How to get high quality Fruit Tree saplings in Stardew Valley 1.6

Gone are the days of leaving a fruit tree where it is because you don’t want to give Pierre gold for a new sapling.

One thing that has been updated in Stardew Valley 1.6 that has players incredibly thankful is the fact that fruit trees will now drop saplings when chopped down. Here’s what Stardew creator ConcernedApe has said in the patch notes:

“Chopping down a fruit tree now yields the appropriate fruit sapling. If the tree is mature (i.e. the fruit quality is > basic), it will yield a sapling with the same quality as its fruit. The higher the quality, the faster the sapling will mature.”

How to get high quality Fruit Tree saplings

A tree will drop a sapling that is of the same quality as the fruit that was on the tree when it was chopped down. This means that if a tree was providing you with Iridium quality fruit, then the sapling you’ll receive from chopping down this tree will be of Iridium quality. 

How does Sapling quality affect tree growth

Trees have four stages of growth until they are fully grown and each stage takes seven in-game days to complete. Once a tree is fully mature, the fruit it provides will increase one star in quality each year it is in place. After four in-game years, your fruit tree will provide you with Iridium quality fruits. 

Saplings that are gained from chopping down a tree which provides Iridium quality fruits will go through their growth stages at a faster rate.

However, you will not immediately get fruit that is of the same quality as the sapling you planted. Even if you plant Iridium quality saplings, fruit trees will still need to go through the year-on-year improvement that they always have.