Ancient Fruit or Starfruit?

[Doubleplus]

I plan to use my island farm for farming either Ancient Fruit or Starfruit, and process them into jelly. Which fruit will give the most profit in the long run?

[Nakos]

Starfruit is more valuable.

The issue is that it's also more labor intensive. And there are more rotating costs associated with it.

So ... it's a trade off. Maximum cash? Starfruit. Good cash with lower labor costs? Ancient Fruit.

[Stardustfire]

ancient fruit you plant onetimes and harvest forever, starfruit needs to replanted again and again, so count in goldloose by making seeds or buying them.

[Zailiex]

Ancient Fruit you have 2 good examples right there

[Keeper Of Monsters]

Why jelly though? Wine is more profitable for both of those...

[Doubleplus]

Originally posted by Keeper Of Monsters:

Why jelly though? Wine is more profitable for both of those...

I have a routine where I do the most labor intensive and time consuming work every 3 days. Like collecting animal produce , collecting fruits from trees, and processing them. The preserves jar also happen to align with that "every 3 days" routine lol.

[RedViper]

Originally posted by The Dark Tyger:

Originally posted by Nakos:

Starfruit is more valuable.

The issue is that it's also more labor intensive. And there are more rotating costs associated with it.

So ... it's a trade off. Maximum cash? Starfruit. Good cash with lower labor costs? Ancient Fruit.

But does it remain more profitable in the long run? Ancient fruit is "one and done" planting, and you don't even actually have to buy the seeds. Star Fruit, you need to re-buy seeds after every harvest.

For wine, starfruit is more profitable, but if you are just going to sell the fruit as is, it's better ancient fruit.

And that is considering that ancient fruit takes really long to actually become profitable, since the seeds are very rare and you might get 1-2 seeds per week per plant with the seed maker.

[Shiztastic]

Topic answer is incorrect.

Ancient Fruit is always more profitable in the long run. It overtakes Starfruit on the 6th Ancient Fruit batch for Wine, 5th for Jelly, and the gold per day gap continues to increase after this point towards the true difference(This is due to the initial 28 day maturation time on Ancient Fruit).

If you are waiting on Ancient Seeds to fill the allotted space, plant Starfruit while you wait, but switch as soon as you are able.

[Jigain]

Originally posted by The Dark Tyger:

It's a slow start, but the seeds start piling up quick.

Quite so. To illustrate:

Week 1: 1 plant.
Week 2: 1 plant.
Week 3: 1 plant.
Week 4: 1 plant.
Week 5: 2 plants.
Week 6: 3 plants.
Week 7: 4 plants.
Week 8: 5 plants.
Week 9: 7 plants.
Week 10: 10 plants.
Week 11: 14 plants.
Week 12: 19 plants.
Week 13: 26 plants.
Week 14: 36 plants.
Week 15: 50 plants.
Week 16: 69 plants. <--- 1 year
Week 17: 95 plants.
Week 18: 131 plants.
Week 19: 181 plants.
Week 20: 250 plants.
Week 21: 345 plants.
Week 22: 476 plants.
Week 23: 657 plants.
Week 24: 907 plants.
Week 25: 1252 plants.
Week 26: 1728 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Riverland + Forest + Hilltop Farm
Week 27: 2385 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Wilderness Farm
Week 28: 3292 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Four Corners + Beach Farm
Week 29: 4544 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Standard Farm
Week 30: 6272 plants.
Week 31: 8657 plants.
Week 32: 11949 plants. <--- 2 years

Starting from just one seed, you could theoretically grow almost twelve thousand plants by the second year after you planted it. Just for fun, if you straight up sold 11949 Ancient Fruit, that'd net you 11949 x 550 = 6571950g at minimum (that is, assuming all crops have no stars and you don't have the Tiller profession).

I like math.

[RedViper]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Originally posted by The Dark Tyger:

It's a slow start, but the seeds start piling up quick.

Quite so. To illustrate:

Week 1: 1 plant.
Week 2: 1 plant.
Week 3: 1 plant.
Week 4: 1 plant.
Week 5: 2 plants.
Week 6: 3 plants.
Week 7: 4 plants.
Week 8: 5 plants.
Week 9: 7 plants.
Week 10: 10 plants.
Week 11: 14 plants.
Week 12: 19 plants.
Week 13: 26 plants.
Week 14: 36 plants.
Week 15: 50 plants.
Week 16: 69 plants. <--- 1 year
Week 17: 95 plants.
Week 18: 131 plants.
Week 19: 181 plants.
Week 20: 250 plants.
Week 21: 345 plants.
Week 22: 476 plants.
Week 23: 657 plants.
Week 24: 907 plants.
Week 25: 1252 plants.
Week 26: 1728 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Riverland + Forest + Hilltop Farm
Week 27: 2385 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Wilderness Farm
Week 28: 3292 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Four Corners + Beach Farm
Week 29: 4544 plants. <--- Exceeding tillable land on Standard Farm
Week 30: 6272 plants.
Week 31: 8657 plants.
Week 32: 11949 plants. <--- 2 years

Starting from just one seed, you could theoretically grow almost twelve thousand plants by the second year after you planted it. Just for fun, if you straight up sold 11949 Ancient Fruit, that'd net you 11949 x 550 = 6571950g at minimum (that is, assuming all crops have no stars and you don't have the Tiller profession).

I like math.

You forgot the seasonal limit on the plant, meaning that it will die in the winter, so you will be limited to only the greenhouse [spolier](and eventually the island farm)[/spolier] or you will have to replant every year with no growth in winter.

[Jigain]

Originally posted by RedViper:

You forgot the seasonal limit on the plant, meaning that it will die in the winter, so you will be limited to only the greenhouse (and eventually the island farm) or you will have to replant every year with no growth in winter.

I didn't forget about it, I just didn't account for it as it's an illustration, and nothing more. Else I'd also have accounted for the fact that none of the maps even have enough land to support 12000 plants, or the use of fertilizers to accelerate growth, or the simple fact that there's just not enough time in the day to harvest, seedify, till, and plant 12000 plants. :)

[Nakos]

Originally posted by The Dark Tyger:

Originally posted by Nakos:

Starfruit is more valuable.

The issue is that it's also more labor intensive. And there are more rotating costs associated with it.

So ... it's a trade off. Maximum cash? Starfruit. Good cash with lower labor costs? Ancient Fruit.

But does it remain more profitable in the long run? Ancient fruit is "one and done" planting, and you don't even actually have to buy the seeds. Star Fruit, you need to re-buy seeds after every harvest.

Hm.. not positive on that. I want to say "yes" but I haven't actually done the math out. It also depends on what you're doing with the respective fruits, whether or not you have the Artisan bonus ... how long you're willing to age it ... etc.

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Starfruit
https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Ancient_Fruit

It's entirely possible that my information is outdated (or just wrong). Looking at the wiki, it looks like Ancient Fruit does pull ahead in the long run.

Ancient Fruit also synergizes better with Kegs.

[heehee7]

I find the best way to figure out what will be more profitable is with this site. Does All the math for you, and you can change what season or if it's cross seasons or the greenhouse (which is the same as the island in regards to the calculations).
https://thorinair.github.io/Stardew-Profits/

[Uncoelacanth]

From my back-of-the-speadsheet cacs, it seems like, overall, if you're going to grow in the greenhouse, keg-and-cask, as Artisan, the big hit you take from Starfruit is having to buy the seeds.

Greenhouse Ancient Fruit asymptotically reaches 7 days per crop, and Iridium-Quality Artisan Ancient Fruit WIne sells for 4620G, or about 660G/growth day.

Greenhouse Starfruit costs 400G per crop, and under Deluxe Speed-Gro (which lasts forever in the Greenhouse under single-harvest plants) takes 9 days from planting to Harvest. Iridium-Quality Artisan Starfruit Wine sells for 6300G, for a net profit of 5900G after seed price. That's 655G/growth day per greenhouse plot.

If you can use Hyper Speed-Gro on Starfruit, that will reduce the growing time to 8 days, which results in 737.5G/growth day per greenhouse plot..

Whether that difference is worth the extra effort is up to the player. A modless player isn't going to have enough cellar space to keep up with casking all the produce that a fully farmed greenhouse can generate, anyway.