Tutorials/Mushroom farming

As of the Beta 1.6 update, mushrooms will slowly multiply to nearby opaque blocks, allowing for the creation of farms. However, the rate at which mushrooms spread is considerably slow; therefore, starting a farm is an ordeal without multiple mushrooms. Because mushrooms will "pop" out of the ground when light level is greater than 12, the farmer must consider carefully the placement of light sources. Mushrooms make this up by being placeable nearly everywhere, and not requiring water, sand or extra space like crops, cacti or saplings.

The main danger in basic mushroom farming is that they must be low-lit indoor rooms, often allowing monsters to spawn in the same area. This can be countered with making the farming area only 1 block high and coating any pathways with Slabs, since mobs cannot spawn on half-blocks. Using Redstone Torches instead of regular ones will also make keeping the light levels tolerable much easier.

Spread Mechanics
Every tick, every mushroom is given a 1/100 chance to do the following:


 * Choose a random block in the 3x3x3 cube centered on the mushroom (the mushroom itself, not the block it's on). This favors the mushroom's own level, the middle 3x3 square: upper and lower levels are given a 1/4 chance each whereas the mushroom's level is given 1/2. If a mushroom could be planted in the chosen block (empty, light <=12, lower block is opaque), do:


 * Choose another random block in the 3x3 square centered on the previously chosen block. If this block could support a mushroom as well, create one there.

Note that the first randomly chosen block can be the mushroom itself, the block it's sitting on, or the block above. The "can be planted" check will fail in all three cases, further reducing the overall spread chance.

The following can be deduced from the algorithm:


 * Mushrooms may spread to two blocks away, though only if a block on the way is free.
 * Mushrooms may spread diagonally in all three axis.

The Simple Method
A simple farming method is to make a room that is 1 square high at eye level(to prevent monsters from spawning)and as large as you wish(but it is suggested to not have it too large for ease of farming) make the room dark or pitch black and wait some time (days). When harvesting you will have to remove some blocks to reach the mushrooms and leave a mushroom to grow for the next batch but this method is simple and easy to use.

Another Simple Method
This method relies on thorough lighting to ensure a monster-free, no-mining-required farm for the beginner mushroom stewist. Create a room two blocks high and as large horizontally as desired. At regular intervals dig one block up into the ceiling of your room, and place a torch to create recessed lighting. This will cast light of level 12 at floor height, allowing mushrooms to grow and spread. Make lights as often or as little as you like; you can make an alternating checkerboard if you want to really light it up, or one torch every 5 is fine, too. Spread whatever mushrooms you have around on the floor and wait. I like to mark seed mushrooms with cobblestone underneath. Do half and half with red and brown ones to make the stew of course. No mining, no monsters, no problem.

Semi-Automatic Faming
It is possible to make a semi-automatic mushroom farm using raised areas and water. This tutorial assumes you are in an underground room, although you can build it on the surface as long as you put an adequate roof on top. (Pictures to follow soon.) Hollow out a large room, 2 blocks high and, ideally, 11 blocks wide. It can be as long as you want.
 * Step 1.

Put 3 lines of blocks, separating the width of the room into three sets of three. Place a bucket of water in the middle square against the back wall. where the water stops flowing dig down one block and widen the new channel to 3 blocks. Repeat this until you reach the end of the room. Then repeat this for the other two channels. There should now be several panels of 7x3 blocks with 1x7 blocks separating them. A block of water placed in the centre of the top panel should flow right down to the bottom.
 * Step 2.

Now you simply need to place mushrooms on the dividing sections and leave them for a while. to harvest them all at once place a bucket of water in the centre at the back of the top section and the water will wash the mushrooms to the bottom where you can easily collect them. The 'seed' mushrooms will stay planted. An early example of how to make a semi automatic mushroom farm can be found here.
 * Step 3

Farming Setup Type One
To Maximize the chance of a single mushroom spreading uses a setup requiring 5x5x5 is: This setup can be made larger in Hieght easily and if so to increase chances plant mushrooms every second layer in the middle! As shown the layers are of 2 "types", and basically "inversions" of each-other. A major downside to this type of farm is that some of the points a mushroom can grow are not visible/farmable without removing blocks.

Top down view, top layer first, B (block) is Any type of block mushrooms grow on, E (empty) is a spot a mushroom can grow and M is the starting mushroom!

E E E E E

E B B B E

E B E B E   Top Layer

E B B B E

E E E E E

B B B B B

B E E E B

B E B E B   1 Layer from the top

B E E E B

B B B B B

E E E E E

E B B B E

E B M B E   2 Layers from the top

E B B B E

E E E E E

B B B B B

B E E E B

B E B E B   3 Layers from the top

B E E E B

B B B B B

E E E E E

E B B B E

E B E B E   4 Layers from the top

E B B B E

E E E E E

B B B B B

B E E E B

B E B E B   Bottom Layer

B E E E B

B B B B B

X X X X X

X B B B X

X B X B X   Assumed below bottom, x= doesn't matter what is there!

X B B B X

X X X X X

Farming Setup Type Two
A setup with a lower chance to spread but more easy to build/understand: Simple idea: Build a checkerboard, where half the blocks are "empty" and half are something mushrooms grow on. ex:

B E B E B E B E

E B E B E B E B

B E B E B E B E

E B E B E B E B

B E B E B E B E

This can be continued in all three axis, if going up/down make sure that you remove the blocks used to place "hovering" blocks on the higher levels. Downside of building this is the large area it prefers, (Min 5x1x5, preferably alot more!), And that harvesting/viewing can be very hard if building more then one layer!

Upside is that you can easily plant a few mushrooms and leave it unatended for a long time, and if built in a single plane easily harvested!

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