Your opinions on seed makers?

[3emadp]

I wanna discuss about this because I feel an underrated machine I see people neglect a lot

Because instead of buying for example a parsnip seed for 20g and getting 15g profit. You'll get this seed for free and have full profit (35g). It would be a great source of income especially with expensive crops like cauliflower or pumpkin (or maybe sweet gem berries if you see it as an option)

I want to everyone's thoughts about this, not sure if it was discussed before. But I wanna see what people have to say about it

 

[Quirinea]

You put in a parsnip (35 g) and get on average two seeds. Average cost is 17.5 g + the time for growing the parsnip. So you extra profit is 2.5 g, not 20 g.
Seed maker is useful and profitable for certain special cases:
For Qi fruit challenge it is the fastest way to get them.
Cases were the seed are hard to get, like to get strawberries for the second year (if you did not have money to buy enough at the first egg festival, which easily happens), and ancient seeds.
Maybe multi-crops in general.

 

[Rhiannon]

OR if you are a person who wants a self-sufficient farm which is MY goal, seed makers are the way to go. By year four, I don't think I'll have to buy any seeds from Pierre. None. Zero. I have a bank of seed makers and start running my produce through them around mid-month before the next season. By the end of the previous season, I'll have around 600 seeds all ready to plant the next season.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

The seedmaker is probably my favorite equipment in Stardew Valley. I like to grow a lot of blueberries, cranberries, and strawberries. With the seedmaker I can easily prepare to plant my outdoor seasonal berries and fill my greenhouse. Similarly, I can fill my island farm with pineapple.
Not only do I replicate ancient seeds, I sometimes get my first ancient seed from the seedmaker. It has a small chance of giving ancient seeds no matter what you feed it!
Another favorite use of the seedmaker is wild seeds. You can put winter root, brown mushroom, spice berry, or horseradish in to get the corresponding season's wild seeds. Harvesting wild crops boosts foraging skill, and if you choose Botanist at level 10, iridium forage is quite valuable. Some villagers love certain forage items, and when they are iridium quality, you gain friendship quickly.
Similarly, if I am growing certain crops as gifts for specific characters, the seedmaker is very handy. For instance Jas loves fairy rose. So I will give her the gold star fairy rose and recycle lower quality flowers into seeds to replant.

 

[Elenna101]

The problem is you're not actually getting the seed for free. If you didn't put the parsnip in the seed maker, you could have sold it for at least 35g. So you're losing out on 35g.

That being said, because you get on average two seeds from the seedmaker, you might still think that's good. 35g is still less than the 40g that two seeds would cost. But the thing is, if you can get a seedmaker, it's likely you can also get a preserve jar. And if you pickle the parsnip, it's worth a whole 120g, or 168g with Artisan perk, much more than the 40g of the two seeds you got out of it.

TL;DR if your only goal is money, don't put your produce in seed makers, put them in jars or kegs instead.

That being said, there are still times when seed makers are worth it - ancient fruit and wild seeds are good examples. Or if you don't have enough preserve jars or kegs, you can consider using it. Or for multi-yield crops (e.g. blueberries) it can sometimes be worth it, but for money I wouldn't recommend planting blueberries or cranberries at all as it takes way too many jars and kegs to process them and you'll generally make more money with less effort by jarring or kegging starfruit, melons, red cabbage, or pumpkins.

 

[Sigrah]

Necessary if you want to plant Ancient Fruit or Sweet Gem Berries on a large scale, useful if you want to plant strawberries on a large scale at the start of Year 2 onwards. Can also be useful to make wild seeds if you have an overabundance of Wild Horseradish, Spice Berries, Common Mushrooms, or Winter Roots. Otherwise, unless you're running a self-sufficient farm or just hate giving money to Joja Mart and Pierre, it's not worth it to me to break down common crops from some of my harvest for seeds to replant. I tend to run large fields, and I just don't want to put the time into waiting for the seed maker to process enough seeds to replant in my field, especially if it's a good luck day or higher.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Only useful for the qi quest, getting and duplicating ancient fruit, making extra money off of stuff like basic cranberries and blueberries, and sgb (though Sgb isn’t really worth it in itself so…)

 

[Lew Zealand]

As others have mentioned, financially speaking the Seed Maker isn't great though it's useful for specific quests and to multiply crops you can't buy easily or at all (Strawberries and Ancient Fruit). Don't even think of Sweet Gem Berries unless you're specifically targeting them for fun or aesthetics as a single happy Pig will dig up a Sweet Gem Berry in 5 convenient bite-sized funny lumpy brown pieces over the course of a few days. Trust me, you can totally mash them together to make a pseudo-berry that sells for similar g right now! Meanwhile you'd need to wait until the second half of Fall to get your Berry bonanza. Are you even gonna remember to plant it Fall 1? I sure won't.
Srsly, Pig.

It's all about time and effort, grinding something through the 'Maker takes just long enough to waste your time waiting and short enough to where you can't do much else unless you have lotsa Ore or Wood to process right next door. Ok okok I've been letting those languish too, but then you're managing like 3 or 4 different machines doing different things and....

c'mon

You remember the second scene in the game. Stuck in a JojaJob managing boring mundane tasks. Spending your days in a little pod making "use" of your time. Don't self-inflict that same wound. Stardew is not a seppuku sim!

Just take it easy. Use that Seed Maker only when strictly necessary and buy Seeds otherwise if needed. Do some planning so you don't run out of anything but for the love of Yoba get some rest under that shady tree and let those Pigs do the hard g-generating work for you. Use those valuable Greenhouse spaces for Yoba's gift to Farmers, the ever-producing Ancient Fruit and you'll never need to see that pesky Seed Maker again.

And if you ever unluckily stumble across something that sounds like Qi Fruit, just keeeep walking, you must have misheard. It's cool, that guy's got his brand on everything like Acme or Stark Industries. You probably saw Chief Root but your brain misspelled it. Happens.

And even better, when you're done with your Ancient Fruit Greenhouse....

chuck the Seed Maker into the River. <plop> it's gone! Soooo satisfying to put that behind you. No embarrassing reminders of overenthusiastic early endeavors. Won't even turn into a dove or leave you creepy phone messages, it's like the game wants you to do it!

 

[MRight]

The seed maker is useless if you are putting non-regrowing crops like parsnips, because within the the time it takes to replant and sell them just three times, you still have about two times less money than if you put the parsnip in the preserve jar or even less from keg. Cases that the seed maker is useful in is when you’re late enough into the game for ancient fruit, want strawberries on the first day of spring year two, and when you use the mushroom cave for fall seeds that you are turning into tea saplings for a quick 500g per sapling.

 

[MogBeoulve]

I keep forgetting that I have seed makers after I have finished filling my greenhouse with ancient fruit. They process so quickly that I feel pressured to stand there and wait while they work so I can immediately reload them. But then I'm wasting time standing around! Also, if I didn't go out and buy seeds, I would leave the farm a lot less - it gives me an excuse to run around and say hi to people.

 

[Ereo]

I keep forgetting that I have seed makers after I have finished filling my greenhouse with ancient fruit. They process so quickly that I feel pressured to stand there and wait while they work so I can immediately reload them. But then I'm wasting time standing around! Also, if I didn't go out and buy seeds, I would leave the farm a lot less - it gives me an excuse to run around and say hi to people.

If you put enough of them in a row, the first one will be ready when you put in the last fruit - I only use that during the Qi bean challenge though.

 

[3emadp]

I read most of the replies now. And oh boy how enlightening it was to read them!

Also of course. I get the right amount I want from those seeds and whatever left goes to the jars and kegs.

But thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on this thread. Had a fun time reading this!

 

[Godkin]

The Seed Maker has a very interesting goal: to create seeds that are not available for purchase. Behind that purpose, however, lies a fantasy-inducing potential. You may be lucky and watch a plant that was initially useless grow to triple in size, need three times as much water, or even have a sprinkler that is three times the size of the plant itself. But here's what makes it all the more interesting... There's a one chance in a thousand, that the Seed Maker will turn one of your plants into a very valuable seed, namely the Primordial Fruit Seed.

I am a godkin descended from a god, the "SEPUH" of Stardew Valley