Tutorials/Nether wart farming


 * Nether Wart is commonly a fairly hard resource to obtain initially. They are only found in nether fortresses and usually in small supply. Once found however, they can be planted and grown on soul sand anywhere, in any dimension (Nether, Overworld or End).

Finding Netherwart

 * To find nether wart plantations, one must first find a nether fortress (guide on nether fortresses can be found here). When you find a farm, it's wise to replant it after harvesting, as you may want some handy later.

Locations For A Netherwart Farm
The netherwarts must be safe. In the Nether, your primary concern is Ghasts, which will attack you on sight and whose fireballs will blow up your farm. To secure your farm, build walls and a roof with blast-resistant materials, such as cobblestone and Nether Brick. Iron bars or Nether Fence will also be useful for windows. Since you're already working with Soul Sand, you might want to use some of that to fend off or handicap other approaching monsters. (Best not to have too much fighting on the farm, just on general principles.) The natural farms in the Fortresses are indoors, and may well remain useful as you explore and/or farm the Fortress.

As of the 1.3.1 update, Nether Wart can easily be grown in the Overworld. Given that they grow fairly quickly and you don't need much, you can just stick a half-dozen or so blocks of soul sand in a side room of your lair, convenient for nighttime brewing. Outdoor farms can be almost anywhere -- they don't care about light and mobs can't trample them. On the other hand, a creeper will blow up your farm harder than a Ghast, so it's best to have some protection for the farm. (Obviously, you do want them someplace where they're often in your chunk update radius.) If you put the soul sand on top of the ground (rather than inset into the floor), you can easily check for ripe plants from ground level.

Semi-Automatic Design

 * A video tutorial on this method can be found here
 * Digging a 6 wide, by 2 blocks deep hole for as long as you want this to go (remembering that you must account for redstone lengths in this). Place in the center two rows of this hole, two rows of side by side sticky pistons facing upward. On either side of these pistons place all redstone repeaters or alternatively making every second one redstone to save supplies. Connect these repeaters to a row of redstone behind them and connect up both sides to a central lever of your choosing. (Then you can cover over your repeaters and most of the wiring, except the connection to the lever.)  Place soul sand on top of the sticky pistons and plant your netherwart. Leave these to grow as long as you wish remembering that they are fully grown when they resemble a full block in size. Once you want to harvest, just flick your lever or button and run along the sides of the soul sand to collect. (Running on the soul sand will of course be slower.)  Then replant your farm and leave it to grow again.