Crops

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An Apex Farm

Crops are plants that grow wildly and can be cultivated for food and resources.

Every crop type has its specific growth times and stages. You will know that a crop is harvestable because it will become highlighted when the mouse cursor is floating over it. Your plants will grow no matter where you are in the universe (you can even grow them on your ship).

Gardening

Crops can be grown on any color of dirt that has been tilled with a hoe, then watered by using a watering can (either a Wooden Watering Can or a Painted Watering Can), Matter Manipulator-collected Water or Healing Water (but not Swamp Water), fallen rain (as long as it is not physically blocked), or a sprinkler. The top of the tilled block must be watered; surrounding the sides and bottom with water will have no effect.

Above-ground crops require open air above the tilled dirt blocks, and if too much water accumulates, the crops will be destroyed, dropping only 1 crop seed each regardless of growth stage.

Tilling soil has another effect: it eliminates the possibility of monsters spawning on those blocks.

Underwater Gardening

Underwater Gardening Operation

It is possible to have an underwater garden, and these also require a hoe to make underwater blocks tilled. Since underwater crops require extra effort, their sell price is also somewhat higher than most open-air crops.

There are two types of underwater crops, Reefpods and Coralcreep. Reefpods need to be replanted upon harvesting, while Coralcreep do not, but both of these seeds are only found in the wild in the waters of Ocean-type planets (but not Arctic). These are also the only crops that do not benefit from a sprinkler. Toxictop is the only other type of crop found on Ocean-type planet (the Toxic biome), but it is found on the surface and it is not an underwater crop.

Both of these require water above the tilled dirt blocks, and if the depth of the water above the tilled dirt blocks goes below 3 blocks, the underwater crops will be destroyed, dropping only 1 crop seed each regardless of growth stage.

Creating an environment in which to make an underwater farm is much easier after acquiring Upgrade 1 in the Matter Manipulator expansion slot, allowing the collection of liquids. With this, the player can collect water and place it into any artificial lake, as desired.

Players may optimize their underwater farming by using a Swimming Augment, otherwise harvesting and sowing crops will take much more time and patience. It is most easily purchased from Lana Blake at the Outpost.

Collecting Seeds

Wheat Growing Wild in a Tower
Avian NPC Garden

Seeds can be found from gathering in the wild, as a reward for completing a quest, collecting from Tenants for rent, and by stealing from tilled fields in NPC villages. Seeds available depend on the type and tier of the planet you are collecting them on. If the "use" command does not release the seed of a plant, the Matter Manipulator will.

Destroying a crop that is not yet fully grown will return the crop's seed. Harvesting a fully-grown crop will drop 1 (60% chance) or 2 (40% chance) of the following: the crop's "fruit" (89% chance), 1 Plant Fibre (10% chance), and the crop's seed (1% chance). Certain crops (e.g. carrots, potatoes, wheat, etc.) will also be destroyed in the harvesting process, dropping their seeds for replanting, but other crops will revert back to stage 2.

Flowery Grass Seeds and Grass Seeds can also be planted on wet tilled soil to grow grass, but they cannot be harvested, only destroyed. Some wild plants cannot produce seeds, such as Thorny Plant and its Thorny Fruit crop, but most food or resource-producing plants can have seeds harvested from encounters with wild specimens. Flowers which yield petals are another example of a plant which gives off no seed.

Seeds for Coralcreep and Reefpod can only be found underwater on the Ocean planets. Seeds for Toxictop can only be found on the Toxic planets.

Crop Storage

Wheat And More Wheat

The best way to store crops depends on whether the crop is a "raw" food type, which can be eaten by itself, or an "ingredient" food type, which requires a crafting station to make it into something edible.

Crops that can be eaten "raw" (like Carrots, Pineapples, Corn, Tomatoes, Boneboo, etc.), may only store a single item per inventory slot, which rarely exceeds a pixel value of 100 or more. These crops will slowly go bad over time in the player's inventory and normal storage devices, eventually becoming inedible and useless Rotten Food. Storing these items in Refrigerated Storage objects halts this process indefinitely.

Inedible "ingredient" crops (like Rice, Wheat, Cocoa Pod, Sugar, Kelp, Mushroom, etc.) will stack in the inventory, meaning that one inventory slot will hold up to a count of 1,000 of these items. At maximum capacity, a single block in the inventory may have an indicated Pixel value of 50,000 or more. These crops have an infinite longevity and do not suffer from rotting, but cannot be consumed by themselves. Instead they must be prepared either by cooking them at a Campfire or similar object, or by combining them with other foodstuffs at a meal prep station like the Kitchen Counter or Chic Cooking Table.

Crop Replanting

Japanese Rice Gardening

When planting a crop from a seed, an overlay of the plant will appear where it will be planted once the user clicks.

There are differences between each crop type in replanting, too. Some crops (like Rice, Cocoa Pod, Cotton, Banana, Boneboo, etc.) may be harvested without requiring replanting. The majority of crops, though, (like Wheat, Potato, Carrot, Sugar, Pineapple, etc.) will destroy the plant on harvest, rendering one seed (small chance of more than one) and either one or multiple crops.

Every crop may be reduced to its seed form with the Matter Manipulator, with the exception of the Thorny Plant, which renders no seeds upon destruction.

Maximizing Profit

Stackable Crops Versus Non-Stackable Crops (1.3k versus 10k)

Taking into consideration only raw crop materials, a farm composed entirely of Boneboo Seed will net you the most money.

Preparing food in any way, though, increases its value, which makes this a more advantageous area of interest. If using the products to craft food (and thus increasing their value), a more effective farm is one with 1 Boneboo Seed, 2 Feathercrown Seed, 2 Oculemon Seed, 2 Neonmelon Seed and 2 Toxictop Seed. Using these materials you can produce the Ultimate Juice which costs Pixels-Sell.png 1,200. This means that of the ingredients has a medium cost of 240. Producing 2 every 40 minutes means that each seed is worth Pixels-Sell.png 12 per minute.

Taking into consideration simply time, the player interested in cash will harvest rice, cocoa, and cotton. These materials do not require constantly selling once inventory is full, as these items are stackable, and they allow the greatest cash/hour-of-player-time ratio.

Optimizing Production

A player really interested in optimizing their farm crops will look into sprinklers and the Terramart Shipment Launcher.

Decoration

There are a number of decorative items available for your farm.

Users may build a Scarecrow, if they desire, but it will not affect crop production. Birds are more interested in eating the Player than in eating the player's crops.

Fences (made from Wood, Pipe, or Copper) are another similar vanity item for farms (wooden fences generally preferred for the above-ground farms, pipe-fences generally preferred for the underwater farms). These may block monsters from entering, when placed in the foreground, but they do not prevent monsters from spawning. Tilling the soil with a hoe, however, does prevent monsters from spawning in the tilled areas, except flying ones.

Achievements

Farming is related to two achievements.

Name Description Requirements
The Simple Life.jpg The Simple Life Harvest a crop.
See what happens when you eat it.
Harvest a crop.
Starbound Valley.jpg Starbound Valley Harvest 30 unique crops.
Start thinking about who you'd like to romance and that barn extension.
Harvest 30 crops.

Husbandry is related to one achievement. Although, you will only be able to accomplish this achievement with creatures maintained by NPC's.

Name Description Requirements
Too Heavy to Kick.jpg Too Heavy to Kick Destroy a robot chicken.
Don't try to eat it.
Kill a Robot Chicken.

Valid Soils

The list of blocks on which crop can be grown is smaller than the list of blocks on which saplings can be placed - this is because not all soils can be tilled into farmland in which crop seeds can be planted. The following blocks can all be tilled into farmland suitable for growing crops:

These blocks, though not seen in the game except when spawned in with admin commands, used to also be tillable (they were made untillable in Version 1.2.2):

When tilled, Mud, Wet Dirt and Clay become wet farmland while Dirt, Corrupt Dirt, and Dry Dirt become dry farmland as of Version 1.2.2. (Before version 1.2.2, all tillable blocks except for Dirt became wet farmland when tilled.)

Farm Animals

Farm Animals are a type of unique monsters hatched from eggs purchased at Terramart. They allow players to harvest monster drop materials without engaging in combat. Each egg type hatches a different animals, each with unique resources for harvest. Animals can be relocated with a Relocator. They can be killed by lava and hostile monsters.

They work just like crops in that they're grown (from an egg, not a seed) and once they reach maturity they can be harvested for resources. But they differ in other ways, too: they're purchasable from an NPC and the space limit for animals is only for unhatched creatures.

Since the items from these animals are useful and rare, but poorly valued, they are not useful a cash crop. For instance, they provide the crafting items required for terraforming, which are not purchasable.

Crop Images and Average Growth Times

The harvest times displayed are averages, for exact time ranges see the table in the next section.

Automato Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Avesmingo Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Banana Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Beakseed Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Boltbulb Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

Boneboo Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

Carrot Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

Chilli Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Cocoa Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Coffee Beans Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Cotton Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Coralcreep Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Corn Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Crystalplant Crop.gif

Harvest: 94 minutes

Currentcorn Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

Diodia Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Dirturchin Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

Eggshoot Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

Feathercrown Crop.gif

Harvest: 40 minutes

Grapes Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Kiwi Crop.gif

Harvest: 40 minutes

Mushroom Crop.gif

Harvest: 94 minutes

Melon Crop.gif

Harvest: 40 minutes

Oculemon Crop.gif

Harvest: 40 minutes

Pearlpeas Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Pineapple Crop.gif

Harvest: 40 minutes

Potato Crop.gif

Harvest: 40 minutes

Pussplum Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Reefpod Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Rice Crop.gif

Harvest: 45 minutes

Sugar Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Tomato Crop.gif

Harvest: 30 minutes

Toxic Top Crop.gif

Harvest: 40 minutes

Wartweed Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

Wheat Crop.gif

Harvest: 20 minutes

  • Note: The first "rotten" frame in these gifs is currently not used ingame. When planted, the first "healthy" frame is shown, then transitioning to a growth frame, then the final frame that is ready to harvest.

Exact Growth Times and Prices

These are the growth duration numbers, in seconds, for each seed to reach the next stage of growth.

Stage 1 is from planting until the first change in visual. Stage 2 is from then until its next change in visual, and Stage 3 is from then until it is ready to harvest (and its change to the final visual). Some crops do not have a 3rd stage, and are ready to harvest after its 2nd stage.

Each phase has a minimum and maximum time to change to next phase stated in seconds. This makes the overall growth time vary. Adding all of the minimum times gives a total minimum time for the crop to be ready to harvest, likewise for the maximum times.

Here are the exact growth times for each stage, in seconds, followed by the total time from planting until ready to harvest. Each range (200-220) is the minimum and maximum time.

Seed name Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Total Minutes Seed Price Goods Price Replanted Price/Time
Automato Seed 280-320 280-320 1,170-1,230 1,730-1,870 ~ 28.8-31.2 Pixels-Sell.png 20 Pixels-Sell.png 80 N Pixels-Sell.png 2.6
Avesmingo Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 38 Pixels-Sell.png 150 N Pixels-Sell.png 3.3
Banana Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 30 Pixels-Sell.png 120 N Pixels-Sell.png 2.6
Beakseed Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 23 Pixels-Sell.png 90 N Pixels-Sell.png 2
Boltbulb Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 30 Pixels-Sell.png 120 Y Pixels-Sell.png 6
Boneboo Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 40 Pixels-Sell.png 160 N Pixels-Sell.png 8
Carrot Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 15 Pixels-Sell.png 60 Y Pixels-Sell.png 3
Chilli Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 50 Pixels-Sell.png 210 N Pixels-Sell.png 4.6
Cocoa Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 23 Pixels-Sell.png 90 N Pixels-Sell.png 2
Coffee Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 23 Pixels-Sell.png 90 N Pixels-Sell.png 2
Coralcreep Seed 280-320 280-320 1,170-1,230 1,730-1,870 ~ 28.8-31.2 Pixels-Sell.png 25 Pixels-Sell.png 100 N Pixels-Sell.png 3
Corn Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 15 Pixels-Sell.png 60 N Pixels-Sell.png 1.3
Cotton Seed 280-320 280-320 1,170-1,230 1,730-1,870 ~ 28.8-31.2 Pixels-Sell.png 10 Pixels-Sell.png 10 N Pixels-Sell.png 0.3
Currentcorn Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 20 Pixels-Sell.png 80 Y Pixels-Sell.png 4
Diodia Seed 870-930 870-930 1,740-1860 ~ 29-31 Pixels-Sell.png 45 Pixels-Sell.png 180 Y Pixels-Sell.png 6
Dirturchin Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 25 Pixels-Sell.png 100 Y Pixels-Sell.png 5
Eggshoot Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 30 Pixels-Sell.png 120 Y Pixels-Sell.png 6
Feathercrown Seed 1,170-1,230 1,170-1,230 2,340-2,460 ~ 39-41 Pixels-Sell.png 30 Pixels-Sell.png 120 Y Pixels-Sell.png 3
Grape Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 30 Pixels-Sell.png 120 N Pixels-Sell.png 2.6
Kiwi Seed 1,170-1230 1,170-1,230 2,340-2,460 ~ 39-41 Pixels-Sell.png 30 Pixels-Sell.png 120 Y Pixels-Sell.png 3
Neonmelon Seed 1,170-1,230 1,170-1,230 2,340-2,460 ~ 39-41 Pixels-Sell.png 70 Pixels-Sell.png 280 Y Pixels-Sell.png 7
Oculemon Seed 1,170-1,230 1,170-1,230 2,340-2,460 ~ 39-41 Pixels-Sell.png 50 Pixels-Sell.png 200 Y Pixels-Sell.png 5
Pearlpea Seed 280-320 280-320 1,170-1230 1,730-1,870 ~ 28.8-31.2 Pixels-Sell.png 10 Pixels-Sell.png 40 N Pixels-Sell.png 1.3
Pineapple Seed 1,170-1,230 1,170-1,230 2,340-2,460 ~ 39-41 Pixels-Sell.png 40 Pixels-Sell.png 160 Y Pixels-Sell.png 4
Potato Seed 1,170-1,230 1,170-1,230 2,340-2,460 ~ 39-41 Pixels-Sell.png 20 Pixels-Sell.png 80 Y Pixels-Sell.png 2
Pussplum Seed 870-930 870-930 1,740-1,860 ~ 29-31 Pixels-Sell.png 38 Pixels-Sell.png 150 Y Pixels-Sell.png 5
Reefpod Seed 870-930 870-930 1,740-1,860 ~ 29-31 Pixels-Sell.png 38 Pixels-Sell.png 150 Y Pixels-Sell.png 5
Rice Seed 430-470 430-470 1,740-1,860 2,600-2,800 ~ 43.3-46.7 Pixels-Sell.png 15 Pixels-Sell.png 60 N Pixels-Sell.png 1.3
Sugarcane Seed 870-930 870-930 1,740-1,860 ~ 29-31 Pixels-Sell.png 23 Pixels-Sell.png 90 Y Pixels-Sell.png 3
Tomato Seed 280-320 280-320 1,170-1,230 1,730-1,870 ~ 28.8-31.2 Pixels-Sell.png 15 Pixels-Sell.png 60 N Pixels-Sell.png 2
Toxictop Seed 1,170-1,230 1,170-1,230 2,340-2,460 ~ 39-41 Pixels-Sell.png 50 Pixels-Sell.png 200 Y Pixels-Sell.png 5
Wartweed Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 35 Pixels-Sell.png 140 Y Pixels-Sell.png 7
Wheat Seed 570-630 570-630 1,140-1,260 ~ 19-21 Pixels-Sell.png 10 Pixels-Sell.png 40 Y Pixels-Sell.png 2

Unobtainable Crops

These seeds cannot be acquired through normal means.

Seed name Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Total Minutes Seed Price Goods Price
Blue Flower 600 600 1,200 20 Pixels-Sell.png 0 Pixels-Sell.png 0
Crystal Plant Seed 2,820 2,820 5,640 94 Pixels-Sell.png 0 Pixels-Sell.png 0
Mushroom Seed 2,820 2,820 5,640 94 Pixels-Sell.png 0 Pixels-Sell.png 0
Red Flower 600 600 1,200 20 Pixels-Sell.png 0 Pixels-Sell.png 0
Spring Flower 600 600 1,200 20 Pixels-Sell.png 0 Pixels-Sell.png 0
Yellow Flower 600 600 1,200 20 Pixels-Sell.png 0 Pixels-Sell.png 0

Farm Animal Images

Bugs and Quirks

  • Weather is randomized on beaming down to a planet, so a player can simply beam onto and then out of a planet until it is a raining, and then simply walk across the screen to water their crops, without ever having to use the watering can.
  • Heavy rain and storms will water crops, but only when the player is present for the rainfall. This is an implementation quirk of weather.
  • NPCs in villages own crops and consider it stealing if you take their crops using a tool such as a matter manipulator or pickaxe. However, they do not consider it stealing to simply harvest the crops by interacting with them.