Hey there, you’ve been a busy farmer! Looking for the best greenhouse layout? You’ve scrimped and saved, making sure to not only have profitable crops and livestock for the subsequent seasons, but to also pay attention to the pantry bundles you need in order to unlock the Greenhouse layout.
Or maybe you went a different route, ignored the Community Center, and decided to pay for the Greenhouse from the JojaMart (you monster).
Either way, you’re now in possession of one of the most versatile buildings in the entirety of the game, the Greenhouse. While present on the Farm from the beginning, it has been in a state of disrepair up until now. The Greenhouse is so powerful because it is a magical place that exists outside of time and space. Okay, that’s not entirely true… The Greenhouse allows the player to plant crops indoor year-round, regardless of the current season.
This gives you a lot of power! But you’re only given a greenhouse layout space that is 10×12 in dimension. So, what is the best way to handle this space? What crops should you grow? And what else should you know?
Let’s tackle all these issues, one at a time to keep things simple.
The Best Greenhouse Layout — Using Iridium Sprinklers
As with all things, before we start planting anything, it’s a good idea to get organized. If you’ve spent any extensive period of time playing Stardew Valley, you know that the automatic sprinklers are immensely helpful for keeping the farm working with minimal input from you, saving time in the day for harvesting & tending to animals, fishing, mining, or making friends with the people of the town. Though it is box shaped, the 10×12 box is somewhat irregular and will require some significant planning on your part.
Another key thing to consider is what is at your disposal at the time you begin organizing your Greenhouse. Now, nothing is set in stone, and you can always move things around and replant afterward (though you’ll likely lose the plant and mature yield time), but your ability to create quality iridium sprinklers is of paramount importance to receate a “set it and forget it” greenhouse layout. These two sprinklers water the full area around them, with the area for iridium sprinklers being considerably greater than that of quality sprinklers.
So what is the best pattern to use? If you are looking to maximize your crop yield the answer depends on whether you have access to creating iridium sprinkler or quality sprinklers. Using only a quality iridium sprinkler layout, it will require 16 sprinklers set up in a grid as follows:
In the above picture, you can see the top row of sprinklers is placed on the top wooden border that surrounds the planting area, each spaced evenly so that the 3×3 watering area allows the full area of the Greenhouse’s plant-able area to be used. Since you’re using sprinklers that take up 12 spots that could be used if you watered manually, the automation will cost you 10% in total yield, which is a bargain.
However, if you have enough iridium (or enough cash to purchase the iridium from the handful of vendors that sell it) to create iridium sprinklers, it allows you to automate in a much more efficient way. You will need 6 iridium sprinklers set in the below fashion:
Note that in this case, the left-most column of iridium sprinklers is also on the left border surrounding the plant-able area. This can be set to the right as well; it’s at the discretion of the farmer. Since you’re only using 4 planting areas for the watering system, you’re making good use of 96.67% of possible spaces without having to do any watering on your own!
If you look on the internet, you’ll see that there are a few other possible configurations that mix use of different types of sprinklers. There are certain merits to using them, such as lower costs of creating less efficient sprinklers, since they still typically call for at least 4 iridium sprinklers, the resources saved are rather moot. However, if you’re interested in going further down the rabbit hole, I’ve linked to an example here.
What Are The Best Greenhouse Crops To Plant?
Now that we’ve decided how to plant crops, the question shifts to what are the best greenhouse crops to plant! This is a little less cut and dry and can be highly subjective. For example, you can plant crops that are related to gifts for some of your favorite citizens of the town, allowing you to create gifts for them readily. For example, you can grow hops to make pale ale for Pam (Just be careful; do not forget that you can’t walk through the hops crop!), or you can grow melons, wheat and sugar (the latter two need to be milled). When combined with an egg, this creates a Pink Cake, which is a great gift for Haley, Marnie, Vincent or Jas.
However, let’s say you’re in it for the money! The best greenhouse layout can act as the economic powerhouse of your farm if utilized well.
There are a few different crops that can be successful. On a lower level, both cranberries and blueberries are good for lower level farmers. They require rather low investments, both with regard to time and money, and because they continue to grow and produce fruit regularly, it’s a good source of money and experience early on.
For a more advanced farmer, there are a few different types of fruit that will yield excellent returns. First is the Starfruit. Starfruit are available from the Oasis or on occasion from the Traveling Cart. Unfortunately, they are very expensive – they will cost 400g from the Oasis store and between 600-1000g from the travelling cart. You can also obtain a single seed from Gunther after donating 15 items to the museum and use a Seed Maker to multiply your seeds until you have as many as you like (though this will likely take a considerable amount of time). But with each starfruit selling for 750g to 1125g, depending on the quality, this is a relatively good investment.
Another good option is the Sweet Gem Berry. These grow from Rare Seeds which are found from the Traveling Cart. While the seeds are expensive at about 1000g (depending on the season), Sweet Gem Berries sell for a lot – 3000g to 4500g each, depending on quality.
Finally, there is the Ancient Fruit. Ancient is not sold except occasionally from the Travelling Cart, for prices ranging from 100g to 1000g. While it may seem that the selling price of the mature fruit, ranging from 550g to 825g depending on the quality, may make it less valuable than some of the others, such as Sweet Gem Berries, many farmers prefer Ancient Fruit. Because it doesn’t need to be replanted after harvest, Ancient fruit will continue to produce fruit indefinitely, once every seven days. Furthermore, you can use kegs to make wine from the ancient fruit, and if your house if fully upgraded, you can use casks to increase the quality of that wine to iridium, which is worth 3300g each. While this all takes time, you can continue to produce and sell the fruit and wine, making it one of the easiest was to produce a lot of money with very little effort and capital investment.
Other Useful Tidbits about the Best Greenhouse Layout
One major point worth noting is that you can also plant Fruit trees in the Greenhouse. You can plant up to 20 fruit trees by utilizing the edges of the Greenhouse. Because the greenhouse is magic, the edges of the Greenhouse don’t impede the trees’ growth, allowing you to plant in a pattern like below:
Some farmers who plant trees choose fewer simply because they can obstruct the view of the Greenhouse. This is what it looks like fully planted with 20 trees, to give you an idea:
Another important fact about the Greenhouse layout is that all crops are safe from elements that might have deleterious effects outdoors. There is no need for Scarecrows because crows can’t get in, and your trees cannot be struck by lightning. However, this also means that if you place a Bee House in the greenhouse, it will not produce honey. Also, if you choose to water the Greenhouse manually, the water trough at the top allows you to refill your watering can (but why would you!?).
As we’ve discussed, the Greenhouse layout is an important tool for your farm. It’s a great way to help fund your later adventures in the game. By sticking to some of the ideas that we’ve talked about here, you can do any number of things – from helping boost your friendships around the town year-round to providing necessary cash to take deep dives into the Skull Caverns. The important thing to remember is as long as you’re having fun, you’re doing it right!
Source for all images: Stardew Valley Wiki, Greenhouse crops entry, https://stardewvalleywiki.com/
