Ancient Seeds

Ancient Seeds

Type	Seed
Grows	Ancient Fruit
Produces	1 Ancient Seeds per craft
Season	Spring; Summer; Fall
Growth Time	28 days
Sell Price	30g

Ancient Seeds are the one seed packet that no shop in the valley will ever sell. The first one is earned by handing an Ancient Seed artifact to Gunther at the Museum, who gives back a planted packet and the recipe to make more from further artifacts. From there the Seed Maker does the real work, turning each Ancient Fruit into a handful of fresh packets until a Greenhouse floor can be filled. The plant takes a month to reach its first fruit and then bears week after week, so every day of delay in getting the seed into the ground costs a harvest. Outdoors the seeds live through Spring, Summer and Fall, which makes the first of Spring the only sowing date worth aiming for. One quirk catches people out: the plant refuses a Garden Pot and insists on open soil.

The in-game description reads: Could these still grow?

Growing

The seed grows into Ancient Fruit. Four weeks pass before the first fruit appears, and from then on the same plant keeps producing without being replanted.

That long opening stretch is what makes the sowing date so important outdoors. A packet in the ground on the first morning of Spring gives its first fruit on the first of Summer and then keeps going until Winter, which works out at seven to nine fruit from a single seed. The same packet sown at the start of Summer manages four or five. The very last day that still returns anything is the twenty-eighth of Summer, which gives exactly one fruit on the final day of Fall before the frost takes the plant. Any sowing after that is simply thrown away outdoors.

Speed-Gro only shortens a plant's first growth, so a packet of it brings the opening month forward but leaves the weekly harvests unchanged. On a crop meant to stand for years, that makes the fertiliser a one-off gain rather than a running one. It is still worth using on an outdoor sowing that is already late in the year.

The Greenhouse changes the sums completely. A packet planted on its soil never meets Winter and never needs replacing, so one seed keeps paying for the rest of the game. The farm on Ginger Island behaves the same way, which gives a second home to any seeds left over once the Greenhouse is full.

Garden Pots turn the seed away. Dropping a packet onto one brings up a line about roots that grow very deep, and nothing is planted. Pots are otherwise the usual way to grow crops out of season indoors, so this is worth knowing before a Winter plan is built around them.

Buying

No shelf in Pelican Town stocks this packet, so the route to a first seed runs through the Museum. The Ancient Seed artifact behind it turns up in several places at once, and none of them is quick on its own. Bugs, Grubs, Cave Flies and their mutant versions in the Mines each drop it rarely, and the shallow floors where those insects swarm are the fastest place to farm for one. Digging artifact spots in Cindersap Forest and on the Mountain gives another slim chance per hole. Fishing treasure chests hold it about as rarely, and an Artifact Trove cracked at the Blacksmith is several times more likely than any of those.

Gunther takes the artifact once and hands over a planted packet along with the crafting recipe. Every further artifact found after that can be crafted straight into another packet, so artifact spots keep paying out long after the Museum slot is filled.

The Seed Maker is the second route and the only one that scales. Feeding it any crop at all carries a slim chance of returning a packet of Ancient Seeds instead of the expected seeds, which means a farm that processes its surplus will eventually stumble into one without ever digging. Once an Ancient Fruit exists, the same machine turns each fruit into one to three packets, so a single plant becomes a row and a row becomes a Greenhouse floor inside a couple of seasons.

Uses

A Deconstructor runs the whole process backwards. A packet of Ancient Seeds fed into it comes out as an Ancient Seed artifact. That is exactly what a farm needs when the Seed Maker coughs up a packet before any artifact has ever been dug, since the Museum slot can then be filled without another trip into the Mines.

The early packets are worth more as plants than as anything else. The sensible split is to put every seed in the ground, hold the first fruit back for the Seed Maker, and only start selling once the Greenhouse is full.

The packet is a poor gift. Almost everyone in the valley puts Ancient Seeds on their disliked list, so a spare one is better deconstructed than wrapped.

Notes

Keep one packet unplanted until the Museum slot is filled. A Deconstructor turns it into the artifact Gunther wants, and the donation hands back both a seed and the recipe, so nothing is actually spent.

Outdoor sowings are worth the trouble only early in the year. Once Summer is under way, hold the remaining packets for the Greenhouse or the island farm, where the month of growing is never wasted.

All Seeds

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Grows	Season	Pierre
Acorn	Oak Tree	All	-
Amaranth Seeds	Amaranth	Fall	70g
Ancient Seeds	Ancient Fruit	Spring; Summer; Fall	-
Apple Sapling	Apple	Fall	4,000g
Apricot Sapling	Apricot	Spring	2,000g
Artichoke Seeds	Artichoke	Fall	30g (Year 2+)
Banana Sapling	Banana	All on Ginger Island; Summer in Stardew Valley	-
Bean Starter	Green Bean	Spring	60g
Beet Seeds	Beet	Fall	-
Blue Grass Starter	Blue Grass	Spring; Summer; Fall	-
Blueberry Seeds	Blueberry	Summer	80g
Bok Choy Seeds	Bok Choy	Fall	50g
Broccoli Seeds	Broccoli	Fall	-
Cactus Seeds	Cactus Fruit	All	-
Carrot Seeds	Carrot	Spring	-
Cauliflower Seeds	Cauliflower	Spring	80g
Cherry Sapling	Cherry	Spring	3,400g
Coffee Bean	-	Spring; Summer	-
Corn Seeds	Corn	Summer; Fall	150g
Cranberry Seeds	Cranberries	Fall	240g
Eggplant Seeds	Eggplant	Fall	20g
Fairy Seeds	Fairy Rose	Fall	200g
Fall Seeds	Blackberry, Common Mushroom, Hazelnut, or Wild Plum	Fall	-
Fiber Seeds	Fiber	All	-
Garlic Seeds	Garlic	Spring	40g (Year 2+)
Grape Starter	Grape	Fall	60g
Grass Starter	Grass	Spring; Summer; Fall	100g
Hops Starter	Hops	Summer	60g
Jazz Seeds	Blue Jazz	Spring	30g
Kale Seeds	Kale	Spring	70g
Mahogany Seed	Mahogany Tree	All	-
Mango Sapling	Mango	All on Ginger Island; Summer in Stardew Valley	-
Maple Seed	Maple Tree	All	-
Melon Seeds	Melon	Summer	80g
Mixed Flower Seeds	Varies	Spring Summer Fall	-
Mixed Seeds	Varies	Spring Summer Fall	-
Mossy Seed	Green Rain Tree	All	-
Mushroom Tree Seed	Mushroom Tree	All	-
Mystic Tree Seed	Mystic Tree	All	-
Orange Sapling	Orange	Summer	4,000g
Parsnip Seeds	Parsnip	Spring	20g
Peach Sapling	Peach	Summer	6,000g
Pepper Seeds	Hot Pepper	Summer	40g
Pine Cone	Pine Tree	All	-
Pineapple Seeds	Pineapple	All on Ginger Island; Summer in Stardew Valley	-
Pomegranate Sapling	Pomegranate	Fall	6,000g
Poppy Seeds	Poppy	Summer	100g
Potato Seeds	Potato	Spring	50g
Powdermelon Seeds	Powdermelon	Winter	-
Pumpkin Seeds	Pumpkin	Fall	100g
Qi Bean	Qi Fruit	All	-
Radish Seeds	Radish	Summer	40g
Rare Seed	Sweet Gem Berry	Fall	-
Red Cabbage Seeds	Red Cabbage	Summer	100g (Year 2+)
Rhubarb Seeds	Rhubarb	Spring	-
Rice Shoot	Unmilled Rice	Spring	40g
Spangle Seeds	Summer Spangle	Summer	50g
Spring Seeds	Wild Horseradish, Daffodil,; Leek, or Dandelion	Spring	-
Starfruit Seeds	Starfruit	Summer	-
Strawberry Seeds	Strawberry	Spring	-
Summer Seeds	Grape, Spice Berry,; or Sweet Pea	Summer	-
Summer Squash Seeds	Summer Squash	Summer	-
Sunflower Seeds	Sunflower	Summer; Fall	200g
Taro Tuber	Taro Root	All on Ginger Island; Summer in Stardew Valley	-
Tea Sapling	Tea Leaves	All	-
Tomato Seeds	Tomato	Summer	50g
Tulip Bulb	Tulip	Spring	20g
Wheat Seeds	Wheat	Summer; Fall	10g
Winter Seeds	Crocus, Crystal Fruit,; Snow Yam, or Winter Root	Winter	-
Yam Seeds	Yam	Fall	60g