Farming in minecraft is a very useful thing, it can supply you with crops to sell, eat, feed to animals and decoration.. kinda. Anyway, I'd just like to give a few tips on how to make some farms more efficient. I will be updating this, I still have things to add to this post. Most of it is completed though. As I'm sure all of you know, putting water near tilled ground makes it turn darker and is better for crops. However, what some people don't know is how far that reach is. 1 block of water can actually cover a 9x9 area (4 blocks in every direction) if placed in the very center. This makes a 9x9 (81 blocks) a 80 crops to 1 water area. (Image) Which yes, means the typical 36 blocks of water to 45 crops isn't very good (Image) Not all crops actually need this 'farmland' to grow, such as Cactus, Sugar cane, Netherwart, Cocoa, Pumpkin and Melon (Blocks, not stalks. The blocks can spawn on dirt, grass or farmland but the stalk that grows the block must be on the farmland). Wheat, Potatoes, Carrots have 8 growing stages (Carrots and Potatoes only have 4 visible stages, but actually go through 8). Each stage can last from 5 minutes to 35 minutes (most likely to be near to 5 minutes if you have 'ideal growing conditions'). The 8th and final stage is fully grown and ready to be harvested. This is what they look like fully grown on the vanilla texture pack (Image). Ideal growing conditions are the following criteria: -Not a solid block above the plant. Crops must have a block of light level of 9 or higher directly above them to grow. Anything that blocks out light, won't work. However, glass, torches, air do not block out light. It is also advised to use artificial light (not sunlight). This is because during the night it will be dark and the light level will be 0. To tell what your light level is, look here on your game (Image) -The farmland to be hydrated -Having alternating crops. It is actually more efficient to have rows of alternating crops instead of having fields of wheat, and fields of other crops. -Having tilled soil around the crops. For a given block, a random update occurs an average of once every 82 seconds. However, the delay can vary widely, and it is rare but possible for plants to gain a stage the moment after planting or grow two stages a moment apart. During every update, a crop plant gets a chance to grow to the next stage with the exact chance depending on the conditions I stated previously. The system uses 'points' -The farmland the crop is planted on gives 2 points if dry, 4 if hydrated. -For each of the 8 blocks around the block the crop is planted on, dry farmland gives 0.25, and hydrated gives 0.75 (http://prntscr.com/4assl8 - That would give an extra 8x0.75=6 'points' for that one crop. (Note that if the block surrounding the crop is not farmland at all, it will give 0 'points'. Meaning crops around the edge grow slower, generally) -Having your crops in rows(Call this the 'rows rule'). The point total will be cut in HALF if you don't follow this rule, which will slow your crops down significantly. To maximize the growth rate of this factor, you can't grow the same crop in the corners of eachother, or both north-south and east-west directions. (Image) To follow this rule, just set your crops up like this (Image) Just extend them out in rows. And to follow the previous rule just surround the entire crop area with hydrated farm land that's not got crops on. The calculation for the percentage chance of the crop moving up a growth stage (every update, avg. 82 seconds) is 1/(floor(25/points)+1. Floor, if you do not know is a term which means the lowest integer of that number. 7.81241 = 7. 1.999999 = 1. (Here) is a picture of the results I calculated. -'Surrounding points' means the 8 blocks surrounding the crop, and what you get from it. -'Hyd' in 'Hyd.No' and 'Hyd.Yep' means if the crop is planted on Hydrated land -'Nhyd' in 'Nhyd.No' and 'Nhyd.Yep' means if the crop is planted on non-hydrated land. -'No' in 'Hyd.No' and 'Nhyd.No' means if it doesn't follows the rows rule. -'Yep' in 'Hyd.Yep' and 'Nhyd.Yep' means if it follows the rows rule. The reason why 'Hyd.No' and 'Nhyd.No' at 'Surrounding Points' 0 doesn't exist, is because if the surrounding points are 0, there cannot be any tilled soil directly around the block. And if so, the crop must follow the 'Rows Rule' and therefore is a 'Hyd.Yep' or 'Nhyd.Yep'. That covers wheat, potatoes and carrots. Now for the rest. Cactus. Cacti farming is much similar as there are almost no stated mechanics. It can only grow on sand or redsand. It naturally will grow 3 blocks tall but can be made taller through natural generation (up to 9 blocks!) and any height from players placing it. Cactus, unlike any other block can only be placed up to height 254, instead of 256. Cacti grows very quickly, roughly 1 block every 3-4 minutes. It cannot grow next to any solid block (block that can stop water). Cacti does not need water, or light. It also cannot be burnt. If placed underwater, it can grow normally if the top block is not under the water, if it is on the same level, that is fine. A common way to automatically harvest cactus is to have a block above and to the side of the cactus, this way, when it grows it immediately destroys and drops. It can be thrown off into hoppers or a water stream. The trouble is, is that cactus destroys those dropped items. So, it causes problems when it lands on top of the cactus. It is advised you use a non solid block (like a sign) to break the cactus (Image). This is simply because the item usually does go of to the side, and if it hit the block that would break it, it'd have very little chance of getting past it, meaning it would be destroyed. However, for manual cactus farms. You can just stick them down in a checkerboard pattern and it'll be efficient. Sugar Cane. Sugar Cane can be planted on grass, dirt, podzol, sand and redsand. And to debunk what everyone thinks... Sugar cane, does NOT grow quicker on Sand. Or any other type of block (Proof). Sugar cane does require water directly next to it, which can be flowing or a source block. Sugar cane does not require any light to grow, it just requires an air space above it and a water block next to the block it's growing on. Sugar cane similar to cactus can only grow 3 tall naturally, but can generate higher(7 tall max) and can be placed higher. Sugar cane must go through 16 phases of growth. It advances to the next phases of growth whenever it gets a block tick. Block ticks are impossible to predict because they happen at random intervals. Minecraft not only works on chunks, but 'sections'. Each chunk is split up into 16, 16x16x16 sections. On every game tick (20 times a second) 3 block positions are chosen at random in an area 15 chunks on a side and centered on the player. If the sugar cane is chosen to have a Block Tick, it will advance a phase. The average sugar cane farm I see looks like this (Image) This gives an efficient of 5/9th's (55%) Sugar cane and 4/9th's water. A slightly more efficient farm is this (Image). The most efficient manual farm setup is this pattern (Image) This 9x9 (81 blocks) has 17 water and 64 sugar cane (79% efficiency). There are a few ways to automatically harvest sugar cane. The main types use systems such as: -A block update detector to then break the sugar cane as it grows with a piston. -A timer (using a daylight sensor or a hopper clock, just something that sends a signal every so often) to occasionally push the middle block of a sugar cane out. -Cutting off the water supply, forcing a block update on the sugar cane when the water is gone and running water down the main sugar cane area. The 2 first ones are more efficient because you don't have to replant, you can just let them grow. The third requires a harvest and replant. Netherwart. Netherwart is also driven by block ticks. It passes through 4 growing stages and the middle 2 stages are visibly identical. As stated before, block ticks are random. And because Nether Wart has no set upper and lower growing time limit, it can take a very long time or not long at all to advance a phase. On average, it takes 3 minutes 30 to advance a stage. Netherwart, when fully grown will yield 2 to 4 Netherwart. They do not require any light, or anything else. They can grow in any dimension as long as they are planted on soul sand. They do not need an empty space above them either. Unfortunately, Nether warts cannot be fully automatically grown because you have to plant them by hand. But, the collection can be done automatically. Simply by running water over it and the water can push the dropped items into hoppers. Netherwarts main use is for brewing potions, every potion (except for a weakness potion) uses netherwart as the first ingredient to make the 'Awkward Potion'. However, it can actually be used to breed chickens. Chickens will not follow you when you hold it but you can make them enter 'love mode' instead of seeds. Cocoa. Cocoa has three stages on growth, all of which as visible. When destroyed in the first two stages (premature) it will only drop 1 cocoa. If you wait until the final stage, where it is mature it will drop 3 cocoa. Bone meal can hurry up this process by advancing it 1 stage per use. It does not require light, or water. Only to be planted on the side of a jungle wood log. To harvest, it can be punched, pushed by a piston, washed by a water source. This will all drop the same amount as stated before. Cocoa beans are not automate-able because you have to replant them. However, various designs will allow you to harvest them very quickly. Cocoa grows very quickly, because it only has 3 total phases of growth. The main use of cocoa is brown dye, or making cookies. Pumpkin and Melon. The growth of the stems rely upon the same equation as wheat, potatoes and carrots use. The stem has 8 growing phases, when it has reached the 8th, it can then on produce the pumpkin/melon unless the criteria are not met. It uses the same criteria as wheat, potatoes and carrots except the stem cannot already be touching it's produce. If so, it will not produce another until it's removed. The way they grow, is the stem enters it's 9th phase. When it reaches that, it instantly goes back down to it's 8th. If it can produce a something, it will. And it still obeys the equation. Try to make the area as efficient as you can! This also means that you should have rows of pumpkin and rows of melon next to eachother. a 2 thick row of pumpkin is less efficient. So, make sure to have a row of pumpkin seeds and a row of melon seeds next to eachother if you're going to have a 2 thick row of seeds. But, if not you can just use 1 thick rows, it works as well.
I was in my farm the other day and tried to farm more carrots but when I came back it turned into a river of chocolate. How did that happen?
Oh yeah, and this is extremely useful. I didn't read it all cause lets be honest, that's a lot of words. But I will sometime in the future! Now I must go farm.
This is a title thread, it will always be at the top of the list. I don't see this as bringing back an old thread.
Yes, I see that. Now look at this - http://prntscr.com/6y33e5 - This means the post will ALWAYS be at the top. They are the best tips on the part of forums. Therefore be responding does not matter.
