Top 5 things to know about crops in Minecraft

If you feel like farming in Minecraft, there are a sizeable number of different crops to plant and grow. However, each crop has its own mechanics, and some require players to approach them from a different perspective.

There are various Minecraft crop types, from melons and pumpkins to wheat, beetroot, potatoes, and carrots, to sugarcane, kelp, and many others. If you want to farm efficiently and have thriving crop growth, you'll want to cater your farming skills to each crop's specific needs. Furthermore, there are plenty of general tips to keep in mind when growing any kind of crop.

Since so many crops in Minecraft have specific needs, it may be a good time to look at some general rules of thumb when farming them instead.

---

Tips to keep in mind about Minecraft crops

5) Lighting Your Crops

Lighting your crops is advised for long-term growth (Image via u/InfiniteNexus/Reddit)

By default, Minecraft crops grow due to the presence of light. This means they're content soaking up the sun's rays during the day, but a problem exists at night: When the sun sets, the light level lowers, and crops are inhibited from growing.

To fix this, place light sources near your crops, as the light level increase will allow them to grow at night. It may not work like this in the real world in some situations, but it's a tactic worth implementing to ensure consistent crop growth.

---

4) The Reach of Water

Water saturating farmland blocks has a defined reach (Image via Minecraft Amino)

When farming most crops in Minecraft, you'll need a source of water to ensure they have what they need to grow. However, placing a water source block will only saturate so much farmland.

Specifically, one block of water will reach four blocks away in each direction. It is important to remember as you can wisely place blocks of water at four-block intervals to ensure you have maximum farmland that is all watered optimally.

---

3) Alternate Your Crops

Alternating crop types will ensure maximum growth (Image via u/TimMinChinIsTm-C-N-H/Reddit)

While making a huge farm out of the same crop in Minecraft can be tempting, you may notice something unusual. Even if they're adequately watered, some crops will grow at slower rates than others.

However, if you're willing to add different crop types adjacent to your existing crops, the growth speed will remain consistent across all crops. Try creating rows of wheat, carrots, and potatoes and watch as all three crop types prosper at the same time.

---

2) Pollination From Bees

Bees have a neat capability to speed crop growth (Image via Mojang)

Bees in the game are great for collecting honey, but there are other functions besides this. Interestingly enough, bees can fly out to flowers and collect pollen from them to make their honey back at their hive/nest.

When they fly with their collected pollen, the pollen falls from their bodies and can pollinate crops, speeding their growth similar to bonemeal. By placing a few bee hives/nests near your farm, you can significantly speed up your crop harvest.

---

1) Know Your Chunk Loading

Chunk borders visualized for reference (Image via Mojang)

In both primary versions of Minecraft, the world is comprised of chunks. When these chunks aren't loaded, they're kept out of sight to reduce the memory load on a player's device. Depending on your version of the game, the ticks that track growth time for your crops and progress them simulate in a different way.

To explain further, Bedrock Edition chunks that contain crops will receive crop ticks as long as they're loaded. However, in Java Edition, only chunks within 128 blocks of the nearest player will receive ticks and progress, which is something to keep in mind if you're out traveling.