Tutorials/Wheat farming


 * ''This page is about wheat farming. For information on the systematic production of other resources, see Renewable Resources. For information on growing melons, see Melon Farming. For information on growing pumpkins, see Pumpkin Farming.

(Wheat) Farming is a feature in Indev, Infdev, Alpha and Beta implemented on February 6th, 2010. It allows players to create farmland, plant seeds and harvest crops of wheat. Seeds can be found by destroying tall grass or by harvesting fully grown wheat.

Sowing
Wheat is farmed on Farmland. Seeds can be sown/planted on any farmland block where they will eventually grow. Seeds planted on hydrated farmland will grow faster than those on non-hydrated blocks. Wheat can also be grown at night by placing torches next to them, which will also prevent aggressive Mobs from spawning near them. However, if there is grass near the torches, this could also allow passive mobs to spawn, and they could destroy the wheat by walking on them. To stop this from happening, you can place Fences and no mob, passive or agressive can get through, unless you make a Gate and leave it open.

Harvesting
Crops can be harvested at any time by left-click with any tool, but they will only yield wheat when the crop has changed from green to brown (second picture below). Harvesting crops at this time will yield between zero to three seeds, and one item of wheat, which can be crafted into Bread, Cake, or Cookies.

A faster way to harvest many crops at the same time is to create an auto-harvester. Many tutorials are available on youtube.



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



In some cases crops may be ready to harvest, despite looking too young to harvest. By placing and/or remove a torch, a player can force the neighboring tiles to visually update instantly, instead of at the normal pace of the game. A faster method for updating wheat is to right click the farmland/wheat with a hoe; this will not decrease the hoe's durability unless the ground underneath is not tilled. These techniques only update the appearance of the crops, which updates normally when neighboring crops are harvested; they will not speed up the growth of crops.

Growth and Destruction
Wheat crops will only grow under the following conditions:


 * If they are receiving at least 9 (light)
 * If there is at least one block of space above the height of the fully grown crop (transparent blocks count as empty)

Wheat does not need water to grow, however wheat can also be destroyed if the farmland block they are placed on reverts to dirt.

If you right-click crops with Bone Meal selected, they will grow into full crops instantly.

Growth Rate
For the fastest growth, hydrated farmland with crops on all neighboring squares or in rows is ideal. This increases the growth rate amount to the maximum of 5.5, as described below in pseudocode. Every second, crop can grow up 1 level with a probability of growthRate/100 (maximum 5.5%). Wheat can grow to max size in just 7 seconds, but only has a chance of 0.0000001522435234375%. getGrowthRate(crop) {   if (crop.getBlockBelow.isHydrated) growthRate = 4.0; else growthRate = 2.0;

for (farmland in crop.getFarmlandIn8BlocksBelow) //Immediately surrounding Farmland with crops {       if (farmland.isHydrated) growthRate = growthRate + 0.75 else growthRate = growthRate + 0.25 }

if (crop.hasNeighborCropOnNS and crop.hasNeighborCropOnEW) //If (north OR south) AND (east OR west) have crops growthRate = growthRate / 2; else if (crop.hasNeighborCropDiagonally) //If any immediately diagonal square has a crop growthRate = growthRate / 2;

return growthRate; }

Note: As of Beta 1.2, you can use Bonemeal to fertilize crops, making them ready instantly.

Note: It doesn't matter if there are crops on neighboring farmland or not.

Optimal Patterns
The following crop placement patterns all lead to an optimal growth rate of 5.5 for the middle block:





A Sub-optimal Pattern
The following crop placement will lead to growth rate of 5 for the middle block:



When seeds are not a limiting factor, a single rectangle can be more productive than separated rows by increasing the number of crops growing at once. Additionally you will be more likely to find mature crops in these larger farms, but it will take longer for all crops to mature. Which pattern is best depends on your situation and harvesting habits.

Automatic farming using pistons
Planted wheat can be "pushed" out of its place and turned into item from using a piston. This can be used to harvest crops almost automatically, as all you have to do is pick up the wheat. Here is an example of using pistons to farm:



When the pistons are activated, the planted wheat is pushed into the water, which then carries the items to an easily collectible area. However, the farmland will instantly revert to the standard dirt block; therefore, you will have to till the ground after every harvest.

Alternatively, with sticky pistons one can create an automatic farming method that does not destroy cropland and simply needs to be replanted. The wheat is turned into an item, falls into the water stream and floats down. Ready for collection.



It is possible to add on to this and increase the number of harvested wheat.

Tips

 * Crops can be harvested quickly and easily from large farms in a very short period of time by redirecting water over the crops. As of Beta 1.5, fully grown crops will drop up to 3 seeds, but immature crops will not drop seeds. For a tutorial on a farm that harnesses this method, click here.

Trivia

 * If running water flows into wheat, the crop will drop seeds (and wheat if mature), but only if the water flows into the wheat rather than dropping onto it from above.


 * Prior to Beta 1.6 and the introduction of tall grass, seeds were obtained by punching tall grass with any tool. Tall grass can be found on grass blocks.