The patch notes for the big "Stardew Valley" 1.6 update remain a secret, but the patch notes have revealed one change. Creator Eric Barone shared a little insight about the update on Twitter today, getting players terribly excited about the fruit trees.

"I started working on the 1.6 patch notes and thought I'd share one random line about the fruit tree changes," Barone tweeted. The changes include:

Cutting down a fruit tree now yields a suitable fruit sapling. If the tree is mature (i.e., if the quality of the fruit is above basic), it will yield saplings of the same quality as the fruit. The higher the quality, the faster the sapling will mature when replanted.

Seems like a pretty minor change to me, but the reaction to this tweet suggests otherwise. There was much excitement and no small amount of questions, to which Barone responded with a reply.

For one thing, the change is not intended to provide a boost beyond what the players currently have. In response to one inquiry, Barone replied, "This change is only intended to help people move trees, not to provide any economic benefit. 'The best money maker would be to plant the trees and never touch them again. This will only make it less tragic if the time comes when the trees must be moved."

""Maturity" is meant to reduce the pain of moving an older tree. New trees that must be moved also drop saplings, but do not benefit from the "maturity" bonus.

He also pointed out that the bonus does not affect the quality of the fruit these trees bear: saplings born from mature trees grow faster, but still have to go through the same steps to bear fruit of the same quality as their parent trees.

Even with this clarification, the change seems to me to be relatively minor, but those who actually play Stardew Valley feel quite differently.

"Whomst among us," etc.

I also learned today that there seems to be a "fruit tree meta".

Speaking of meta, for some players, this would be a quality of life improvement beyond the Stardew Valley bounty: I once moved an overgrown and badly placed apple tree with only a shovel and my bare hands. The tree survived, although it took several years before it began to bear fruit again (it was only food for insects and other apple-loving animals that happened to pass by). And that experience left me with a valuable piece of wisdom: don't move the tree yourself unless you really, really have to.

From this perspective, I have to agree with LittlePinkSouda:

The Stardew Valley 1.6 update will be released on March 19. The exact timing will depend on developments on that date. Barone tweeted, "Woke up, had a cup of coffee, and if there are no last minute issues, I'll hit the button right away." 'If all goes well, some time in the morning. I will let everyone know when that time comes." And I will let you know in turn