Tutorials/Wheat farming

Farming is an indev feature implemented on February 6th, 2010. It allows players to create fields, plant seeds and harvest crops of Wheat. Seeds can be found by using a hoe on grass tiles.

Farming Technique
You'll need to craft a hoe. Better materials allow for a more durable hoe. You can then use your hoe (right click) to prepare fields. Fields near water will become hydrated, turning from a dry colored patch to a dark moisturized patch. When you're turning grass tiles into fields, seeds may appear : collect them so you can plant them on your prepared fields. Crops will then grow and eventually be ready for harvesting. Note that you can plant a seed on a dehydrated tile and it will grow, although slower. Notch has stated that some patterns are more productive than others. Night time lighting from torches allows the crop to grow during the night as well.

Wet Field Tiles
A hydrated field (or "Wet Field") is the preferred land for farming. A wet field will yield a fully developed wheat crop in a little over a single day Cycle on a Normal or Woodland themed map.

For a 'Field Block' (the block of soil on which the hoe has been used to create a field) to turn from dry to wet, a few rules apply:


 * 1) The Field Block requires water at any level. Water one block above, below, or the same height as the crop will work.
 * 2) The Field Block requires water up to four blocks away, including diagonals.
 * 3) Intervening materials, or lack thereof, between the water and the Field Block make no difference.
 * 4) Adding a torch will also speed up the growth of the crops and stop mobs from spawning.

For example, in a nine by nine grid of field blocks, with the very central block being water, all will hydrate.

Field tile decay
A field tile will disappear :


 * If you or an animal walk on it too much. (As of the patch on September 18th, 2010, Holding the Shift button while walking will allow you to crouch, which stops you from crushing your crops while walking on top of them.)
 * If it stays dehydrated for too long.
 * In Infdev a field tile cannot decay if something is planted on it unless something walks on it or the fields are in absolute darkness.

Harvesting
You can harvest crops at any time by using the left-click action of any tool, and you will get from 0 to 3 seeds, depending on the the state of the crop. Waiting until the crop turns yellow and displays a slightly brown tip (not displayed in the image below) will produce an item of wheat, which can be crafted into bread.



Note: In earlier versions of the game, such as /indev/, wheat will cease growing one stage earlier (0x6 in the above image), at which point you will be able to harvest wheat.