Animal Crossing: New Horizons: How to get crops

One of the biggest additions in Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ 2.0 update is the ability to get crops and grow them to craft a variety of food recipes. It isn’t exactly clear how to get started, however, so we’ve put together a quick guide on how to get crops in Animal Crossing: New Horizons so that you can get your veg patch started swiftly.

How to get crops

The easiest way to get crops in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is to buy them from Leif, the plant shop merchant who occasionally visits your island.

Leif’s visit may be random, but there’s now a way to get him set up with a permanent stall. If you visit Harv’s island, you’ll be able to donate money to the Gyroids there to set up permanent stalls. You’ll need to give 100,000 bells to the Gyroid which is funding a “botany expert with the greenest of thumbs.” Pay up and the next day Leif will have set up a permanent stall, allowing you to buy all the seeds and plant starts you need. 

It’s also possible to find crops when exploring the islands that Kapp’n’s boat toad will take you to. Keep an eye out for any vegetables or plants you’re after and dig them up if you spot them. While you’re there, be sure to also keep an eye out for Gyroid Fragments!

How to grow crops

Once you’ve got the crops you require, return to your island and find a suitable patch of ground. All crops behave similarly to Pumpkins. That means you need to follow these steps to grow crops:

• Plant the seed in a hole in the ground
• Water the planted crop
• Keep watering each day until it produces goods to harvest
• Interact with the plant to collect the vegetable or plant you’ve grown

Once you’ve planted a start it will repeatedly grow crops unless you dig it up. Watering it will help it grow faster.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons crop types list

There are six crop types available in Animal Crossing: New Horizons:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Pumpkins
• Tomatoes
• Sugarcane
• Wheat

That’s all there is to know about how to get crops in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Make sure you also read up on how to cook food so that you know how to put your harvests to use. You can also check out our guide for how to find Brewster so you can get the cafe set up in your museum.

Henry Stenhouse

Associate Editor

Henry Stenhouse serves an eternal punishment as the Associate Editor of AllGamers. He spent his younger life studying the laws of physics, even going so far as to complete a PhD in the subject before video games stole his soul. Confess your love of Super Smash Bros. via email at henry@moonrock.biz, or catch him on Twitter.