Rust – When to Harvest Plants and Berries

You are currently viewing Rust – When to Harvest Plants and Berries

To survive in Rust, players will need to adapt to their surroundings and learn all the mechanics to use them for their benefit. Though there are some things that you don’t need to know to thrive, there are many mechanics that are very beneficial if you know how they work.

Farming is a very useful source of food and Cloth that can help you get resources with minimal effort. However, it is usually extremely complicated, and you will usually have to look up a guide to understand what you are looking at.

Recommended Read: How Do Vending Machines Work in Rust?

Still, you will need farming if you want to have an easier life than the other players around you. Though you might know how to plant and grow crops in Rust, you probably have no idea when you are supposed to harvest them.

Players should harvest plants and berries in Rust when they are in the Ripe stage. That is when you will get the most out of every crop you have planted.


Table of Contents


When to Harvest Plants and Berries in Rust

All plants and berries in Rust that you put in the ground and grow will take a few hours to yield a large number of resources. As the plants grow, they will go through different age stages.

There are 8 stages that a plant can go through in Rust, and this is the exact order they will appear:

  1. Seed
  2. Seedling
  3. Sapling
  4. Crossbreed
  5. Mature
  6. Fruiting
  7. Ripe
  8. Dying

The moment when you can start to harvest plants and berries in Rust is when they reach the Mature stage. Once they get to the Mature stage, you will get the minimum yield possible from the crop.

The best amount of resources you can get from plants and berries in Rust is only possible when you harvest during the Ripe stage.

It does not matter if you are at 1% Ripe or 99% Ripe. You will get the same amount of resources from the plant if you harvest during this stage. Once they pass the Ripe stage, they will reach the Dying stage.

During the Dying stage, players can just harvest 1 Plant Fiber from the crop. They will lose out on any resources they would have gotten from the plant.

This is why some players might choose to harvest their plants in the earlier stages, as you might not be close to your base later and lose out on the Ripe harvest.

In general, you can harvest Hemp right from the Mature stage, and the food plants, such as berries and Pumpkins, can be harvested from the Fruiting stage. Still, all of these will yield the best results during the Ripe stage.


That’s everything you need to know about when to harvest plants and berries in Rust!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Adrian Oprea

Based in London, United Kingdom, Adrian Oprea is a Guides Writer. As a professional single-player RPG player, Adrian has often been stigmatized. He has decided to pour his frustration into writing guides!

Leave a Reply