quick question,
how do you get more stars from crops?
i'm guessing you use the seed maker because the fertilizer only gives one star??
quality of crops
It sounds like you have observed that the quality increase from 0.5 --> 1 star happens very easily, and then the 1 --> 1.5 increase within the same season is quite difficult (it is not impossible, as I will explain below). This will be true at any starting quality level. For example, if in the beginning of the season you start with 4-star carrots, the 4 --> 4.5 star jump will be quite easy, but the 4.5 --> 5 will be more difficult. It seems the game keeps track of what quality level you start with each season.
You can actually increase quality more than 1 star per season if you use a ton of fertilizer bottles. The seed maker does not change the quality of the seeds you get back, except tree and tea seeds.
1 star crop in --> 1 star crop seeds out
1 star tea in --> 1.5 star tea seeds out
1 star fruit in --> 1.5 star fruit seeds out
(FYI: Tree seeds are not 100% reliable for the quality increase, but it does happen in most situations.)
Fertilization strategy:
0000000000X0000000000X0000000000X0000000000
0=crop X=fertilizer
Make one huge row for all your crops, as many as you can fit. This is important because it will help you use up more bottles of fertilizer, since more crops drain them faster. The more you use up, the better because they are cumulative [for example, in my diagram, all 40 of the crops would have the effect of all 3 bottles of fertilizer]. Replace the bottles as soon as they are used up, and keep doing this for the whole season. By the end, your regrowable crops will have increased 1.5-2 stars in quality (provided you have a large enough field; I can't make promises if your field is still very small). One-time crops will probably not have increased as much, depending on how long they take to grow.
Fertilizing crops, and then making seeds and planting them again within the season (for example, with carrots or other fast-growing crops) does not help them gain quality faster (ie, it doesn't make the 1 --> 1.5 jump easier. It will still be difficult. I am not sure why the game keeps track of this). You will still have to pump them full of fertilizer to see an effect.
Alternatively, watch out for requests that will give you crops. If you fulfill the request with high-quality items, you will get high quality items in return. In this way I managed to get 5-star carrots with no fertilizer drama. ^o^
And that is everything I know about improving crop quality.
You can actually increase quality more than 1 star per season if you use a ton of fertilizer bottles. The seed maker does not change the quality of the seeds you get back, except tree and tea seeds.
1 star crop in --> 1 star crop seeds out
1 star tea in --> 1.5 star tea seeds out
1 star fruit in --> 1.5 star fruit seeds out
(FYI: Tree seeds are not 100% reliable for the quality increase, but it does happen in most situations.)
Fertilization strategy:
0000000000X0000000000X0000000000X0000000000
0=crop X=fertilizer
Make one huge row for all your crops, as many as you can fit. This is important because it will help you use up more bottles of fertilizer, since more crops drain them faster. The more you use up, the better because they are cumulative [for example, in my diagram, all 40 of the crops would have the effect of all 3 bottles of fertilizer]. Replace the bottles as soon as they are used up, and keep doing this for the whole season. By the end, your regrowable crops will have increased 1.5-2 stars in quality (provided you have a large enough field; I can't make promises if your field is still very small). One-time crops will probably not have increased as much, depending on how long they take to grow.
Fertilizing crops, and then making seeds and planting them again within the season (for example, with carrots or other fast-growing crops) does not help them gain quality faster (ie, it doesn't make the 1 --> 1.5 jump easier. It will still be difficult. I am not sure why the game keeps track of this). You will still have to pump them full of fertilizer to see an effect.
Alternatively, watch out for requests that will give you crops. If you fulfill the request with high-quality items, you will get high quality items in return. In this way I managed to get 5-star carrots with no fertilizer drama. ^o^
And that is everything I know about improving crop quality.