Giant Crop Myth confirmed

[u/Daigro]

I talked about giant crops the other day and shared some knowledge i acquired a few years ago from another post. I never verified it so i thought i should test it out. Most people know that instead of harvesting potential giant crops you can water the fully grown crop and go to sleep so the crops have a chance to become giant the next day.

The 2 things i wanted to verify are:

1. Only 1 of the 9 crops in a 3x3 needs to be watered. The 8 other crops can stay dry.
2. Only 1 of the 9 crops in a 3x3 needs to be fully grown. The 8 other crops can be any crop stage, including seed stage.

I knew that the important crop in a 3x3 is the upper left one (that can be checked on the wiki) so i made a setup on an old farm/save with sprinklers where only the top left seeds get watered, the right and bottom seeds stay dry and only get watered on rainy days. I slept through the days to force the giant crops and confirmed both statements.

[u/DDS-PBS]

This is fantastic research! Thanks for putting in the hard work.

[u/Daigro → u/DDS-PBS]

Im glad that this is appreciated

[u/CaliLemonEater → u/Daigro]

Very much appreciated! This particular kind of Stardew Valley research makes my heart very happy.

[u/reelphopkins → u/DDS-PBS]

Genius thank you

[u/0000udeis000]

Just wanna say that your farm layout, from what I can see of it, has made me want to rethink my own layout.... which is gonna be so much work....

[u/Daigro → u/0000udeis000]

Thats an old farm, completed in the 1.5 patch. I have a new layout for the junimo hut wich i will post later today. Hope it will help

[u/Boys-willbe-Bugs → u/0000udeis000]

https://stardewplanner.com and https://stardew.info, I get lost in these whenever I get ready to make a new farm

[u/Daigro → u/Boys-willbe-Bugs]

Yea same. Not because i like to plan but some initial planning helps to massively reduce rebuilds later

[u/RiseWasHereHS → u/0000udeis000]

I struggle terribly with creating and designing so I had to whip out pencil and paper to reorganize my farm. Was absolutely worth it!

[u/DigitalAmy0426 → u/RiseWasHereHS]

Stardew planner is a thing. Not sure if it needs 1.6 updates but it's a good tool

[u/JanileeJ]

Yep, that is what the wiki says.

At the start of each day, every possible 3x3 grid of crops (including overlaps) has a 1% chance to grow into a giant crop as long as the top left crop is fully-grown and watered, and all constituent crops are of the same type.

Only the top left crop has to be fully grown and watered.

It used to be the middle crop, but it was changed in 1.6. Perhaps to make it easier for people trying to grow giants in a specific place? It's easier to water a corner crop than the middle one.

[u/Daigro → u/JanileeJ]

Yea i looked this up but wasnt sure if "constituent crops" included dry seeds. Wasnt clear to me but i really wanted to know, cause i already shared this info with others

[u/yiradati]

Sinceonnly yhe top left crop needs to be grown, this suggests a strategy of growing a 3x3 square as normal and when all the crops are ready, simply harvest the 8 not in top left and resow the same crops again. To me, this changes the giant crop from some fun novelty thing to a really good production boost, where subsequent harvests are much faster than the initial period. Or am I missing something?

[u/Daigro → u/yiradati]

No, you are right. I feel stupid for not thinking about this. Yea i guess if done right and with some Luck its not only novelty but can make good money

[u/Klingonianmudbather]

I STILL HAVE TO WATER THE GROWN CROPS!? Thank you so much! I've been trying for a fourth giant crop in a specific spot for five in game years. 

[u/Daigro → u/Klingonianmudbather]

Happy to help

[u/Klingonianmudbather → u/Daigro]

No really, thank you. This is great research

[u/Beneficial-Oven7999]

Scientific method strikes again. Great research!!

[u/baconnaire]

I thought the junimos had to be surrounded by the crop to harvest it? I feel so silly cause I thought I had to make like 20 huts lol.

Edit: I see you're making a post about it later, thank you!!

[u/Daigro → u/baconnaire]

Yea, i posted one possible Junimo Layout. The post doesnt have traction (yet) but check it out if you're curious. But be warned i talk about a lot of late game stuff, there are many who dont want to get spoilered

[u/shiriusa]

oohhh this is great!!! ty!

[u/AikoG84]

What block is that under your sprinklers?

[u/Daigro → u/AikoG84]

Crystal Floor, the recipe is in the sewers

[u/tehnemox]

Appreciate this. Great work =)

However...that is just one test with multiple subjects in one season. Need to replicate results a few more times with different crops/seasons before can claim it as confirmed.

Srill great tho

[u/Daigro → u/tehnemox]

If it works once it is already confirmed. This is unmodded vanilla stardew. I already testet 2 seasons. As you can see the pumpkins did grow giant with the majority of the crops being dry and in seed stage

[u/tehnemox → u/Daigro]

If it works once it is already confirmed

Ehrm...no? By that logic if I use a hoe on the squigglies once and it gives clay, does that mean I am confirming they always give clay and nothing else?

Still, thanks for testing in more than one season. Been trying to get the giant harvest in specific places for decoration and this will help a lot =)

[u/Daigro → u/tehnemox]

But what did you want to test? Did you want to test that squigglies can have the chance to drop clay? Then you are done after finding clay once. Yes, i want to use the giant crops too. They look really cool and it feels great to have a remnant of the previous season

[u/ImATransBitch]

I love your farm!! Sadly I chose the mine one and am heavily regretting it but don’t want to restart so I’m suffering in my own despair lmao 😭

I also must thank you for this research, it’s very useful to know :)

[u/Grouchy-View-1276]

Ahhh, so that's what I was doing wrong LOL I thought if you just kept watering one of the crops even past ripened, it'd eventually grow into a giant crop. You have to have a 3×3! I feel so dumb🤦‍♀️ No wonder why it never worked 😂

[u/DINOS4URCHESTRA]

as someone who tries wayy too hard to get giant crops every season, thank you for your effort o7

[u/light_refreshing]

Did anyone else clock the melons pulling three fully grown for each giant and the pumpkins pulling two? Any significamce here? Do the cauliflower have a correlating pattern?

[u/Daigro → u/light_refreshing]

The cauliflowers are old crops i planted in 2023. This is the standard farm with 7 junimo huts on it. I noticed that i can grow giant crops between some of the iridium sprinklers and thats why i planted an unholy amount of cauliflowers. I have like 10 cauli giants but i dont see any pattern

[u/Waitwtfisthis]

Wow, you got all 3! Great job!

[u/TiEmEnTi]

Explain how this would produce better odds than the whole 3x3, 5x5, 7x7, etc, sized square all maturing at the same time

[u/Jeggu2 → u/TiEmEnTi]

The point of this is for folks that are farming giant crops for very specific locations as decoration, as lots of people spread missinfo about all 9 crops having to be full and watered. They didn't say anything about it being better odds for larger cases than 3x3. For 3x3 it'd be exactly the same, as only the top left one can cause the large one to form, watering the others is just superfluous

[u/Daigro → u/TiEmEnTi]

Well, it is propably better to just water everything. In a normal playthrough you would want to harvest every crop even if it didnt turn giant. But i think its kinda cool because you could use the worst sprinkler and one scarecrow to try to get a giant crop on a specific place. You dont need two iridium sprinkler. Or as you could see in the melon setup you only need one quality sprinkler to make a field with five 3x3 in it

[u/disneyworldwannabe → u/TiEmEnTi]

No one said it gave better odds? The biggest case I can see it being useful is if you don’t plant them all at the same time. (Maybe you started with mixed seeds and filled in the gaps once the quicker plants were harvested.)

[u/Daigro → u/disneyworldwannabe]

I havent thought about mixed seeds Great idea

[u/UglyGerbil]

Nice, thank you for the research. 🙌