Are Parsnips the best spring crop?

[Snowy Sprout]

Considering the needs to raise farming XP, have early energy food, and have gifts most people will like, I think a strong case could be made for spamming parsnips more than any other crop in first spring.

What are the drawbacks, and what direct comparisons can we make to decide if other choices might be better?

[Snowy Sprout]

One of the beautiful things about parsnips is that they are so fast. This gives special advantages in the very beginning of the game.

I know one might want to plant green beans, cauliflower, and potatoes besides parsnips, to turn them in to the CC and get the 20 speed gro. I'm not saying that's a bad strategy.

What I am saying is that it's not the ONLY good strategy.

If you invest your initial $500 just into potatoes, that is only TEN potato seeds you can buy.
If you invest it into cauliflower, that is only SIX.
If you invest it into parsnips, you can plant FORTY!

If you plant potatoes first, then plant a second crop of potatoes with your profits, you will not be able to harvest that second crop in time to spend those profits on strawberries at the egg festival.

If you plant cauliflower, you won't even get one crop before the egg festival happens.

But if you plant parsnips you will get TWO fully cashable crops, whether your second crop is parsnips OR potatoes!

And given how many more parsnips you can start with compared to either of the others, that second crop can be just so much bigger and better than the first!

Plus, all that harvesting will raise your farming skill a lot more. And that means more STARS on your strawberries, which means more profits! (Unless you intend to jar them, of course.)

[Stardustfire]

strawberrys are the way to go

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

strawberrys are the way to go

Yeah, but you don't get those until the Egg Hunt which is halfway through Spring. By that point, you probably won't have enough gold to stock up on a lot of seeds, so they may not be nearly as profitable until year 2 where you'll have access to the seed maker and more time to grow strawberries.

Still nice to have during year 1, just not in the short-term.

[Stardustfire]

i ever liquidiese all resources before the fair day, so it pays already off in year one. after that i try to scrape together enove coins to get as much as possible cabbage seed for the collections in the townhall.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

strawberrys are the way to go

You didn't read a single entry above your own, did you?

[Dimensional Traveler]

Originally posted by Snowy Sprout:

Originally posted by Dimensional Traveler:

I actually made a spreadsheet to compare the profits from crops based on $/day growing & processing, taking into account cost of seed, avg # of crops from one seed, and the base sell price.
...
Based on this your best spring crop first year is Cauliflower.

While I do not dispute any of your numbers, in the practical test I just did parsnips actually won. The thing is, sometimes pure numbers don't take everything into account. And sometimes different parameters are valued highest compared to other times.

Obviously the circumstances for my experiment may not fit for all playthroughs. But it was educational for me!

My spreadsheet doesn't take into account better than base quality crops or time spent watering or such. The fact that your first 15 parsnip seeds were free would also change the results. I didn't intend it to cover every possible combination, just a "rule of thumb" table to help me make decisions.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Dimensional Traveler:

I didn't intend it to cover every possible combination, just a "rule of thumb" table to help me make decisions.

Valid! And I use similar charts of my own. But you were calculating for cash value, and I was calculating for almost everything except cash (gifts, energy) to consider the value of the crop itself to the player or NPC's.

The fact that the parsnips managed to rival or outdo the potatoes in this particular setting was a quirk of the circumstances. But that is exactly the point. Different circumstances or needs can change the priority of a crop. Therefore one cannot make such a blanket statement as "this one crop is best" and expect to be correct every time.

Surprises like that are part of the fun of the game! Charts are helpful, but if the whole game could be easily predicted just by charts there would hardly be any point in bothering to play.

[Beytran70]

Fun fact the multiple potato yield is actually an infinitely stacking 20% each time, so theoretically (you can actually manipulate this) you can get like 100 potatoes from a single plant if you were very lucky, so if you are a worshipper of RNGesus then potatoes are the optimal plant at all times.

[DaBa]

The problem with parsnips is that, while they have really good profit margins, they are way too cheap and as such impossible to scale up efficiently. You're not going to have 500 plots of parsnip in the first spring, you won't have the time or the energy to deal with all of it.

So yeah, parsnips are the best spring crop for the first two harvests maybe, but after that you will need to switch to something more expensive for the next harvest, and when the third week comes you should be able to save enough money to pour everything into cauliflowers until the end of the month, since everything else would result in way too many crops to take care of. If you do some fishing and sell forage, you can easily get to around 100 cauliflower plots by the middle of first spring, and that's already A LOT of crops to water each day with a basic can.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by DaBa:

The problem with parsnips is that, while they have really good profit margins, they are way too cheap and as such impossible to scale up efficiently. You're not going to have 500 plots of parsnip in the first spring, you won't have the time or the energy to deal with all of it.

So yeah, parsnips are the best spring crop for the first two harvests maybe, but after that you will need to switch to something more expensive for the next harvest, and when the third week comes you should be able to save enough money to pour everything into cauliflowers until the end of the month, since everything else would result in way too many crops to take care of. If you do some fishing and sell forage, you can easily get to around 100 cauliflower plots by the middle of first spring, and that's already A LOT of crops to water each day with a basic can.

I 100% agree with you! it's all about managing the size of watering chore you can (and want to) manage.

I guess the title of the thread was a bit tongue-in-cheek. I know other crops are better once you can afford to fill that "as much watering as I care to do" quota with them. It's just that people so often overlook parsnips entirely, even as the first crop to plant. I've seen people sell their original 15 seeds just to have a few more dollars to buy three more potato seeds, as if that was a good investment. It boggles my mind.

If you are willing to water 40 plants, then planting 10 potatoes isn't the best idea. Much better to choose the size of watering chore you want to do each day, then plant as many crops as it takes to fill that quota, whatever those crops might be.

Edit:
Wait, I forgot... Actually since a big part of the original point here was gifts to give to people, I still stand behind parsnips. They're liked by almost everyone, it's easy to get ones with stars on them, and they're cheap enough and grow fast enough to get lots. Much better than growing all your crops for nothing but cash reasons.

[Snowy Sprout]

I think folks often ignore the value of making friends in this game. There are so many recipes available only through making friends, as well as the gifts they send you and the fun cut scenes that enrich the storyline.

There's just so much more to the game than pure capitalism. I think it's a shame to miss out on that.

[FishyBeef]

Okay, i'll admit, i didn't read every post, i read the first couple and i get your point. Which spring crop has the most value overall, not just monetary value. That said you do make mention of what is best to grow for your first spring.

Every time i play singleplayer i generally grow the first group of parsnips then spend my time fishing at the rock on the beach because it guarantees better quality fish.

I usually sell pretty much every fish i catch not counting the ones i need for community center. Then i use this money to buy as many strawberries as i can.

If you take the time to prepare a field for them earlier on (Scarecrows and if you water them i haven't noticed any drawbacks) you can plant them as soon as you leave the festival, this gives you at least two harvests. I usually sell all but one regular quality strawberry so that when i get the seed maker i can just have strawberries if i want them.

Again i'm aware there are other crops that could be valuable for other reasons but my focus in year one is a cross of making money and leveling skills as well as completing the community center. I usually like to get the greenhouse done by the start of year two.

I use the money to buy things like a shed a barn and a coop. I normally like to max the barn but i'm thinking maxing the coop might be better/easier because rabbits also give wool though you could also buy wool as well as a sandfish from the merchant.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by FishyBeef:

Okay, i'll admit, i didn't read every post, i read the first couple and i get your point. Which spring crop has the most value overall, not just monetary value.

I'll grant your point about strawberries being super valuable to invest into for a cash springboard.

How do you feel about friendship in the first year? Important, or nah? Is it a mechanic even worth bothering for? Do you do anything special to work for it? Are there some villagers you particularly care about befriending?

No judgement here for different strategies. Friendship is something I like to do, but I recognize not everyone needs to care about it.

[Nakos]

Well... friendships tend to provide recipes, which can be of limited use prior to having a Kitchen (or the Cookout Kit). So ... friendship value has to be mitigated a bit by that, but "friends" will also send you stuff, so that can be valuable.

Personally, I tend to work on friendships, regardless of what month/year it is.

I also like to do the Quality Crops Bundle, and Parsnips have a good chance to be on that (assuming you're using the remixed bundles). So ... I keep growing at least 15 Parsnips all Spring long, ideally with Fertilizer.

Parsnips don't offer the most Farming experience, but they do have a fast turnover to make up for that. They also let you ramp up your cash quickly. Up to the point where you're pushing your limits on watering of course.

Strawberries are a valuable crop, even in year one, but you've got to get to them first, and you have to have some "seed money" when you do.

I always try to grow some of everything.

[Dimensional Traveler]

Friendship: Secondary consideration for me. I'll chat with NPCs as I come across them. Once I'm running a decent sized brewery every once in a while I'll give a beer to as many people in town as I can in a day, usually by going the the Tavern.

Crops: I'll tend to concentrate on the most profitable ones but there always seems to be a reason to grow at least some of everything. Delivery missions usually, which also helps with the friendship bit.