Short answer: it depends on the day, your gold and your machines, so enter them below. On a new farm (Spring 1, 500g, 15 tiles) plant Potato: 2,032g profit by the end of Spring, against 1,483g for Garlic. On Summer 15 with 2,000g and 40 tiles, Wheat wins: Wheat also grows in Fall, so you can keep harvesting it after this season ends: 10 harvests against 1 for Melon.
What to plant
How the choice is made
- Time: only crops that can still be harvested before they die are considered. Crops that also grow next season keep going into it.
- Gold: your gold pays for one seed (and fertilizer) per tile today. If it does not cover every tile, the crop is planted on as many tiles as you can afford.
- Machines: kegs and jars you have free are filled with the harvest when that earns more than selling raw, running from the first harvest to the end of the season (or to the last harvest, for crops that carry on into the next season).
- Total: the crop with the most profit across all your planted tiles wins. The reasons compare it with the runner-up.
Assumptions
- Seeds come from the cheapest shop that sells them every day (Pierre's, JojaMart or the Oasis).
- Single-harvest crops are replanted on harvest day with seeds paid from sales.
- Machine products ignore crop quality, as in the game.