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Apricot Sapling

Apricot Sapling
Apricot Sapling
Type Seed
Grows Apricot
Season Spring
Growth Time 28 days
Pierre 2,000g
Cart 1,500 to 2,500g
Sell Price 500g

The Apricot Sapling is the least expensive fruit tree on Pierre's shelves, which makes it the door most new farms walk through first. Its fruit is the cheapest of any tree as well, so the tree earns slowly and steadily rather than quickly. What it really offers is a low entry price for a plant that then looks after itself for the rest of the game. Four weeks of growing sit between the purchase and the first Apricot, and because the tree grows through Winter as readily as any other season, the first day of Winter is the latest sowing that still catches the whole of Spring. The sapling also turns up free in the treasure rooms under the desert and out of a Mystery Box, and a grown Apricot Tree can be felled to get the sapling back.


Growing

The sapling wants plain ground and elbow room. Until the tree is grown, the eight tiles touching it must hold nothing at all: no paths, no flooring, no fences, no fallen branches. A night spent blocked is a night of growth lost, and the game reports it the next morning rather than letting it pass unnoticed.

Because no two saplings can share that clear ring, an orchard works out at one tree every third tile across and down. Pacing the ground out first is worth doing on a cheap tree, since the same spacing will be needed for the expensive ones later.

Growth runs through four stages over four weeks and takes no notice of the season. For a Spring tree that fact sets up a neat piece of planning. A sapling in the ground on the first day of Winter finishes exactly as Spring opens, and gives an Apricot on every day of that season. Planting earlier, anywhere in Fall, costs nothing but idle gold, since the finished tree simply waits for its season. Planting in Spring itself is the one timing to avoid: the tree matures in Summer and then stands a full year before it fruits.

A grown Apricot Tree can be relocated by felling it. The Axe leaves wood behind along with a fresh sapling, and that sapling carries whatever quality the tree's fruit had reached. A better one reaches full size quicker when it goes back into the ground. A tree in the wrong place is therefore a tree to move rather than a loss.

Buying

Pierre's General Store stocks the sapling in every season, Winter included, so there is no race to buy it. Of all the fruit trees he sells, this is the one a first-year farm can usually afford without emptying the chest.

The Traveling Cart brings saplings along on its Friday and Sunday rounds. Its price band for the Apricot Sapling sits either side of Pierre's figure, so the cart occasionally undercuts the shop and occasionally asks almost half again. A glance at the cart on the way through Cindersap Forest costs nothing, but Pierre is the one to rely on.

Free routes exist for the patient. Treasure rooms in the Skull Cavern sometimes hold fruit tree saplings alongside their stacks of seeds, and the Apricot is among them. A Mystery Box opened by Clint at the Blacksmith carries a slim chance of a sapling too. Either one arriving in the first year is worth far more than the shop price, because a tree's fruit quality improves with every year that passes after it matures.

Uses

Selling the sapling back fetches a quarter of Pierre's asking price, so a spare is worth more planted than shipped. A spare also has an obvious home: a fruit tree set along the stone edge of the Greenhouse fruits every day of the year and leaves every patch of soil inside free for crops.

As a gift the sapling falls flat. Apricot Saplings are disliked by nearly everyone in the valley, so a spare belongs under the Greenhouse glass rather than in a box.

Notes

Buy one early even if the orchard plan is not settled. The sapling is cheap, it grows in any season, and the only real cost of a mistake is an Axe swing to get it back.

Keep the eight tiles clear until the tree is visibly grown. A single path tile laid too close is the usual reason a sapling sits still for weeks.

All Seeds

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

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