What is the most profitable crop to grow?

All with hops I've heard it is better but takes more time due to all the replanting, but fruit trees? Aren't ancient fruit still better purely due to how much space you need for fruit trees?

 

Invest in crystallariums

You're right, it is quite tedious. In one save I have a greenhouse filled with hops and every other day I have to collect and replace the kegs with them. Even with my other daily chores, I usually finish around 9:20 AM but it gets tiresome. Though this is the save where I'm using crystallariums as my main source of profit. I'm currently up to the point where I can start slowly phasing out kegs with crystallariums as I get enough resources to make them.

Of course, it's a bit of a catch-21 since to get that many crystallariums, you need enough money/resources to begin with so

 

No, Fruit trees may need open space to grow but once they have had 28 days to fully grow they only take one space. More importantly, they can grow outside the 120 crop area in the center of the greenhouse. (Allowing 138 total crops.)

Ancient Fruit is still a top contender just not THE top. Compared to Starfruit which produces one 2250g bottle of wine every 9 days. (If you always use Deluxe Speed Gro.) Additionally, the Starfruit wine loses 400g for seed costs. Which with an average of 2 seeds per input, doesn't change much with seed makers. (You save 50g every 2 seeds. Making each seed 375g.) So the total Starfruit wine value is 1850g every 9 days at maximum speed. By comparison Ancient Fruit produces weekly and is unaltered by growing speed. (Once it produces fruit that is.) Then every 7 days you get a 1650g bottle of wine, without ever having to replant. The difference is Starfruit gets at most 3 harvests a month, Ancient Fruit is guaranteed 4. That makes a season total of 5550g vs. Ancient Fruit's 6600g. I learned my lesson with the last post, if it is better over one season it is better over 4.

The reason fruit trees and hops are so powerful is the frequent harvests. (And for hops the x12 boost in value, but don't tell that to CA.) With Fruit Trees you can wait three days and harvest all three days at once. The real cost is the barrels to hold a weeks worth of wine at once. But, with only 30 trees in the greenhouse it is still only 210 barrels. (Not bad compared to other artisan equipment.) Fruit may be 140g each but, since they produce 7 times faster it is equivalent to 980g when compared to Ancient Fruit. (550g) That means even before the nerf Fruit Trees outperformed Ancient Fruit. The only limit to these was the space required. Meaning that even in a best case scenario a greenhouse could only fit 30. (And that is only after they were allowed on the tile again.)

Hops is similarly limited though not as much, since the player cannot pass through the trellis to harvest and Junimos can't be placed inside the greenhouse. Each hops is only worth 25g but it produces daily for 175g over the week. The real magic comes from the Keg at the x12 I mentioned earlier. 175g becomes 2100g. Now compare that to the finished Ancient Fruit wine at 1650g and the difference should be clear. Again, like the fruit trees this power is due to the greenhouse. Otherwise Hops is limited to a single season and its overall value drops. But, since we are here to discuss greenhouse items it's value stands. So, unless I missed something here are the tiers for the top performing crops.

#1 Pomegranate or Peach trees. In one week you earn 2940g in wine. These can be harvested three days apart and are limited to 30 per greenhouse. Each tree requires 7 kegs to keep up with demand. If you have the resources this is the top choice, and you only need to harvest just over twice as often as Ancient Fruit for almost double the profit.

#2 Hops. These are harvested daily and over the week earn 2100g. To my knowledge 90 is the highest anyone has fit while still being harvestable. To keep up with supply you need 2 kegs per plant. This is the most tedious because it must be done daily. (Then again, so do animals and this is, less time and far more profitable.)

#3 Ancient Fruit. The long time staple is now in the #3 slot. Each week it produces 1650g in wine. One harvest per week and no replanting.

#4 Starfruit. The last major contender, anything below here is just Starfruit but worse. At max speed it earns 1850g every 9 days. This translates to roughly 1439g weekly. At slowest speed it takes 13 days to earn 1850g or 997g weekly. It takes between x0.5 and x1 kegs per plant, depending on grow speed.

There you have it, the top and realistically only 4 things that should be in the greenhouse. (Anything below Starfruit takes more time, or more resources or both to achieve less profit.) Best part is, Fruit Trees, Ancient Fruit and Starfruit are available year round so it doesn't matter when you get your greenhouse. Only Hops has a wait time.