My crops just randomly dying?

[Maxima]

Can someone explain this please? I can't figure out why some of my crops keep dying like this? Or is it just bad luck? Is there something wrong with my setup? It doesn't happen all the time, but it's so random. I tried the wiki, but I can't find anything about it.

I made sure I have a scarecrow, and my crops are watered. I'm not sure what could my kill crops. I'm in my Spring Y4 and last time it happened was late Falls Y3 (I think) if that's relevant.

 

[Shinnn]

Do you install any mods ? Your scarecrow is out of bound but all crows can do is take your seed not killin them so try to check it it can also be the cutscence to pay attention to those i will say a drought to be example.

 

[Aslak]

Looking at the picture, the reason is simple. You seem to only have 2 Lightning Rods and they're both full. It looks like you had a thunderstorm the day before.

You should build more Lightning Rods to prevent the crops from getting struck. It doesn't matter where you build them, as long they're on the farm :)

 

[Lew Zealand]

Lightning strike.

I see you have 2 charged Lightning Rods which means there was Lightning yesterday and Lightning strikes hit your crops and killed them. Each Lightning Rod will absorb one Lightning strike and then it will not do anything else and even then, the Lightning still has a reasonable chance not to hit the Rod and randomly hit anywhere else. Some people keep 10-20 Lightning Rods on their Farm just to ensure minimal strikes onto Crops but nothing can guarantee complete avoidance as it's up to chance.

 

[evergreen oak]

Crows completely removed the crop, so that isn't it. I believe it's lightning strikes during a storm that can kill crops like that. If you don't have some lightning rods set up, it's possible to lose a few crops each storm

 

[REtroGeekery]

That's what crops look like after being struck by lightning. Had it rained recently in-game?

 

[Antsy]

The more lightning rods you have, the better. But FYI crops can still be struck by lightning occasionally, even when you have lightning rods. Just so you know.

 

[Maxima]

Thanks y'all, I've been trying to wait it out for years just to see if there's a random night event indication or anything that's been killing my crops. Appreciate the help

I hate that I didn't figure that out on my own lol It did rain for two days of the Dessert Festival, but I was too focus on an easy Skull Cavern dive and didn't make the connection 🥲 I also only have two Lightning Rods just enough for Willy's boat 'cuz I don't know where to put it in my already ugly-designed farm lol But I'll craft more now that I know my two rods doesn't save my crops.

 

[chaskuchar]

i have 6 lightening rods and just started y2 fall. i had one plant that died, melon. the patch is 9x18 on meadowlands. i have always thought dying plants were part of the game.

 

[Ereo]

i have 6 lightening rods and just started y2 fall. i had one plant that died, melon. the patch is 9x18 on meadowlands. i have always thought dying plants were part of the game.

I usually aim for 30. The chance to strike crops is never zero, but the more free rods you have, the higher the chance they will get hit instead.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

Lightning rods will prevent your crops dying, but will also prevent you ever getting the Coal Tree rare event. I only got a coal tree once!

 

[Maher]

I like batteries, so I like lightning rods. I thought that batteries were the raison d'etre for lightning rods for the longest time.

 

[PerfectionWhaleFarm]

I also only have two Lightning Rods just enough for Willy's boat 'cuz I don't know where to put it in my already ugly-designed farm lol But I'll craft more now that I know my two rods doesn't save my crops.

Your farm is fine haha - you even built fences... honestly my farm always looks really really bad because I'm always off somewhere more productive... until I'm absolutely done with my save and starts decorating. Normal person would balance work and life, but nope this farmer just needs to get all the work out of the way first..

This and the Gold Clock are the bane of my existence because they don't really match with my vibes... but I recommend if you ever build iron fences to sprinkle some lightning rod along the path... it's one way I incorporate the rods in a more natural way.

 

[Maxima]

I'm always off somewhere more productive... until I'm absolutely done with my save and starts decorating. Normal person would balance work and life, but nope this farmer just needs to get all the work out of the way first..

Same lol I don't even have my stuffs organized. Chests are littered all over random places and not color-coded and filled with random items I've hoarded (which I regret now that I've decided to build Sheds, I can't find anything I need lol). Decorations are the last thing on my mind when there's still so much work to do.

 

[Antsy]

Your farm is fine haha - you even built fences... honestly my farm always looks really really bad because I'm always off somewhere more productive... until I'm absolutely done with my save and starts decorating. Normal person would balance work and life, but nope this farmer just needs to get all the work out of the way first..

This and the Gold Clock are the bane of my existence because they don't really match with my vibes... but I recommend if you ever build iron fences to sprinkle some lightning rod along the path... it's one way I incorporate the rods in a more natural way.

That's actually a really neat idea. I don't mind the look of the lightning rods on their own at all, but they would look good mixed up with iron fencing.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

i have 6 lightening rods and just started y2 fall. i had one plant that died, melon. the patch is 9x18 on meadowlands. i have always thought dying plants were part of the game.

So the math is, chance to intercept = 1 - (number of charged lightning rods / total number of lightning rods)² (https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Lightning_Rod). If it doesn't get intercepted by a lightning rod, then there's a 25% chance to hit a farm feature (a tree or a crop or something else like that). Put another way, for every 4 strikes you expect to not intercept, something gets hit.

From that, if 3 rods intercept strikes, you're already at a 75% chance a strike does not get intercepted. I normally consider 20 a minimum, with 30-40 being ideal. With 20 on my farm, last storm 14 intercepted strikes. No idea how many were not intercepted but I've had 20+ batteries from a storm pretty easy. So yeah, quite a few strikes then are making it through. The fact that not all of your rods intercept strikes is just a matter of the math - at 5 already processing, you've got only a 1 in 36 for that last rod to actually intercept something. Better to have overkill when it comes to them in my book.