User:MentalMouse42/Sandbox/Melon Farming

For other types of farming see Farming (disambiguation)

Introduction
Melons grow quickly, and are easily farmed.

To start a Melon farm, one must first find Melon Seeds, which can only be found in Abandoned Mine Shaft chests. You can also obtain Melon Slices (which can be crafted into melon seeds) from trading with villagers. Planting a Melon Seed places a small stem that will grow over time. Like regular seeds, Melon stems grow faster if there is one block of water within 4 blocks of it (but having water nearby doesn't affect melon spawning speed once the stem has fully grown). Once the stem reaches maturity (which can be instantly forced by the use of Bone Meal), the stem will spawn a Melon Block in one of the adjacent Dirt or Grass blocks every 1–30 minutes real-life time (0.05-1.5 Minecraft days) and visually connect to it (unless there is a Melon already next to it, then it connects to that melon instead and won't spawn any melons). Once a Melon has grown, the stem will not produce any further Melons until the existing Melon is destroyed. Melons will revert farmland below them to dirt when they grow. Once a connected Melon is harvested, the stem will be able to generate a new Melon block. A melon will not grow if the block directly above the stem is occupied by a solid block. However, Melons will grow if there is a transparent block above the stem.

Farm Layouts
Here are some suitable layouts. Percentages given are efficiencies. These assume there are free blocks surrounding the farm for the border plants to place melons. The theoretical maximum efficiency is 50% (one melon per stem).

For maximum melon per block yield, the following methods can be used. Grass blocks indicate any block could be there. You will probably want to cover the water with a slab. OR

Both have nearly 49% efficiency.

. . . . . . . . .           % % % % % % % % %   % % % % % % % % %            . . . . . . . . .   % % % % % % % % %            . . . . . . . . .   . . . . . . . . .            % % % % % % % % %   ? ? ? ? = ? ? ? ?     OR     ? ? ? ? = ? ? ? ?  . . . . . . . . .            % % % % % % % % %   % % % % % % % % %            . . . . . . . . .   % % % % % % % % %            . . . . . . . . .   . . . . . . . . .            % % % % % % % % %     9x9  @ 44.44%                9x9  @ 44.44% . % . . % . . % .           % . . % % % . . %   % ? % % ? % % ? %            . % % . . . % % .   . % . . % . . % .            . % % . . . % % .   . % . . % . . % .            % . . % % % . . %   % ? % % = % % ? %     OR     %. . % = % . . %  . % . . % . . % .            % . . % % % . . %   . % . . % . . % .            . % % . . . % % .   % ? % % ? % % ? %            . % % . . . % % .   . % . . % . . % .            % . . % % % . . % 9x9 @ 22.22% - 33.33%            9x9  @ 29.62% (43.20%)                     (44.44%) % melon seeds. farmland, dirt or grass   = water    ? any block (not air)

With all these, both farm blocks and seed blocks will be hydrated. The top-left method has an efficiency of 48.88% which can be maintained by inverting the design when tiling the long dimension. The top-right is 48.61% efficient, while the middle designs are both 44.44% efficient. The efficiency of the bottom row designs vary. In 1.0 and below the top-left is only 38.88% efficient but can be tiled with the top-right to get a 48.76% efficient farm. The percentages in round brackets are maximum efficiencies if there are no other farms adjacent to it, and have chance of growing melon outside of the farm area (meaning there is 1 wide dirt surrounding around the farm). But again, that's maximum efficiency, and it varies (if melon grows inside the farm area instead of using the new surrounding to grow, the efficiency goes lower). Wheat could be grown in the spaces marked '?' to avoid wasting potential hydrated farmland blocks.

While all above designs use one layer, the most efficient, 49.38% farm can be created by using two layers. Design is based on the third design:

x x x x % x x x x             % % % % ? % % % %         x x x x. x x x x. . . . ? . . . .         x x x x. x x x x. . . . ? . . . .         x x x x % x x x x              % % % % ? % % % % top:    %. . % = % . . %   bottom:   ? ? ? ? = ? ? ? ?         x x x x % x x x x              % % % % ? % % % %         x x x x. x x x x. . . . ? . . . .         x x x x. x x x x. . . . ? . . . .         x x x x % x x x x              % % % % ? % % % % x air (empty)

While this design has spots where you need to jump when made in larger scale, there is even cleaner design with same efficiency. In this design the water source must be isolated, so it would stay in 1x1 area and won't spread into '+' sign. It should be placed at least 2 blocks above the first farm layer, so it would be possible to place light source: x x x x x x x x x             x x x x x x x x x           x x x x x x x x x              x x x x x x x x x           x x x x x x x x x              x x x x x x x x x           x x x x ? x x x x             x x x x x x x x x   top:    x x x ? S ? x x x   2nd:      x x x x = x x x x  (1st)    x x x x ? x x x x             x x x x x x x x x           x x x x x x x x x              x x x x x x x x x           x x x x x x x x x              x x x x x x x x x           x x x x x x x x x              x x x x x x x x x           x x x x x x x x x              % % % % % % % % % x x x x x x x x x. . . . . . . . .          x x x x x x x x x. . . . . . . . .          x x x x x x x x x              % % % % % % % % % 3rd:   %. . % = % . . %   bottom:   ? ? ? ? = ? ? ? ?          x x x x x x x x x     (4th)    % % % % % % % % % x x x x x x x x x. . . . . . . . .          x x x x x x x x x. . . . . . . . .          x x x x x x x x x              % % % % % % % % % S water source block     = falling water

The position of the melon seeds (%) and farmland, dirt or grass blocks (.) in the 3rd and 4th layers can be swapped around as efficiency is not sacrificed, E.g.: still 44.44% efficiency for the 4th layer.

The above layouts are optimized for infrequent harvests, with plenty of time for the field to regrow in between. For frequent harvests, the following layout may be better suited; if harvested once per day-and-night cycle, it yields about 17 melons per harvest (as opposed to about 13 melons for the above designs):

. . . . . . . . . % % % % % % % % % . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? . . . . % % % % = % % % % . . . . ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . % % % % % % % % % . . . . . . . ..

Auto-Harvesting farms


Melons are destroyed and drop Melon Slices when a Piston of any kind pushes it, leading the possibility for auto-harvesting Melon farms. A simple Auto-Harvester would be made by placing an up-facing sticky piston under each farmland block reserved for melons. When the sticky pistons are powered, they destroy all of the melons for pickup by the player. Using this technique, one can make a fully automatic farm, but it uses up some space, shown here.