Wheat Seeds

Wheat Seeds are an item used in farming. They can be found by destroying Tall Grass, or by harvesting fully-grown wheat. Harvesting wheat yields from 0 to 3 seeds per tile harvested (about 1.5 seeds/tile harvested in average). Seeds can be placed in farmland by right-clicking, where they will grow.

Growth & growing conditions
When left alone, wheat seeds planted in farmland will grow to become wheat which can be harvested. Planted seeds need at least light level 9 in the block above them to grow.

Crops will grow faster if the farmland they are planted in is hydrated. Any farmland in the surrounding eight blocks will also help the crops grow, and more so if that farmland is also hydrated. Growth will be slowed if crops are planted diagonally from each other, or in an "L" shape. That means that the best way to plant crops close together is in single rows.

Bone Meal can be used on the planted seeds to instantly mature the plants to the last stage of growth.

The image below shows the stages of growth from newly planted seeds to wheat that is ready for harvesting.



Wheat seeds must be grown in an area surrounded by some sort of barrier or your crops are at risk of being trampled. After stepping on tilled dirt with or without seeds, the dirt will revert back to normal after only a few steps (although this is randomly controlled because tests have shown it ranges anywhere from 1 steps to 10). Passive and hostile mobs can both affect these crops (apart from spiders and wolves, as of Beta 1.4).(There was a bug where if you put a fence under the farmland it can not be trampled. This was fixed in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6) If trampled, planted seeds do not drop seed items. They only drop wheat if the crop was fully grown instead being permanently destroyed.

Harvesting
When fully grown, wheat crops will drop 1 Wheat as well as 0-3 Seeds. If they are harvested early, they will drop seeds but no wheat. The more developed the crops are, the more seeds they are likely to drop. Crops in the first few stages of growth are unlikely to drop any seeds.

History
As of Beta 1.6, Wheat Seeds cannot be tilled from grass. They can be found by destroying Tall Grass, or by harvesting fully-grown Wheat.

Trivia
When seeds are on a patch of soil that is insufficiently lit, the seeds disappear.