Would you like to be a farmer? Perhaps not in the ‘real world’ but in the virtual world of Farmville, millions of people have shouted a resounding Yes! In this hugely popular computer game you begin with a small plot of land and plant crops, hopefully becoming wildly successful and creating a huge farm with a gigantic manor and lots of money for luxuries. Obviously, it’s critical to know which crops to plant because a wise beginning will help you to rise faster.

If you want to make money as fast as you can, then know that peas are a great crop to plant because of their high financial returns. Your costs are 190 coins to plant your veggies, plus there is a harvesting cost of 15 coins. The good news is that you will receive a luscious 381 coins for selling the little green babies, yielding 176 coins in daily profit.

There are two other crop considerations in Farmville. The first is that some plants will “wilt” in a very few hours. This means that if you’re not on your computer for several hours your crops will die and all the money you’ve invested in them will be lost. So if you’re going to bed for around eight hours then you’ll want to plant something that won’t wilt while you’re asleep.

A third consideration in the game is that there are privileges that come with higher levels, just like all games. There are more profitable and longer-lived crops that aren’t available for newbie levels. Once you reach only Level 5 (which isn’t difficult) you can plant Halloween’s favorite crop: the pumpkin. It has a very long life – 16 hours. It requires eight hours to harvest and another eight hours before it dies of neglect so you have 16 hours to get back to it and save those little pumpkin lives. Total cost for planting and harvesting is only 30 coins but selling them brings 68 coins.

When you’re a Farmville newbie, the options you have for planting aren’t very extensive. There are currently only 13 crops available at Level1 out of the dozens and dozens of possible crops in this virtual farming world. For instance, you can plant Eggplant which pays only 48 coins – and takes TWO FULL DAYS to mature! Another example of a poor crop is Soybeans which only pay 33 coins and take one day to mature. These crops are useful only if you will be away from your computer for an extended time. If you’re a serious gamer, though, they’re terrible. You won’t reach those upper levels quickly if you take such a long time to raise any money. Contrast those with Super Berries that pay 75 coins – and mature in two hours. You can have multiple crops of those in the time it takes to grow one Eggplant or Soybean crop.

At higher levels you will have a multitude of choices. For instance, if you only play the game occasionally, a good choice might be Broccoli. You can plant it when you reach Level35 and it pays a handsome 258 coins each time you harvest it. If you’re more intense and determined, consider Clover which is available at Level70 and pays 28 coins. Why is that a good crop? Because Clover matures every four hours – meaning you can harvest approximately six crops per day or 336 points over the two days it would require to grow one crops of Broccoli. Clearly strategy and understanding your goal is critical for success as a farmer.

Quite simply, crops are the key to success – or failure. It’s important to understand crops and the best way to do this is to make your own chart of the crops and keep notes over time so that you get better at playing. Your chart should include: 1) the name of the crop 2) the cost to plant (price of the seeds + the cost to plough) 3) the time until the crop is ready to harvest 4) income (harvest price – cost to plant) and 5) income per hour. An example would be: 1) Super Pumpkins 2) 15 + 30 = 45 3) four hours 4) 55 coins 5) 13.75 per hour.

Keep in mind that you must, must, must know how long it will be until your crop wilts. If you leave it in the ground too long, it’s finished and you will have lost your entire investment in seed and work. Forget-Me-Nots are an advanced level crop, but the cost is 15 coins for ploughing and an amazing 725 coins for the seed! That would be a miserable loss, one that might cause you to lose your enthusiasm for Farmville. That would be a shame – especially since it’s a preventable mistake.

Farmville high flyers aren’t ‘lucky’ – they’ve figured out how to play Farmville by practical experience and gaining knowledge from others.

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