How to Make a Kelp Farm in Minecraft

One of the pretty basic and very useful farms to build in Minecraft is the kelp farm. The main reason for that is you can turn kelp into dried kelp, which you can eat, or make dried kelp blocks that are a fantastic fuel source. So, if you have a super smelter but not enough fuel for it, this is the guide for you. Learn how to make a simple and efficient kelp farm in Minecraft right here.

Minecraft Kelp Farm: Required Resources

The resources you need for the kelp farm are mostly basic, but the redstone components can be expensive in the early game. These items include:

• 14 or more Kelp
• 14 or more Observers
• 14 or more Pistons
• 14 or more Redstone dust
• 1 or more Hoppers
• 1 or more Chests
• Plenty of water buckets (make an infinite water source nearby)
• A few stacks of full solid building blocks
• Glass blocks (optional)

How to Make a Kelp Farm in Minecraft

We’ll be making a kelp farm designed by an amazing tutorial YouTuber Pixlriffs. Though, I did modify it a bit to make it even simpler. That said, let’s begin right away:

First Layer of the Kelp Farm

• First, choose a spot for your kelp farm. It is nine blocks long and seven or more blocks wide (explained below). The height of the farm depends on you and your needs, as you can easily expand it.
• Dig a trench in terrain that is seven blocks long, three blocks wide, and one block deep. In the center, you’ll want to dig one block-deep hole along the length. On either side of this hole, you can replace the adjacent blocks with building blocks to make the farm look better, or you can leave them as is.
• Now waterlog this trench completely and plant kelp on either side of the central hole.

• The next step is to place the pistons. They should be one block above and one block behind the kelp. Also, they should face toward the kelp. Place them on both sides and behind every kelp you planted. Again, feel free to change the blocks below the pistons into any solid block you want.
• Place observers above pistons, so they’re also facing towards the kelp.

• Now, we’ll need to make a case around this build, so that we can add water in. You can use glass blocks to see into the farm, but this is completely up to you. Decorate the build as you wish. After that, you can add water and fill the entire tank as shown in the image below.

• Due to the water mechanics, you might want to place an additional water source at the same height as pistons on one side of the farm. It should be inside the wall of the tank, so make sure to block it off on the other side. You can do this for both sides of the farm. This is completely optional but try ensuring the kelp items never despawn from your farm.

• Place solid blocks behind all pistons and add redstone dust on top of them, so the pistons can activate when the observer detects kelp growth.

Additional Layer of the Kelp Farm

• The beauty of this farm is that you can stack it upwards. As Pixlriffs showed in his kelp farm tutorial video, you can create a new layer with solid blocks, pistons, and observers and plant kelp on top of the bottom observers.
• So, add a line of solid blocks one block above and behind the existing observers. Place pistons on top of those and observers on top of those, so they’re facing toward kelp. Decorate as you wish.

• Make a case around the new structure, fill it with water, and place kelp on top of the bottom observers on each side.

• Add solid blocks behind the new pistons and place redstone dust on top of them.
• You can or may not make the farm larger, that is also up to you. On the other hand, you can simply add more layers on top, but this will require more and more resources.

Building Minecraft Kelp Farm Collection System

• The next step is a bit tricky. We need to make a water stream at the top to collect the kelp items and push them to another stream where a single hopper will gather and store the items. This is what you need to do.
• First, choose one of the sides built with glass or solid blocks, as this is where the kelp will be going. Now, build up one more layer of solid blocks on all three remaining sides.

• Take the glass or other solid blocks and fill the entire one-block tall layer across the farm at the height of the top observers. It should look something like this. If you have ice, this would be even better as they will transform into water sources when you break them. However, any block will do fine.

• Now, go to the opposite side and place water sources across the width of the farm so they flow towards the end you chose. They will perfectly align with the edge of the farm.

• Now, let’s make a new water stream right where the water flows. So, place solid blocks one block below the edge of the farm and run that line across the whole width.
• Choose one end of this line where the hopper and chests will be. Create a trench with more building blocks surrounding the bottom block line. You can make this trench as long as the farm is wide.
• At the end of the line, place a hopper, so that it’s facing into a chest right below it. You can chain multiple chests and hoppers together if you want.
• Finally, add one more layer of solid blocks on the newly created water stream, so the items don’t just fall out, as well as behind the hopper. Also, place the water source at the opposite end of the hopper in this new trench.

• If you make the farm taller, simply make this trench longer and add more water sources at the opposite edge of the collection system.
• Now, it’s time to go back and remove those blocks we placed at the height of the top observers. If you used ice, then all you need to do is remove it and that is all. But, if you use any other block, you should simply make sure that all of those blocks are replaced with water sources.
• Break them and then use the water buckets and fill that area with water sources, so kelp items can rise to the top. So essentially, all water blocks from the top observers and below need to be full sources.

Now, sit back, relax, and watch kelp come in. If you accidentally made some flowing water at the top into water sources, then don’t worry. Simply remove them, repeat the process and the farm is fixed.

With that said, that was a detailed and extensive guide on how you can make a kelp farm in Minecraft. Make sure it’s loaded and it’ll produce a bunch of kelp for you to turn into amazing fuel. Do you have any questions about the build? Drop them in the comments below!