walked over, so you’ll lose prime farming real estate on ensuring you can water them effectively.

As long as you focus on one of these four crops, your Summer in Stardew Valley will be a happy one. There’s plenty of other crops in Stardew Valley to learn about. You can find out more about the Best Fall Crops in Stardew Valley here. Crops need to be watered, but you can automate the process with sprinklers. Here’s a handy guide on the Best Sprinkler Layouts in Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is available on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and mobile devices.