The stalk market is a lucrative opportunity to make big bells in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but sometimes those pesky turnips go bad.
When your turnips rot, you might be stuck on what to do next; you’ll never get those precious bells you invested back, but that doesn’t mean spoiled turnips are a lost cause!
When do turnips rot?
Once you’ve bought turnips from Daisy Mae (psst – did you know Daisy Mae can give you secret recipes?) if you haven’t sold or used them by 5am the following Sunday, you’ll wake up to the sight of rotting turnips. Nice!
What to do with spoiled turnips on ACNH?
Rotten turnips will never be as fruitful as ripe turnips when it comes to the stalk market, but spoiled turnips do have their uses:
Catch new turnip-loving bugs
Drop your spoiled turnips on the ground outside and wait for ants and flies to appear soon after. You can either donate these critters to your museum or sell them to Flick for double the bells.
Sell spoiled turnips
Although you’ll never get lucrative spoils from rotten turnips compared to ripe ones, you can still sell them for bells at Nook’s Cranny.
When it comes to rotten turnips, there’s no price fluctuation like on the stalk market; you’ll get a flat rate of 100 bells per stack from Timmy and Tommy. However, each stack is classed as one turnip, so don’t expect the bells to roll in.
Store turnips in your house
If you don’t want to deal with the rotten turnips right away, you can drop spoiled turnips in one of your rooms at home. However, the Happy Home Academy will penalize you and deduct HHA points.
But, as you can’t put your turnips into your home storage, you might decide this small penalty is worth getting the turnips out of your inventory for a while.
Get rid of rotten turnips in the trash
Just like any other item of ACNH junk, you can throw spoiled turnips in a trash can. You’ll completely rid yourself of the turnip problem and never have to see those spoiled goods again!
Considering you won’t receive any bells or catch new critters if you throw turnips in the trash, we’d recommend either selling them or leaving them on the ground until you’ve found your new insect friends.
Does burying turnips stop them from rotting?
Unfortunately not, the process of turnip rotting will take hold regardless of whether they’re above ground or underneath it.
There’s nothing to be done about stopping turnips from going gross, other than making use of them whilst they’re still good!
Why did my turnips spoil early?
There’s only one reason that turnips spoil early or spoil in a single day: time travel. If you’ve time traveled backward whilst having turnips in your inventory, home, or on your island, you can prepare to find them spoiled on your return.
Do turnips rot from time travel in ACNH?
We’re sad to say, yes, they do. If you travel back in time, you’re going to find your present-day turnips rotting where you left them.
ACNH developers added an anti-exploitation mechanism so players couldn’t time travel back and forth to find better Stalk market prices. In practice, this means if any player on your island time travels, all turnips will rot on the spot.
However, time traveling into the future doesn’t have the same impact, so long as you don’t travel further than the following Sunday when the turnips would go bad anyway.
It’s also good to know that if you visit a friend’s island whose time is set either forward or backward from yours, nothing will happen to your turnips. You’ll only see rotting based on time travel from your Switch clock.
How to fix spoiled turnips
There is no fix for spoiled turnips – once they’re gone, they’re gone. You’ll need to sell or use your turnips before 5am the following Sunday to ensure you don’t find them rotten in your inventory.
Using spoiled turnips in ACNH
The long and short of it is that spoiled turnips suck. But you can still make bells from them – just not very many – or leave them on the ground to attract ants and flies for your museum collection.
Make sure you sell ripe turnips by 5am the following Sunday to avoid rotting turnips, and cut out backward time travel to make sure your turnips stay good for the full week.
Are you thinking about redecorating your island? Don’t run into the problem many players face once they’re at the end of their island redecoration journey: PATHS!
Read our guide to learn how paths work under your house, island buildings, and resident homes. Spoiler: it’s not as straightforward as you’d think (le sigh).