FarmVille is an addictive Facebook game in which players build and manage their own farms — players grow crops, raise animals and construct barns, houses and fences. New FarmVille players start out with a handful of complimentary crops, but quickly begin asking themselves “what are the best crops to plant on my farm?“ I spent a few minutes putting together a spreadsheet that answers this question for you.

Screenshot of a FarmVille farm.

How do you figure out which crops are best to plant?

We can use a number of factors to determine which crops will perform best:

  • Purchase and Sale Price — Planting a patch of seeds costs money, and different seeds have different values once it’s time to sell your harvest.
  • Plowing Costs — In addition to the cost of buying seeds, you must spend coins in order to plow a patch of land before seeds can be planted.
  • Harvest Time — Each crop has its own harvest time… some mature quickly, while others won’t be ready for days.

We can determine the net of planting a batch of seeds with the following formula:

Net = Sale Price − (Purchase Price + Plowing Cost)

But is that enough? No… we still have not considered how long it takes to harvest each type of crop. If we divide the net by the harvest time, we find out how much we’ll profit from that crop per hour:

Profit per Hour = Net ÷ Harvest Time

Crop Profitability Table

Crop Purchase Price Sale Price Harvest Time Net Profit per Hour
Strawberries 10 35 4 10 2.50
Eggplant 25 88 46 48 1.04
Wheat 35 115 69 65 0.94
Soybeans 15 63 23 33 1.43
Squash 40 121 46 66 1.43
Pumpkin 30 68 8 23 2.88
Artichokes 70 204 92 119 1.29
Rice 45 96 12 36 3.00
Raspberries 20 46 2 11 5.50
Cotton 75 207 69 117 1.70
Bell Peppers 75 198 46 108 2.35
Peppers 70 162 23 77 3.35
Aloe Vera 50 85 6 20 3.33
Pineapples 95 242 46 132 2.87
Blueberries 50 91 4 26 6.50
Watermelon 130 348 92 203 2.21
Grapes 85 270 23 170 7.39
Tomtoes 100 173 8 58 7.25
Potatoes 135 345 69 195 2.83
Carrots 110 200 12 75 6.25
Coffee 120 243 16 108 6.75
Corn 150 380 69 215 3.12
Sunflowers 135 315 23 165 7.17
Cabbage 140 388 46 233 5.07
Green Tea 105 191 10 71 7.10
Black Berries 75 117 4 27 6.75
Red Wheat 180 449 69 254 3.68
Sugar Cane 165 239 8 59 7.38
Peas 190 381 23 176 7.65
Yellow Melon 205 528 92 308 3.35
Onion 170 268 12 83 6.92
Broccoli 200 473 46 258 5.61
Asparagus 220 357 16 122 7.63

Note: one FarmVille day is 23 hours.

Using the table above, one can determine which of their available seeds would be the most profitable to farm. For example, a beginner planting a 12 × 12 farm of raspberries could potentially make 18,216 coins per day — (5.5 × 144) × 23 hours.

It’s tempting to start planting something with a high sale price such as wheat, but in reality its three-day harvest time quickly offsets the 115 coin payout. Berries are cheaper and mature faster, making them a much better choice for beginners who want to build up their money and experience. Of course, if you don’t have the time in your day to return after a few hours and collect your berry harvest, the plants will whither and you’ll take a loss…