Novice Farming in Minecraft- Plants

So, you’re ready to farm, are you?  But wait- before you start, you need to have something to grow!

There are, so far, six plants that you are likely to want to farm in minecraft, but before you can start farming, you need to have something to plant.  So, you need to go about getting those plants!  But what are they, and where are they?

Wheat

Wheat is the most basic plant you will want to farm.  Not only can you use wheat to make bread and the ever-beloved cake, it is also needed to breed animals for Journeyman farming.  You will not, however, ever see wild wheat.  What you will see is wild tall grass- and that’s where we got wheat from, millenia ago, isn’t it?  Wheat seeds are produced initially by chopping down tall grass.  You won’t get much else from it, but every so often a clump of tall grass will yield a unit of seeds.

Wheat seeds are simply named ‘seeds’, and can only be planted in tilled earth that you have created with a hoe.  They need to be planted near water, but ‘near’ is pretty general.  Wheat is ready to harvest when its color turns from a bright green to a dull tan after it reaches its greatest length.  Cutting your wheat before then will only get you your seeds back, and will not get you bundles of wheat to use.

Pumpkins

You can find pumpkins virtually anywhere that is not snowy.  They are usually most obvious on a mountainside, but can be located in swamps, on flat grassland, or even in some pits.  In order to get pumpkin seeds, you need to harvest the pumpkin block- and then break it up with your crafting area.  This will get you pumpkin seeds, which produce pumpkin vines.  Curiously, wild pumpkins never have vines, but I am unsure why that is.

Pumpkin vines need to be planted in tilled soil near water, like wheat.  However, each pumpkin vine needs at least one empty block next to it- as that is where it will create the pumpkin.  When a pumpkin vine is ready to produce a pumpkin, the pumpkin will appear in a space next to it, and the vine will bend towards it.  Because of this, it can be difficult to create efficient pumpkin farms, but since harvesting doesn’t force you to replant and regrow the vines, this isn’t too much of a worry.

Watermelons

Watermelons are only found in chests that you locate underground- they do not grow in the wild.  In fact, you will not find watermelons- only seeds.  Watermelons grow just as pumpkins do- the only difference is that harvesting a watermelon will yield 3-7 melon slices.  Curiously, you can rebuild a watermelon block so that it can be placed, but breaking it will again yield a random number of melon slices- this makes placing and re-harvesting melons a losing proposition as your melon slice supply will steadily dwindle.  Watermelon slices are an easy food, though, so do not discount them.  Watermelon seeds can be crafted from melon slices, but eating them will not result in any seeds at all (no matter how much you try to spit).

Trees

Trees are probably the easiest plant to grow in minecraft- plant a sapling in dirt with enough empty space overhead, and you will get trees soon enough.  Saplings are, of course, generated by breaking the leaf blocks of existing trees or waiting for them to despawn after removing all the wood.  Do be aware that when a tree grows, if it spreads its leaf blocks into a space that holds a torch, the torch will be destroyed.

Sugarcane

Sugarcane is a little different from the other commonly-grown plants.  Sugarcane will not grow in tilled soil- it will only grow in regular dirt or sand.  In fact, you actually cannot place sugarcane atop tilled soil.  Sugarcane will also only grow on a block that is directly next to water, making growing large amounts of sugarcane a very big expense of space.  That said, sugarcane is extremely easy to harvest- striking a block of sugarcane will harvest it and all the blocks above it, each bundle of sugarcane then being suitable either for crafting purposes, or planting in sand or dirt to grow more sugarcane.

Sugarcane typically grows up to three blocks high, though it has been seen four and five blocks high.  Interestingly, sugarcane will block water flows- and lava flows.  This trait can be very useful, especially considering that sugarcane not only lets light through but is destroyed with a single blow from anything.

Cactus

Cactus?  Cactus are those green sharp plants in the desert that hurt me when I touch them, right?  Why would I want those?

Well, cactus makes an interesting defensive building material.  Cactus hurts monsters, animals, and other players too- plus, it just kinda looks cool to have something built out of cactus.  Cactus grows up to three blocks high usually, though it has been seen as much as six blocks tall.  Cactus will only grow in sand, but it does not need water, making it easy to grow (if you are patient) and not very space-consuming.  It’s a little risky to harvest if you try to stand too close to it, but you can do some very interesting things with it- including building an entire fort that cannot be touched safely.

This covers all six plants you are likely to want to farm in Minecraft and the basic information you need on each of them.  So go out and get those seeds/saplings/sugarcane/cacti!