Pine Cone

Pine Cone

Type	Seed
Grows	Pine Tree
Season	All
Growth Time	Variable
Cart	100 to 1,000g
Sell Price	5g

The Pine Cone grows into a Pine Tree, and the valley hands it out for nothing. Every mature pine on the map drops one when it is shaken or felled, and the pines already standing on the farm scatter cones on the ground that can be lifted straight back out of the dirt. The planting costs no gold and needs no watering, so a pine lot is the cheapest long-term supply of building material a farm can set up. What sets the pine apart from the other wild trees is what a Tapper draws out of it: Pine Tar, the dearest sap any ordinary tree gives, and the ingredient behind the Rain Totem. The cone is a currency as well, since the raccoon family by the Giant Stump will swap two of them for Winter seed.

Growing

A cone goes only into ground that has never been hoed. Tilled soil refuses it, so cones meant for a field have to be pressed into the rough edges rather than the beds. The same rule holds outside the farm, which is why a cone planted in the forest works exactly as well as one planted at home.

Growth is settled night by night instead of on a timetable. Outside Winter a planted cone has roughly one chance in five of climbing to the next of its five stages each night, and the spread that produces is wide. Half of all cones are trees inside about eighteen days, while the unlucky tail runs past a month of growing days. Two cones pressed in on the same evening finishing a fortnight apart is ordinary.

A dose of Tree Fertilizer replaces the roll with a certainty. The cone then climbs a stage on every night, Winter nights included, and five mornings later there is a tree where the cone was. Fiber and a little Stone are all the recipe asks for, and it arrives with the seventh level of Foraging.

A pine that has already matured holds back any sapling on a touching tile, so a cone pressed in beside a grown trunk may never move at all. A gap tile in each direction avoids that and leaves room to swing an Axe later.

Grown pines then seed themselves. Cones fall around them onto the farm and sprout into new pines if they are left alone, so a lot planted once tends to thicken without help. That same habit is why a pine set down near the beds eventually pushes saplings into the soil.

Buying

Cones start coming off the trees from the first scrap of Foraging experience. Shaking a mature pine turns one loose now and then, and felling one leaves cones in the litter alongside the wood and sap. An afternoon among the pines above the farm brings back far more than a planting needs.

Rummaging the bins around town turns cones up as well, which helps in a first week when the starting Axe barely dents a trunk. Steadier than either route is a Woodskip Fish Pond: at a population of nine the pond begins producing cones of its own, as many as five on a good morning, so water stocked for the fish quietly becomes a seed store.

Any pine already grown on the farm drops cones onto the tiles around it. Striking one of those with an Axe or a Pickaxe picks it up rather than destroying it, which is the quickest gathering of all and the way to stop a lot from creeping outwards.

A cone turns up in the Traveling Cart's goods from time to time at a price bearing no relation to its worth. With pines standing free across half the map, that entry on her mat is best treated as a joke.

Uses

The real reason to grow pines is the Tapper. Fixed to the base of a mature trunk, it draws Pine Tar every five days, and that tar is worth many times the wood the tree would otherwise have made. A Heavy Tapper cuts the wait to two days. Tappers keep working through Winter, when most of the farm is idle, so a lot with a tapper on every trunk is one of the few things that earns in the cold months. The Tapper profession lifts what the tar fetches again.

Five units of that tar, with Hardwood and Truffle Oil, craft a Rain Totem at the ninth level of Foraging. The totem pushes the next day towards rain and buys a morning free of watering, which on a large farm is the most useful thing a pine lot produces.

A cone with an Acorn and a Maple Seed crafts a Field Snack, the first food any farm can assemble out of forest litter. The Mystic Tree Seed wants five cones in its batch of twenty tree seeds, and Foraging Mastery is what puts that recipe within reach.

Once the raccoon family by the Giant Stump has opened its shop, the wife trades two Pine Cones for a packet of Powdermelon Seeds. That is the only supply of Winter melon seed that stays open outside a narrow autumn window, so a chest of cones is worth considerably more than its shipping value suggests.

At a Sewing Machine a cone in the spool with Cloth in the feed makes the Beanie, and the same cone works the orange dye pot at 2 Willow Lane. Fish Pond requests ask for three cones from time to time.

Cones are unwelcome as gifts across the village, so they belong in the ground, under a tapper or in a crafting slot.

Crafting Pine Cone with the other materials below makes these items.

Item	Image	Ingredients
Field Snack		Acorn (1), Maple Seed (1), Pine Cone (1)

Notes

Plant the lot away from the beds. Pines seed outwards on their own, and a row along a fence line keeps the volunteers off the soil.

Fertilise the cones that are meant for tappers. Five guaranteed nights against a month of rolls is the difference between tapping this season and tapping the next one.

Keep a dozen cones in a chest rather than shipping them. Fish Pond requests, the raccoon trade and the Mystic Tree Seed all draw on the same pile.

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