How long does it take for sugarcane to grow in Minecraft 1.19 update?

Sugarcane is a crop entity in Minecraft 1.19 that grows on grass and sand blocks that are adjacent to the body of water. This crop is quite important to players since it can be crafted into paper and sugar. It can also be used to farm more sugarcane and to increase composting levels. However, growing them in the game can be a time-consuming task.

When players farm different kinds of crops in the game, most of them grow quite slowly, but bone meal can help them grow faster. However, this method does not work for sugarcane, which makes it one of the slowest growing crops in the game. Since they are quite essential for players, they mostly wait and create a huge farm to obtain them quickly.

---

Sugarcane growing speed and farm in Minecraft 1.19 update

Time taken by sugarcane to grow

Bone meal does not work on these crops (Image via Minecraft 1.19 update)

When players find a naturally generating sugarcane crop near a body of water, its height can vary anywhere from one block to four blocks. Whether it is a naturally-generated sugarcane block or a manually-planted block, the growth of these blocks can vary widely, depending on the age of the top block.

A tick is a unit of time in the game, and everything that happens in the game is usually determined by ticks or random ticks. The same applies to crop growth. In the case of sugarcane, if the topmost block reaches a random block tick of 16, the game adds a new block on top till it reaches its maximum height. In real-life terms, the growth time can vary widely. In Java Edition, the average time is 18 minutes, whereas in Bedrock Edition, the average time is 54 minutes.

Sugarcane, which is naturally generated around the world, can reach a maximum height of four blocks, whereas the manually placed crop can only reach three blocks.

---

Increasing growth time with commands

By changing the random tick speed, players can instantly grow sugarcane (Image via Minecraft 1.19 update)

Unfortunately, nothing can speed up the sugarcane growth process if players are playing without cheats and commands. However, there is a way to increase the growth speed via commands.

In order to do so, players must have cheats activated in their worlds. If the world has already been created, players can head to the 'Open to LAN' settings and briefly allow cheats to type commands. To increase their growth speed, they must type this exact command '/gamerule randomTickSpeed 500'. This will drastically increase the block update, and the sugarcane will grow much faster.

---

A simple sugarcane farm can also be made (Image via Minecraft 1.19 update)

If players do not want to wait and harvest every single sugarcane block on their own, they can create a simple and effective farm for it. With an observer and a piston, players can create a contraption that will break every block that generates after a few minutes. Finally, a chest and a hopper can collect the dropped sugarcane items and store them.