Crops (LoH)

In Harvest Moon: Light of Hope, you can grow crops on both your plot of farmland as well as other areas outside of your farm. Crops can be grown all year long, and the same crop seeds can be planted every season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. This means that any crop can be planted all year long without it dying. It's health will most likely end up "poor", meaning the plant is weak and might not survive another day. With that being said, crops will therefore grow better in specific seasons.

Depending on multiple factors, crops may mutate to become another crop. For more info, refer to the Crop Mutations page.

When you first start on your farm, Jeanna will give you a watering can, hoe, and cabbage seeds to help you getting started as a farmer. She will also show you how to do simple farm tasks such as tilling the soil, planting seeds and watering the plants so they can grow and turn into crops that you can harvest. Plants do not need watering on rainy or snowy days, which means on these days you have the time and stamina to do other things (such as fishing or going to the mine).

Flowers
Note: The sell prices are for Carol only. If you ship flowers or sell them to Sam they will be worth less.

Terrain Types
There are four types of terrain you can plant crops in. Different terrain are in different areas of Beacon Island. A terrain will not change from one type to another. Picking the terrain to grow your crops in won't affect growth rate, but it can affect the chance of triggering a crop mutation. These new types of crops grow from basic seeds and can be used for cooking recipes, making fertilizer, completing villager requests, or selling for more profit (though in general, mining is more profitable than farming).
 * 1) Grassy: This soil can be found everywhere on your farm on both sides of the bridges.
 * 2) Mixed: A combination of dry and grassy soil found in the mountain area just north of your farm. It is also on the cliff area above Sofia's Livestock shop.
 * 3) Dry: At the top of the mountain above the Goddess' Spring, by Edmond's house.
 * 4) Swamp: Found in the southwest corner of the island. You'll need to repair some bridges after you complete the main storyline to reach these areas.

Terrain will not change from one type to another based on environmental factors; rainy days will not turn grassy terrain into swampy terrain.

To plant a seed, simply use your hoe on the terrain of choice, then press the action button to till the terrain. If you have upgraded your hoe at Gus' blacksmith shop, hold down the action button to power up and extend the range of terrain you're impacting. Then simply move your cursor over to the freshly-tilled area and press the action button again to select the seed you want to plant. Again, you can hold down the action button to spread the seeds in a 3x3 range.

Seeds
New seeds will be for sale as you proceed through the game. Sam sells crop seeds and Carol sells flower seeds. The basic level of seeds unlock naturally as you restore the lighthouse, while the hybrid seeds unlock as you sell a certain number of harvests (10, 20, or 30). Selling crops to unlock their seeds can be done either by shipping the crops in your shipping bin or selling them directly to Sam (crops) or Carol (flowers). You can also sell your crops to Bastian, who will buy your grown crops for more than what you can earn from selling directly to Sam or placing in your shipping bin.
 * Sam's shop is open Monday through Saturday from 6am to 8pm. Sam's location will change depending on the day of the week, so check your in-game map to see if he's either in Beacon Town, on your farm, or in the Mountain area.
 * Carol's shop is also open Monday through Saturday, but she stays in Beacon Town and doesn't move around like Sam does. Her hours are from 10am to 8pm.

When going to buy seeds from Sam or Carol, the seed review screen will tell you the preferred season the crop grows in, the type of terrain it likes, how many days it will take for the crop to mature, and if the crop can be harvested more than once. A bag of seeds will plant one crop in your tilled soil. If you want to plant 9 crops, you've to buy 9 bags of seeds.

Plant Health
Technically, the plants will grow without daily watering, but NOT watering your plants will negatively affect the plants "health". You can get a general idea of how healthy you plants are by standing next to the plant. A thought-bubble will appear, with a background colour basted on the crop's health level.

The higher the crop's health, the better the chance of it surviving bad weather storms and possibly mutating into a new type of crop if grown on the right terrain and in the right season. Poor health crops have a greater chance of wilting the next morning. If your crop's health is poor, you can spruce it up by applying fertilizer. You can add fertilizer once per day after you water the plants. Fertilizer can be purchased from Carol's flower shop or manufactured at the Fertilizer Bin on your farm. There are two other Fertilizer Bins on the island, which are both connected to the main one on your farm from storage purposes.

Plants that are healthy can also live through the season change.