Talk:Tutorials/Wheat farming/Archive 1

Is anybody aware of which patterns make crops grow faster? Notch has said there are faster growing patterns, but I haven't noticed this in-game at all...

-buster2Xk

Plant Growth Rates
I wanted to kill some time so I decided to mess with the farming in a scientific setting. The results were quite strange. On a paradise, island, small, square map I found that crops grow at a variable rate. Two blocks of dirt set atop the Indev House next to each other. Two seeds in each. One will grow to wheat producing after 36 minutes while the other won't grow at all. Likewise I made pillars from the "ocean" floor to the top, then put a single block of dirt atop them. One crop would grow to full potential in about 36 minutes, the other barely past stage 2 until 47 minutes had passed.


 * So it seems that plants will grow at a varied rate. Kenji 03 12:17, 16 April 2010 (UTC)


 * It seems like this is still the case. I planted a section of hydrated field around a water block and am getting fully grown wheat in waves, and some is not maturing at all. I have torches set to allow crops light at night and am wondering if the torchlight is somehow cumulative with sun for purposes of determining plant growth. TheYeti 18:37, 23 July 2010 (UTC)


 * It appears that working around your crops - say by planting new ones, or tilling the area with a hoe - can directly trigger growth spurts in nearby plants, or speed up hydration. - Bomb Bloke 12:57, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Harvesting Section Outdated
So I was doing some looking around and noticed that farms actually have a 7th step on which it is harvested. The harvesting section currently is misleading and I would take care of it myself but... It would seem weird to fix the text without updating the picture, and i don't have an updated picture.

Fields destroying themselves
So i'm trying to start farming to use a plot of land near my base, but my land which i've just ploughed keeps removing the plough state of itself and reverting back to dirt, is there any reason for this? Some of it stays ploughed and then becomes hydrated, but many of the unploughed land tiles will revert back to dirt after a few seconds. I'm rather irritated, is it a feature or a bug? -Ryan --92.3.8.140 22:10, 6 July 2010 (UTC)


 * It's a feature. If you walk over the plowed tiles, they have a high chance of turning back to dirt. The same is true if you walk over crops. Just quit walking on them (and keep mobs off of them), and it should be fine. --Coolpilot 18:44, 23 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Actually, by crouching (default is LShift), you can walk on field tiles without damaging them. I'm not sure what happens when you jump/use ladders/land on field tiles while crouching though... Crazylemon64 02:40, 24 November 2010 (CST)

Types of Farming
Is "farming" cacti and reeds considered farming as well? --DigiKep 18:50, 29 August 2010 (PDT)
 * No, I think that would be growing. --TomCatFort 18:45, 09 October 2010 (GMT+2)
 * I agree that wheat farming needs a page to it's self but there should be a page list all other types of farms every from trees to cobblestone. --Tnarg 11:04, 19 October 2010 (CDT)
 * That page is Renewable Resources. —KPReid 02:11, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Space above crops
I was wondering if anyone else noticed this;

I'm experimenting with underground farming, and I noticed that if you don't leave a block open above the crops, they don't seem to grow. I'm not certain of this (my computer actually crashed in the middle of experimenting...damn alpha), but i've tried it a few times with little success.

I was trying to get the farm set up so I cannot accidentally walk on the crops, so I was putting blocks over all the crops. That way I can walk through the paths w/o worry of trampling. But, I was not getting good results from the farm. The last one wasn't growing at all. So I removed a block over one to see what would happen and it started to grow.

If anyone else could experiment with this and confirm, I'd be appreciative. Pakratt0013 09:17, 22 October 2010 (CDT)
 * At least they dont grow with no space above them. But then I light them up only with torches, no direct sunlight, might be because of that, too. -- Luttz


 * I have a farm in direct sunlight except for one block above one of the planted seeds; that one has never grown. I have no data about whether more than one block's space might be needed. I'll add the requirement to the article. A further experiment would be whether a glass block obstructs growth too. —KPReid 02:08, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Tools
I've been wondering, and haven't had the time to test; do shovels dig out soil blocks faster than other tools, and if so, should we add the shovel under the tool2 field for the template transclusion? CyborgDragon 05:45, 5 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I just did a quick test and I'm not noticing any difference between my diamond shovel and bare hands when digging out unplanted tilled dirt. If there is a difference, its too small of one for my blond addled brain to pick out.  --XipXoom 05:51, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Reed and Cactus farming
I think that Reed and Cactus farming should be in this page(Or article?).

How?
how do i get the crops so i can start famin beacuase ive been tryin 4 ages with my hoe but it is just not workin

-If you right-click on a dirt tile with grass while holding the hoe, you will sometimes get seeds. Then, if you right-click on any dirt tile while still holding a hoe, you will get land which the seeds can be planted on. Good luck! -Magnus743

Rename
Okay... I don't think everyone might agree with this but right now in Minecraft, this word, "Farming" has a lot of meanings. Some of the more common farms might be cacti, reeds, obsidian, trees and mobs. But since this farming is actually an official feature in Minecraft, it deserves an article for itself. So I propose to rename this article as Wheat Farming or something similar. Opinions? --Scykei 12:20, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Soil or Field?
In the block template, it is named Soil, but on the page it is called a Field. Which one should we make it? -F1racer101 19:52, 9 December 2010 (CST)

Seeds
Noting Seeds redirects here but they are also a stackable item with a graphic and an item data value. So maybe they need their own section or stub. --JellyfishGreen 11:21, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Rewrite
It seems to me that this page is in need of a complete rewrite. It seems to repeat itself a lot and its fairly inconsistent. Some clarity in the data would also be good, as well as some new pictures. Any volunteers? Does anyone agree or disagree?