Flowers are useful for decoration, dyes, and breeding rabbits and bees.
To grow flowers, you can use bone meal on a grass block. The block must either have no block above it (which is obstructing sun / moonlight), or be lit with a light level of at least 8. Flowers and tall grass will spread over grass blocks up to 7 blocks away in both directions (a 15×15 square). However, approximately 95% of growth occurs within a 4-block radius (a 9×9 area) around the source grass block.
The types of flowers that spawn depend on the biome. See flower biomes.
Two-high flowers cannot be grown this way at all; instead, they can be farmed by applying bone meal directly to them, which causes an item to drop.
If you use bone meal directly on a one-high flower, it will spread (similar to using it on a grass block).[Bedrock Edition only]
If the planting conditions are not met, flowers will quickly pop out. This allows flowers to be used in the creation of light-sensitive mechanisms.
Poppies are also a byproduct of iron farms, as iron golems will (apart from the iron) drop 0-2 poppies on death.
Poppies spawn much less frequently than dandelions. They are the most abundant in Mountains biomes, but are also somewhat common in Taiga and Tundra biomes.
Fortune Enchantment[]
This technique only works in Bedrock Edition.
Step 1: Get something with fortune.
Step 2: Break a 2 block tall flower (Peony, rose bush, lilac, sunflower, etc.)
Step 3: Collect the 2+ flowers
It is also tracked on MCPE-18880.
The Earthquake Technique[]
Another technique for automated farming is to shift the ground beneath the flowers with pistons.
The general idea is to have a redstone clock trigger the following three events in order:
- A dispenser dispenses bone meal into the grass from below to produce flowers.
- A set of pistons pushes the ground one block horizontally
- Another set of pistons pushes the ground back to the original position.
Size comparison[]
This chart shows the area and flower yield of different sized designs, as well as the necessary number of pistons.
Size | Area | Pistons |
---|---|---|
1x1 | 1 block | 2 |
2x2* | 4 blocks | 4 |
3x3 | 9 blocks | 6 |
5x5 | 25 blocks | 10 |
7x7 | 49 blocks | 14 |
9x9 | 81 blocks | 18 |
11x11 (described below) | 121 blocks | 22 |
15x15** | 225 blocks | — |
- *The 2x2 design has no center, making it harder to use/build. This applies to any even size.
- **A 15x15 area guarantees that no flower will fail to generate, but note that the earthquake collection method cannot be used (there are too many blocks for pistons to push). A somewhat complex water flow system is necessary for automatic collection. In Bedrock Edition, you can tap a flower w/ bone meal and it will multiply. Sadly, in Java Edition, you can only use this technique on two block high flowers.
Video[]
Mysticat - Minecraft Flower Farm: AFK Endless Dye 1.16
RAHsite - Automatic Wool Farm & Flower Farm - Minecraft Bedrock 1.16+