Are trees worth investing in?

[Astanex]

I'm new, and saving up money, but are trees worth it, in the long run? I mean, if I were to turn my farm from normal crops to various trees, would I be better off in the end?

[rav]

im new aswell and only at the end of summer so far so i dont know how much they net and how frequently but alone the fact that you dont have to replant them ever and that they dont need water or anything. so i would say yes they are worth it. i dont know what is the most efficient way but i think a good mix of everything can never be bad :)

[Smidge204]

Fruit trees seem to be worth it in the long run, especially if you take the time to convert the fruits into artisan products. There's a much larger investment and it takes much longer to become really profitable (trees will produce iridium quality fruits after 3 years!).

Fruit trees are not a good way to get rich quick.

[Nakos]

Fruit Trees are eventually profitable, yes.

They take 28 days to grow, and produce during only one season. I recommend starting with an Apple tree, and then moving on to an Apricot tree.

You can plant them in the Greenhouse (once you have that available), and they'll produce fruit all year round.

Here's a picture of what a Greenhouse with Fruit trees in it looks like: http://stardewvalleywiki.com/File:Greenhousefruit.jpg

[DBS]

My main account is mostly fruit trees with the exception of the greenhouse, because my farm is mostly focused on making wine - with is highly profitable if you are using fruit from your fruit trees.

[I Kinda Fail]

Depends on how long the run is, I guess. If you just have tons of fruit trees, you'll get tons of daily money... but only during the correct season.

[The Y'All Of Us]

Fruit trees will always eventually pay themselves off. Below, I will provide a list of the profits you can expect from each tree. All trees will produce one fruit per day for the appropriate season, unless they're in the greenhouse- I'll provide a 'per season' number while the per year number (if in greenhouse) will always just be 'season x 4'.

Apricot trees produce apricots which are worth a base of 50g. This makes their base seasonal production 1,400g, which means it will take two seasons of production for the tree to pay for itself. If you turn the apricots into wine, you get 4,200g for one seasons' worth of apricots, which is a 110% profit for one season's refined production. (Apricot Trees cost 2,000g).

Cherries sell for a base price of 80g, giving a seasonal profit of 2,240g- if you turn it into wine, you get 6,720g, this gives you a 97% profit from the one season. (Cherry Trees cost 3,400g).

Oranges are worth a base price of 100g, giving you 2,800g per season- Orange Wine will net you 8,400g which is a 110% return profit from one season. (Orange Trees cost 4,000g).

Peaches are worth a base price of 140g, giving you 3,920g per season- Peach Wine nets you 11,760g which is a 96% profit from one season. (Peach Trees cost 6,000g).

Apples are worth a base price of 100g, the same as oranges. This leaves you with 2,800g per season as a base- Apple Wine again being 8,400g and a 110% return profit for one season. (Apple Trees cost 4,000g).

Pomegranates are worth 140g each, the same as peaches. This gives you 3,920g per season- Pomegranate Wine being worth 11,760g which is again a 96% return profit for one season's worth of refined fruit. (Pomegranate Trees cost 6,000g).

For each year you keep a fruit tree alive and unblocked, it'll advance a quality star. The quality stars will advance you incrementally on the base value from 25%=>50%=>100%(2X), but the Wine produced from a fruit will always be worth more than the Iridium Quality version of the fruit itself, at 3X, and aging that wine can double that to 6X.

You can also use the Preserves Jar to turn the fruit into Jelly if you haven't reached the level necessary to create Kegs yet, in which case you can get-
Apricots- Apricots are actually the exception to the rule here, due to their low value. The Preserves Jar multiplies the value of the Jelly by (|base|2+50), making Apricot Jelly worth 150g- the same as Apricot Wine. The difference is that the Preserves Jar takes less time to refine Jelly than the Keg does to refine Wine. The percentage of your return remains unchanged.
Cherries- Cherry Jelly is worth 210g, 5,880g per tree/season, and it's first season's profit is 2,480g or 73% return.
Oranges- Orange Jelly is worth 250g, 7,000g per tree/season, and it's first season's profit is 3,000g or 75% return.
Peaches- Peach Jelly is worth 320g, 8,960g per tree/season, and it's first season's profit is 2,960g or 49% return.
Apples- Apple Jelly shares it's value with Orange Jelly.
Pomegranates- Pomegranate Jelly shares it's value with Peach Jelly.

Not long ago, I did an experimental layout (you can see it in my current avatar) that maximised the usage of space on the Standard layout for trees- I had about three hundred total fruit trees on the farm, which I used to produce wine. Selling the wine from that one year of gathering, I made 3.46 million gold- At least, that's my rough estimate. I took a screenshot which you're welcome to check for yourself- If I remember, I'll link to it when I come back to this discussion.


TL;DR- You won't make a profit off a fruit tree for the first season it produces, unless you turn the fruit into wine, in which case you'll get back approximately the cost of two of the same tree.
Turning the fruit into Jelly has a similar, but less valuable effect, except for Apricots. Apricot Jelly is more efficient than Apricot Wine for the time taken to produce.

This is outclassed by other methods of producing a profit, but for early game when you have lower tier tools, less energy to work with, and no access to higher production methods, it can be an effective method of guranteeing a later profit for the least amount of effort, and the tree will continue producing until you decide to cut it down. This makes Fruit Trees a pleasant and profitable addition to your farm.

::Edit:: I've come back with those screenshot links.

Link One- This is a snippet of the fruit trees spaced as close as they can be to one another. I had this for 95% of my layout, save for the ponds and the six barns I kept my kegs in. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=849357489 )

Link Two- This is at the end of the one year period for which I saved all the wine from my farm. I had the least amount of Apricot Wine out of all of the tree types, since I had Apricot Trees in the 'row' which was cut off by my greenhouse and barns. The first stack, which is less than 999, is the Apricot Wine. From there, it's cherry until you reach the unfinished stack and so on. ( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914226868 )

Link Three- This is how much all that wine was worth. That's one year's worth of fruit tree wine, sold in a single lump.
( http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914227196 )

[KatherineFtw]

Originally posted by Astanex:

I'm new, and saving up money, but are trees worth it, in the long run? I mean, if I were to turn my farm from normal crops to various trees, would I be better off in the end?

Long run? There's more profitable Fruits that are rare and expensive, but pay off quickly. Alternatively you can clone with a later machine reducing risk.

The Greenhouse is something you'll want to obtain early, as mentioned above it allows for any crop to be produced year round.