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How To Grow Vegetables in Animal Crossing

How To Grow Vegetables in Animal Crossing

The massive Version 2.0 Update of Animal Crossing: New Horizons brought cooking to the table!

From Pancakes to Minestrone Soup, you can now make different dishes from food ingredients in the game.

To go with this new cooking feature, this update also brought Vegetables to the mix!

In this guide, we’ll show you how to grow vegetables in Animal Crossing and start a small farm on your island!

Where To Get Vegetables and How To Grow Them

Update Your Game

Before you can start your idyllic vegetable farm, you have to update your game first. Make sure your Animal Crossing has the Version 2.0 Update!

Animal Crossing Software Update

To update your game, go to your Nintendo Switch’s Home Screen. Select Animal Crossing but don’t press ‘a’ to start the game. Instead, press the ‘+’ or the plus button on your controller.

This will show you the game’s technical information.

On this pop-up window, you’ll see Software Information, a way to check your My Nintendo Rewards, and Software Update, among others.

Click on Software Update and choose Via the Internet or Match Version with Local Users to update your game.

Animal Crossing Fully Updated Game

The first option downloads the update through your internet connection, while the second one lets you connect with a nearby Nintendo Switch and download the update through that console’s updated Animal Crossing copy.

Crop-wise, the update brings five new crops to the game.

These are Carrots, Potatoes, Wheat, Tomatoes, and Sugar Cane. Pumpkins were added back in 2020. You can make Flour with Wheat and Sugar with Sugar Cane.

Animal Crossing Tomatoes And Carrots

Once your game is fully updated, you’ll be a step closer to making your vegetable farm a reality.

Get Crops From Leif

The easiest way to get vegetable starts and seeds is to buy from Leif. Be on the lookout whenever he visits your island.

He and his cart should be parked right outside your Resident Services.

Animal Crossing Leif's Vegetable Starts

To make this method even easier, finish Harv’s Island to have a permanent stall for Leif there. To do this, visit Harv after getting a letter from him.

Prepare 100,000 Bells and donate them to the Gyroid on his island that says, “For the botany expert with the greenest of thumbs.”

Animal Crossing Harv's Island

Leif’s stall at Harv’s Island will take a day to finish. Visit the island the next day to talk to Leif and to see what he’s currently selling.

For vegetables, he will sell two crop starts or seeds at a time.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If Leif is on your island, his stall at Harv’s Island will be closed.

Get Crops From Boat Tour Islands

Another way to get vegetables or crops is to go on a few Kapp’n Boat Tours. On these tours, you can end up on islands with abandoned vegetable farms.

The islands will only have one type of crop growing on them, though.

Animal Crossing Kappn's Boat Ride

There are six crop-related islands from Kapp’n’s Boat Tours. These are Carrot Island, Potato Island, Pumpkin Island, Tomato Island, Wheat Island, and Sugarcane Island.

Ending up on any of these islands is a game of luck and chance, so you might have to keep availing Kapp’n’s tours to end up in some of these islands.

Animal Crossing Singing Kapp'n

To get a boat ride from Kapp’n, go to your pier to find Kapp’n relaxing on his trusty boat. Talk to him and be ready to pay 1,000 Miles per boat ride.

TIP: If you’re low on Miles, do Miles+ tasks that have multipliers on them to quickly gather the Miles needed for a boat ride.

Animal Crossing Kapp'n Island

Once you’re sailing the seas with Kapp’n, he’ll start sharing his sea shanties with you. Clap along to his songs by pressing ‘a’.

You can also react by pressing ‘x’ for laughter and ‘y’ for shock.

Do you want to skip all the singing? You can spam-press ‘b’ to make Kapp’n end his shanty.

This will immediately conclude his singing performance, and you’ll get to your destination quicker.

Kinda rude, if you ask me, but time is gold, Kapp’n! We’ve got a farm we need to start.

Plant Them Like Flowers

Our vegetable farm can now be a reality! Open your pockets with ‘x’ to see the crop starts and plants you have.

Go to the crop you want to place on your farm and press ‘a’ to see the option ‘plant’.

You don’t even need a shovel for it – your crop will be on the ground after choosing ‘plant’.

Animal Crossing Plant Tomato

Your crops will take three days to grow. The yield or number of fruit will be quite random.

For example, you’ll notice some of your tomato plants will have three fruits, which is the maximum, while some will only bear one.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Water your crops every day! You will see sparkles on the plant to indicate it has already been watered.

Animal Crossing Watering Vegetables

To harvest, simply press ‘y’ while standing close to your crops. Keep harvesting your crops to use them for cooking and crafting.

You can also apply fences to corral your crops and use different paths on the ground to make your garden or farm look nicer!

Animal Crossing Vegetable Farm

Vegetables and crops can definitely spice up your Animal Crossing gameplay. Plus, having a farm on your island looks really nice, don’t you think?

Make that farm a reality with this guide on how to grow vegetables in Animal Crossing.