Finding an Ancient Seed

Kill bugs on the upper mine floors while you are there anyway. Bugs, cave flies, and grubs each drop the Ancient Seed artifact 0.5% of the time. Mutant flies and mutant grubs do too, once the Mines are dangerous. Artifact spots in Cindersap Forest and on the Mountain, including the Quarry, are 0.7% each. Fishing treasure can hold one after Fishing level 2, at about 0.7–0.8%.

Donate that artifact. Gunther's reward is one plantable packet and the recipe that turns later artifacts into packets. If a Seed Maker or a traveling-cart year from before 1.6.3 already handed you a packet, a Deconstructor turns it back into the artifact so the donation can happen.

Plant in spring, summer, or fall, or any season in the Greenhouse or on the Ginger Island farm. Growth is 28 days, then a fruit every 7 days. Normal fruit sells for 550g. Normal wine sells for 1,650g. Any other crop run through a Seed Maker has a 0.5% chance to spit out an Ancient Seeds packet, which is how a greenhouse fills in after the first plant.

The artifact sells for 5g. The packet sells for 30g and is not in Pierre's or JojaMart's catalog. Rates and the wine quality table are on the Ancient Seed page.