Gold per day is the only fair comparison
A pumpkin sells for 320g but takes 13 days; a parsnip sells for 35g and takes 4. The calculator converts every crop into gold per day of growth, which is the number that actually decides what to plant. Regrowing crops (blueberries, cranberries, corn) earn back their expensive seeds over multiple harvests, so they pull ahead in any season long enough to let them regrow.
Counting the season honestly
A season is 28 days and crops die at midnight on the season change — a melon planted on day 20 never happens. Tell the calculator how many growing days actually remain and it will refuse plantings that can't mature instead of selling you fantasy profit. Multi-season corn is the exception: it survives into fall, so give it the combined window.
What the numbers don't include
Base prices assume no Tiller (+10%) or Agriculturist (+10% speed) profession, no quality stars, no fertilizer, and no ager-blessed luck. Those systems multiply the base numbers here rather than changing the ranking much — plant the top of this list, then layer professions and quality on top for even more gold.
How the profit figure is worked out
Profit per day is not the same as the sale price, and it is not the same as profit per harvest either. The comparable number is net gold divided by the 28 days of a season, and it has to handle two different crop behaviours:
Regrowing crops: harvests = 1 + floor((28 − firstGrowth) ÷ regrow) · seed cost paid once
Single-harvest crops: harvests = floor(28 ÷ growthTime) · seed cost paid every planting
That difference is why a 50g blueberry can beat a 250g melon. Blueberry regrows every 4 days and yields three berries per harvest, so one seed keeps paying for the rest of the season; melon is planted, harvested and replanted twice at most.
Crop profit per day, verified by calculation
| Crop | Season | Seed | Growth (days) | Harvests | Net gold | Gold / day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet Gem Berry | Fall | 1000 | 24 | 1 | 2,000g | 71.43g |
| Starfruit | Summer | 400 | 13 | 2 | 700g | 25.00g |
| Ancient Fruit | Any | 0 | 28 + 7 | 1 | 550g | 19.64g |
| Blueberry | Summer | 80 | 13 + 4 | 4 | 520g | 18.57g |
| Cranberries | Fall | 240 | 7 + 5 | 5 | 510g | 18.21g |
| Red Cabbage | Summer | 100 | 9 | 3 | 480g | 17.14g |
| Pumpkin | Fall | 100 | 13 | 2 | 440g | 15.71g |
| Hops | Summer | 60 | 11 + 1 | 18 | 390g | 13.93g |
| Melon | Summer | 80 | 12 | 2 | 340g | 12.14g |
| Amaranth | Fall | 70 | 7 | 4 | 320g | 11.43g |
| Rhubarb | Spring | 100 | 13 | 2 | 240g | 8.57g |
| Cauliflower | Spring | 80 | 12 | 2 | 190g | 6.79g |
Base quality, no fertiliser, no Tiller profession, sold raw, planted on day 1 of the season. Every figure is computed from the growth and regrow times rather than quoted, which is why it can disagree with profit tables that assume a different planting day.
Worked examples
Blueberry versus melon, the classic summer choice
Blueberry: 80g seed, 13 days to first harvest, then every 4 days, three berries per harvest at 50g. That is four harvests worth 600g against an 80g seed — 520g net, or 18.57g per day. Melon: 80g seed, 12 days, one fruit at 250g, replanted twice for 500g against 160g of seed — 340g net, 12.14g per day. Blueberry wins on the numbers, and it also needs no replanting.
Starfruit, the expensive option
400g per seed, 13 days, two harvests at 750g for 1,500g against 800g of seed — 700g net, 25.00g per day. It beats both summer staples, but it ties up 400g per tile at the start, which is the real constraint in year one. And it cannot be planted after roughly day 2, because the first harvest would fall outside the season.
Why hops and ancient fruit look different on other sites
Hops regrows every single day once mature, so the harvest count is far higher than any other crop — 18 pickups in a season. It only produces one item worth 25g, so the per-day figure is modest, but almost none of it is wasted on replanting. Ancient Fruit takes 28 days to mature and then regrows every 7, which means it produces nothing at all in its first season and a great deal in every season after — the calculator treats it as a year-round crop for that reason.
Processing changes the ranking
Selling raw is the simplest comparison, but a keg multiplies fruit value by 3 and a preserves jar gives 2× plus a flat 50. Two consequences follow. First, cheap high-volume crops gain the most from processing, because the flat +50 on a jar matters far more to a 40g crop than to a 750g one. Second, wine can go into a cask to double again, and nothing else can — which is the only place starfruit and ancient fruit are decisively better than the alternatives.
Processing time is the hidden cost. A keg takes about 7 days per batch and a jar about 2.7, so per machine per day the jar often wins even though the keg produces more per item. Build the ratio around how many machines you actually have, not around the per-item value.
Planning crops season by season
Comparing every crop by gold per day is a planning exercise you do before you plant. These are the items that suit a planning session.
- Planner notebook — A season is 28 days with crops dying at the change; writing down the plant-by dates is how you hit them.
- Second monitor — Keeping the profit table up beside the game makes the day-to-day planting decision quick.
- Gaming mouse — Planting, harvesting and the shipping bin are mouse-heavy during a busy season.
- Gaming headset — Stardew is a long, quiet game; a headset keeps its soundtrack close through a full season.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The links above are affiliate links — if you buy through one, the price you pay is unchanged and a small commission helps keep these calculators free. Tools are listed because the job calls for them, not because of commission rates.
Sources and standards
Where these figures come from
Every figure on this page is computed from the published reference below rather than copied from another calculator.
- Stardew Valley Wiki — seed prices, growth times, regrowth intervals, yield amounts and base sale prices for every crop.
- Stardew Valley Wiki — the ×3 fruit multiplier, the ×2.25 vegetable multiplier and the 7 day processing time.
- Stardew Valley Wiki — the ×2 plus 50 artisan goods formula and the 2 to 3 day processing time.
Figures, formulas and reference tables last verified: 24 September 2026.
