Potato

Potatoes are a food item that can be planted, consumed or cooked in a furnace to make baked potatoes.

Farming
Potatoes can be farmed, harvested on farmland, the same way as farming wheat and carrots, and are only found as a crop in villages or as a rare drop from Zombies. When farmed, they will take 8 stages to grow. However, there are only 4 distinct textures, so only 4 visible stages: every two stages have the same texture, except that growth stage 7 keeps the same appearance as stages 5-6, so that only stage 8 has the final, 'mature' appearance.

Fully grown potato crops drop 1 to 4 potatoes and have a 2% chance of dropping an additional poisonous potato. As of Minecraft 1.5, potato yield can now be increased using a tool with the Fortune enchantment; previously Fortune had no effect on potatoes. Currently, potatoes can be found as a rare drop from zombies and also in NPC Villages alongside wheat and carrots. Bone meal can be used to mature the potato to its last stage of growth.

As a cooking ingredient
Baked potatoes can be obtained by cooking the raw potatoes in a furnace with some kind of fuel.

Advantages

 * Potatoes can be produced in large quantities - each potato plant drops 1-4 potatoes when harvested, and so from one potato, a farm can easily be established.
 * When cooked, potatoes restore more hunger points than Carrots.

Disadvantages

 * Potatoes need to be cooked to get the full effect; raw potatoes only restore half a hunger point.
 * Potatoes can be quite hard to find; they only appear in NPC Village farms or as a rare drop from zombies.
 * Potato plants occasionally drop Poisonous Potatoes that poison the player when eaten, and cannot be cooked to remove the effect.