How to make Minecraft 1.21 sugarcane farm

Sugarcane is a deceptively useful Minecraft item. These unassuming reeds can be turned into sugar, which can be used to make many different foods and even brew powerful potions. It can also be turned into paper, which is needed to gain access to the most powerful enchantments in the game. This means farming sugarcane is important to any survival world.

Thankfully, automatic sugarcane farms are both cheap and easy to build. A simple farm design can be found below that's cheap enough to make in the first few days of a new world.

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How to make a simple sugarcane farm for Minecraft 1.21

Materials

The materials used in the example sugarcane farm (Image via Mojang)

As previously mentioned, this sugarcane farm design is cheap enough to build early on. It costs one observer, piston, and hopper per crop and can be made however long you want. The farm could even be made to only contain a single sugarcane if you're in a new Minecraft world without much in the way of materials.

Outside of this, though, the farm only requires a handful of building blocks, slabs, and mud. Using mud is important, as it's not a full block tall. This allows Minecraft hoppers to automatically grab the sugarcane as it lands, where dirt and grass wouldn't.

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1) Create the collection system

The sugarcane farm's collection system (Image via Mojang)

The first thing you'll want to do is dig out a spot for a double chest. Then dig out a channel next to this double chest equal to the number of sugarcane you want to plant. This example build features eight sugarcane, so a trench 10 blocks long was dug out.

Place a double chest and then a line of hoppers pointing into it inside of this channel to create the farm's collection system.

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2) Add in the water

The water was added next to the mud (Image via Mojang)

Once this is done, place mud blocks along the row of hoppers for the sugar cane to be planted on. Then, place solid blocks down to form an area to place water. The sugarcane needs to be planted directly next to water, so add a source block next to each mud block.

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3) Add the piston layer

The pistons added with their backing blocks (Image via Mojang)

Add a layer of floating blocks to cover the water. This is the foundation for the Minecraft redstone that powers the farm. Place a layer of pistons facing the mud along these blocks. This will break the sugarcane while leaving the bottom one so that it can regrow. Move behind the build and place blocks along the backs of each piston.

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4) Place the redstone

The observers facing the sugarcane (Image via Mojang)

Place a piece of redstone dust along each of these blocks. Then, place Minecraft observers so that they're facing the farm. These observers will activate whenever sugarcane reaches maximum height, sending a signal to the pistons that harvest everything.

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5) Plant sugarcane and add walls

The finished sugarcane farm (Image via Mojang)

The final step to building this Minecraft farm is to actually plant the sugarcane in the mud. Then, place building blocks and glass all around the farm, leaving nowhere for the broken sugarcane to land other than the mud. These walls will ensure that all the items produced by the farm are funneled directly into the collection system.