Crops

This article or section is not a stub, but still **needs help**. Please feel free to improve it.
**Additional comments:** Need all of the new 1.5 crops added still
Growing, nurturing, and selling **crops** provides the core gameplay for farming in *Staxel*. While tending most plants is straightforward, the timing of planting, harvesting, and selling crops can involve complex planning efforts. Players are free to expand beyond the starting farm and may plant crops anywhere they wish on the island, although the hours in the day may dwindle quickly when watering and harvesting any large farm area.

## Types of crops

### Seasonal crops

Seasonal crops are sold in red seed packets and will always wilt if they are not harvested by the time their season ends (*"They have left for the big garden in the sky."*), requiring removal by hand or with a Scythe. However, crops not completely grown by the last day of the season can be reset using the Scythe to get the original seeds back.

Crops come in two varieties: seeds which grow once and must be replanted for further harvests, and others which, once harvested, leave in place a still-growing crop that will regrow the next harvest in a shorter time.

### Bushes and Fruit Trees

Bushes and Fruit Trees are sold in purple seed packets and have the benefit of never dying after being planted and growing new fruit every few days that they are in season, though they can neither grow nor be planted in Winter (with the exceptions of Pears and Tangerines). In general, they are more expensive than standard seasonal crops, require more room, and take much longer than seasonal crops before fruiting. Therefore, they are investments and it is recommended to plan ahead of time and plant them prior to the season they would begin fruiting.

Fruit trees require a 3x3 or 4x4, depending on the type of tree, tilled square around it to be planted. Bushes take up a 1x1 area like most crops do.

## Growth cycles

Each step of crop care is a time-intensive process, so it is recommended to set aside enough time to get any necessary tilling, planting, watering, Manure applying, and harvesting done each day.

The tilling and harvesting processes can be majorly expedited by targeting one crop, holding down the activation button to charge the tool, then releasing the button. The longer the button is held down, the larger the size of the area affected. Charged tools will highlight all of the items in their area of effect in green. The player can move their character and/or the camera to move the area of effect. If the player does not want to use the charged tool on an area and wishes to cancel the action, they can look at something outside of their tool's reach (such as the horizon or sky) or look at something that cannot be affected by their tool and no green-highlighted area of effect is shown.

The planting, watering, and Manure applying processes can be marginally expedited by holding down the action button while passing the targeting reticle over each tile of tilled dirt (rather than pressing the button over each tile, then releasing the button).

### Preparation

To prepare a field for farming, the grass or dirt must first be tilled with a hoe. Stone cannot be tilled, but if the player desires to plant crops in the same area the stone is, the player can use a pickaxe to clear away the stone, then replace it with dirt or grass dug up elsewhere with a shovel or bought from the Shipping Catalogue.

Seeds can then be planted into the tilled ground by holding a seed packet, targeting a tile of tilled dirt, and pressing the activation button. Most crops require only one tile of tilled dirt per seed, but some crops require more space. Fruit trees will be located in the center of their required space, while sprawling crops like Watermelons and Pumpkins will be located one corner of their required space. The direction of the Watermelon and Pumpkin seeds' placements cannot be manually controlled.

Other than Magic Water, there is no fertilizer that can be used to aid growth, though Manure can be used on wilted crops to revive them and eating food items that give the **Lucky** buff will increase the chance of double**[ ? ]** harvest per crop.

### Watering

Each seed or plant must be watered every day until the crops are fully grown and have been harvested. Crops that take up more than one tile do not require every tile to be watered; only the tile that the seed or plant itself is on requires water. Crops can be watered with either a watering can or a sprinkler. Watering cans will occasionally need to be refilled from water sources such as ponds or sinks, while sprinklers will generate their own water and do not need any refilling or maintenance.

The Small Sprinkler, Sprinkler, and Large Sprinkler are farming items that can be placed on the ground and will automatically water the surrounding tilled tiles while they are placed. Each sprinkler has a different range, and all can be bought from the Building Store. Sprinklers do not water their entire area of effect at once, but instead water one random tile at a time. Due to this, sprinklers can be moved to an unwatered area mid-day and will begin working at once.

Small Sprinkler watering area.png|Small Sprinkler area
Sprinkler watering area.png|Sprinkler area
Large Sprinkler watering area.png|Large Sprinkler area
Sprinkler Guide.png|Side-by-side sprinkler comparison

### Growth periods

After each day ends, watered crops will advance one growth stage. This change is visibly represented, and each crop has distinctive stages.

Crops that are not ready to harvest will be surrounded with a white highlight when targeted, while ripe crops will be surrounded with a green highlight when targeted.

Crops can be instantly grown to full maturity by using Magic Water on them. However, Magic Water is a rare item.

### Wilted crops

If a crop is not watered for one day, then the crop will wilt and lose two days' worth of growth. Wilted crops appear discolored, looking browner than a healthy crop. To save the wilted crop, on the day that the crop has wilted, apply Manure and water to recover one day of growth. After applying Manure, the crop will immediately brighten up and appear healthy again.

If a crop was ready to harvest but was neither harvested nor watered for one day, then the crop will be wilted the following day. As a wilted crop, that crop cannot be harvested. However, applying Manure to the wilted crop will revitalize it, and watering the revitalized crop will allow it to be harvested.

### Dead crops

Crops die after not being watered for two consectutive days. If the wilted crop is not watered for one more consecutive day and Manure is not applied, then the crop will wither away and die. Dead crops appear shrunken and are a darker brown than wilted crops. Dead crops will persist until they are cut down with a scythe or pulled out of the ground by hand.

Fruit Trees and Bushes do not require any watering and cannot die. The only way to destroy them is to do so by hand with an axe.**[ ? ]**

### Harvesting

 This article or section is not a stub, but still **needs help**. Please feel free to improve it.
**Additional comments:** Needs to be revised more for clarityOnce crops are fully grown, they can be harvested. Eating a food item that gives the **Lucky** buff will increase the chance of double**[ ? ]** harvest per crop. Status effects last the entire in-game day and are removed after either the new day starts or Milk is drunk.

Crops can be harvested by hand with a right-click on the fully-grown plant (which will show a green highlight), or with the Scythe. The Scythe can be charged to harvest large areas of crops at a time. A fully charged Scythe allows harvesting of up to 5x3 tiles of crops at once. Harvested items will fall on the ground, potentially making them hard to pick up with some recurring crops (like the cucumber), or around crops whose model takes a lot of room (like sugar cane or oats). It is strongly recommended to enable Auto Pickup in the settings in those situations.

Cutting down any plants which are not fully grown will completely revert that plant to seed form. can lead to some accidental plant loss during the growing season.

With the exception of crops that regrow, harvesting a crop will return that space into a tile of Tilled Dirt. More seeds can immediately be planted in the tilled soil. If no seeds are planted in the tilled soil, then the Tilled Dirt will become Dirt, which can turn into Grass if the Dirt tile is in contact with a Grass tile.

## Selling

*Main article: Selling items*
Crops can be sold via the Traveling Merchants' Sell Boxes or via a Shipping Station. However, the prices offered by buyers will decrease with each stack sold up to ~33% reduction in Sell Price after 300+ sold. To avoid overloading the market like that, it is recommended to experiment with cooking crops into a variety of different foods to substantially increase the amount of Petals earned from each harvest.

Additionally, crops can be gifted to villagers to build Friendship with them. Doing so will unlock new quests, town buildings, and background stories. For more details on this, see the favourite gifts guide.

## List of Crops

*Crops must be watered daily and can be harvested by hand or with a Scythe when fully grown.*

*(1) Players have a 7% chance to receive 3 Cat Turnip Seeds whenever a Pet (of any species) delivers a Pet Gift*

*(2) **(Minor Spoiler)** Merchants will begin selling Coffee Seeds after completing* The Elixir of Life *quest from Rowan. However, Coffee plants can potentially be obtained before then by sowing Mixed Seeds*

*(3) Sunflowers have an 50% chance to drop an additional Sunflower Seed on harvest*

*(5) (Sell Price - Seed Cost) / Growth = Return*

*(6) Sell Price / Regrowth = Return Regrowth*

### Golden Crops

Golden crops are rare variants of normal crops that sell for significantly more Petals than their normal counterparts. Golden crop seeds may be obtained by processing a stack of *at least ten* of a single type of crop into seeds in a Seedmaker.

Most crops will produce more seed packets than the number of crops put in. However, Coffee Beans will only produce one packet of Coffee Bean Seeds per ten Coffee Beans put in.

*1Petals Bonus formula for most Crops: Average Harvest \* (Normal Price \* Normal Multiplier + Golden Price \* Golden Multiplier) - Normal Price*

*Sunflowers lack a Golden variant and have a 50% chance to receive a free normal seed on harvest, resulting in a different set of outcomes when placed in the Seedmaker.*

## List of Bushes

*Bushes do not require watering and must be harvested by hand. 10% chance to receive a 2nd fruit on harvest*
See Seedmaker for information on Golden variants

## List of Fruit Trees

*Fruit Trees do not require watering and harvest quite slowly by hand. Always provides 3 fruit with 10% chance to receive a 4th fruit on harvest*
No Golden variants, see Seedmaker for details

*(4) Note that most Fruit Trees do not grow in Winter, so to harvest fruit in Spring you should plant them in the prior year's Summer or Fall*