The Stardew Valley greenhouse is an unlockable area of your farm where you can grow any plant during any season.
You unlock the greenhouse by completing all of the bundles in the community center or by paying Joja Mart 35,000g.
The best greenhouse layouts in Stardew Valley include planting 18 saplings along the outer perimeter of the interior, using six iridium sprinklers, and planting 116 seeds.
For optimal profits, use Banana, Pomegranate, or Peach saplings and Ancient Seeds.
Here’s how to optimize your Stardew Valley greenhouse.
The Most Optimal Greenhouse Layout for Production
To begin setting up your greenhouse in Stardew Valley, collect:
- 116 seeds of your choice
- 18 saplings of your choice
- 6 Iridium sprinklers
- 116 bags of fertilizer (optional)
You’ll also want a fully upgraded hoe.
Start by placing your sprinklers according to this pattern shown below.
Then, use your hoe to till up all of the remaining soil tiles.
You can optionally place a fertilizer of your choice on all of the tiles before planting all of your seeds.
Finally, place a sapling on the second tile away from the entrance on the outer perimeter of the greenhouse.
Leaving two tiles of space between them, plant your saplings all the way around this perimeter.
Once you’ve done this, you’ll simply have to wait for the seeds and saplings to mature, then return to the greenhouse every day to collect your harvest.
The Most Optimal Greenhouse Layout for Profits
Though the actual placement of items doesn’t really change, there are ways that you can optimize your greenhouse for profits as well as space.
You’ll need to choose the best crops, saplings, and fertilizer.
Crops
To begin with, consider using either Starfruit or Ancient Fruit as your seed crop.
At Iridium quality with the Tiller profession, you can sell each Ancient Fruit for 1,210g.
It’s also a multi-harvest plant, meaning you’ll never have to buy or replant seeds after the initial planting.
Starfruit, although much harder to come by, can sell for a whopping 1,650g at Iridium quality with the Tiller profession. It also has the chance of becoming a Giant crop.
It does not have multiple harvests, though, so you will have to rebuy seeds or use a seed maker.
Saplings
If you can get to them, Banana saplings are the most profitable saplings in Stardew Valley.
Bananas sell for 330g each at Iridium quality with the Tiller profession.
You can get Banana saplings for 5 Dragon Teeth each from the Island Trader.
Aside from that, Peach and Pomegranate trees are the most profitable saplings to use for this setup, with Peaches and Pomegranates both selling for up to 308g each at Iridium quality with the Tiller profession.
Fertilizer
You can also choose a fertilizer to maximize the effects of your plants.
Fertilizers are per-tile items that increase either the speed of your crops’ growth or the quality of their products.
There are three main categories of fertilizer: quality, water retention, and Speed-Gro.
Since your greenhouse has Iridium sprinklers in place, you won’t need water retention fertilizer.
Here’s a key you can use to decide which kind of fertilizer is best for your setup:
| Fertilizer Type | Effect | Cost Per Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Increases the chance of higher-quality crops (up to 56% for Gold at level 14 Farming) | 2g or 2 Sap |
| Quality | Increases the chance of higher-quality crops (up to 82% for Gold at level 14 Farming) | 10g or 2 Sap and a fish |
| Deluxe | Increases the chance of higher-quality crops (up to 55% for Iridium at level 14 Farming) | 70g or 1 Iridium Bar and 40 Sap |
| Speed-Gro | Increases the speed of crop growth by 10% | 20g or 1 Pine Tar and 1 Clam |
| Deluxe Speed-Gro | Increases the speed of crop growth by 25% | 40g or 1 Oak Resin and 1 Coral |
| Hyper Speed-Gro | Increases the speed of crop growth by 33% | 70g or 1 Radioactive Ore, 1 Bone Fragment, and 1 Solar Essence |
It’s important to note that while fertilizers for quality will affect all harvests of a multi-harvesting plant, the Speed-Gro fertilizers of all kinds will only affect the initial growth speed and the first harvest of the plant.
So, long term, it’s best to invest in a quality fertilizer and wait out the regular growth period.
Read more: Learn about the different Sprinkler types and ranges in Stardew Valley