Grape Starter

Grape Starter

Type	Seed
Grows	Grape
Season	Fall
Growth Time	10 days
Pierre	60g
JojaMart	75g
Cart	100 to 1,000g
Sell Price	30g

Grape Starter raises a trellis of Grape on the autumn farm, and among Fall purchases it is one of the few that need be made only once per tile. A vine blocks its own square from the day it sprouts, so the shape of the bed decides whether the far rows can be reached at all. There is a free way in as well, and it begins a season early: Grape grows wild in Summer around the Mountain and the Backwoods, and a Seed Maker converts a foraged bunch into starters before Fall opens. Pierre's General Store is the cheaper of the two shop counters. Behind the whole crop stands the Keg, because a bunch of Grapes is worth several times more once it has been turned into wine.

Growing

The climb to the opening bunch takes ten days. From then on the vine sets a fresh bunch every third day and keeps going until Fall runs out, which is six pickings from a tile opened on the first morning of the season.

Those pickings are what make the sowing date count. A few days of delay quietly removes one from the total, and the eighteenth of Fall is the last morning a starter can reach maturity at all. Planted later than that, the vine dies where it stands with nothing to show for the purchase.

Speed-Gro only shortens the first climb, not the three days between bunches, so on a trellis crop its value lies in extra harvests at the front of the season.

The trellis is the real design problem. A grape tile stops movement from the first sprout onwards, so vines packed edge to edge shut the farmer out of their own centre. The pattern that works is two planted columns to one clear one, which lets a row be worked from either side, with the clear columns running where the sprinklers sit so that watering and walking share the same gaps.

Clear the rows out on the twenty-eighth of Fall and not a day later. A ripe bunch still hanging when the season changes is lost along with the vine beneath it. Once that happens the brittle frames can be walked straight through, which is cold comfort for a field laid out badly. Inside the Greenhouse the season never turns at all, so a single starter there becomes a permanent wine supply.

Buying

Through Fall the starter sits on the shelf at Pierre's General Store in Pelican Town. JojaMart carries it as well and charges more, which is the only difference between the two.

The Magic Shop Boat is the forward-planning option. That boat moors at the beach docks over three Winter nights, and its Fall range appears on the last of them, Grape Starter included, for what Pierre asks. A whole field can be bought and stored that evening, long before autumn arrives.

Her cart in Cindersap Forest sometimes has a starter on the rack, always at a premium, which is hard to justify for something openly on sale in town.

The free route is the good one. Wild Grape appears as Summer forage around the Mountain and across the Backwoods, and a foraged bunch run through a Seed Maker is handed back as starters. Two or three Summer walks therefore plant a Fall trellis without a coin changing hands, and the same bunches cover the Summer Foraging Bundle on the way. Once the vines are producing, that machine keeps the supply topped up for the Greenhouse and for Ginger Island.

Uses

Only one machine has any use for the starter, and the traffic there runs the other way: Grapes go into a Seed Maker and starters come out. Since a planted vine feeds itself for the whole season, the starters the machine produces are best saved for a bed with no end to it, which means the Greenhouse or the island plot.

A starter sold over a counter gives back only part of its price, so leftovers are worth keeping to fill tiles that were skipped by mistake when the rows went in.

Handing a starter to a villager is poorly received throughout the village, so the fruit is what gets wrapped up instead.

Notes

Map the walkways before the first starter goes into the ground. A grown trellis cannot be opened up without destroying the vine standing in the way, and a field whose middle rows cannot be reached is the usual way a grape harvest is wasted.

Gather the wild bunches on every Summer walk up the Mountain path. A Seed Maker turns them into a free Fall field, and the same walk fills the Summer Foraging Bundle.

Build the Kegs during Summer. Six pickings from every vine arrive faster than a thin set of Kegs can work through them, and raw bunches sitting in a chest are the crop in its cheapest form.

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