Tutorials/Cactus farming

Cactus Farming is a term or method used to describe the planting and then subsequent harvesting of the plant as it grows. (See Also:Cactus for specific information about the cactus.)

Cactus farms can be useful for acquiring green dye, which can be made through smelting of cactus pieces. Some interesting configurations can be achieved to create a large scale cactus farm by using creative structuring of water source blocks and sand. As referenced on the cactus page it states that cactus grows only on sand, and with no adjacent blocks. Meaning nothing can be next to it.

Starter farming
The most easy and simple way: If you already built a permanent shelter/house and it is at/near your spawnpoint (or almost) then you can use this method of farming. First collect between 3 to 8 cactus pieces; they will show up in your inventory or in your hotbar. Next, collect double that amount of sand making sure to avoid snowy biomes as they are too cold. When you have selected your place to farm, dig a 16×16 square completely made out of the sand.(or less, it depends on how much cactus you collected. You always need double the amount of sand.) Now when you've done this, you should plant your cactus, in any pattern you like, but place the cactus with no other adjacent cactus or non-sand blocks.

Basic Setup
To construct your cactus farm, you can start small with a 7x7 area leveled flat. Begin by creating a 'border' for your cactus farm by placing cobblestone (or other material) in a square 7 blocks wide by 7 blocks long. Then take 4 blocks of sand and place them in the center so that they are not touching the wall or another sand block. (I'll provide photos later.) Place two buckets of water in the corners opposite where you want the drop zone to be. Place one block of cactus on each of the sand blocks. If you are doing this outside, your cactus will grow in about a day or so. If you are in a darkened dungeon You should place candles perpendicular to the cactus along the cobblestone wall you created.

Tiered Cactus Rows with automatic harvesting
If there is space available above a 1 or 2 block high cactus, but there is a block next to where the new cactus block will be, then the cactus will grow and immediately break off, dropping a cactus resource around its base. Water flows can then be used to move the drops from many planted cacti to a single collection point. The trick is to place the "breaker" block along the same row as the cactus, so that it forces the dropped cactus block into the water. Highly efficient cactus farms can be generated using tiered rows and waterfalls, as seen below.

Step 1: Make rows of sand that are 7 blocks long, alternating with a trench that is equally as long.



Step 2: On every other space of the sand rows, add a sand block and two non-falling blocks (cobblestone is fine, although glass is pretty) on top of the sand block.



Step 3: Remove the sand block that is supporting the two non-falling blocks. Plant cacti on the sand adjacent to the column of blocks. When the cactus grows to a third column, it will snap off, bounce off of the blocks, and fall into the trench, which you can fill with water.



Step 4: Profit!



Pedestal Cactus Farming
This is a method of cactus farming with a platform from where you can farm them without taking damage and with a waterslide for the cactus blocks. First, look for a 12x12 square and begin with a line of 7 sand blocks. After that, build a footing with Cobblestone or any other block you like and surround the sand line. Then, build another layer with Cobblestone so you can reach the second level of a grown cactus so you can hit them easily. Lastly, get a bucket with water and pour out the water in the middle of the sluice. Wait for the cactus to grow up and break the upper block while standing on the pedestal. With this method of farming you gain about 85 of 100 cactus blocks.

Advanced Setup (Automatic Harvesting)
The concept behind this is done with the setup outlined above, except when constructing your building you need to place blocks two spaces above the sand, adjacent to (but not touching the sand) so that they float in the air. The reason behind this is that when cactus comes in contact with an adjacent block it will auto-shed the segment of cactus touching it. This way, when the cactus grows to its 3rd segment high, your floating block will be adjacent to the cactus, so the top piece will break and fall into the water.

Some notes about this though:
 * When a collectable block touches a cactus it will be destroyed. So sometimes when it auto-sheds itself the collectable cactus block will fall onto living cactus and destroy itself.
 * It may be more beneficial to place the block high enough so that when the 2nd segment attempts to grow it harvests itself. This reduces the waiting period of growth in the initial planting.
 * It is also possible to make a transport system for the cactus if you place a single water source in the corner of the 'box' you constructed for the farm. When placing the water block, you need to place it on the 2nd block above the ground to create a 'down fall' of water which then produces the required force to allow the water to reach the farthest corner away from the source block. With this setup it is possible to have the newly harvested cactus blocks float to a single collection point.
 * Try to experiment with wooden pressure plates at the collection point. Set up a redstone torch which stops burning when the pressure plate is pressed down by a cactus block.
 * The block adjacent to the top cactus can be a sign or torch rather than a solid block.

Multilevel Farming
Automatic farms can be stacked on top of each other to increase yield.

A video example of a cactus farm is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5114YYXNfE