At its core, Minecraft is a game about exploration and material collection. Usually, both of these go hand-in-hand, as you try to collect items while exploring the world. Luckily, things don’t have to be that way. If you know how to make a sugar cane farm in Minecraft, you can easily collect one of the most useful items in the game without any effort. Unlike most crops in Minecraft, sugar cane can be grown and harvested automatically, and that is just a surface-level benefit. With so much more to come, let’s learn how to make an automatic sugar cane farm in Minecraft right away.
Make a Sugar Cane Farm in Minecraft 1.19 (2022)
We will cover the various stages of making a sugar cane farm in separate sections for your ease. One of them also goes over using the Allay in Minecraft to make the farm more efficient. Let’s start off by taking a look at the uses of sugar cane in Minecraft.
Uses of Sugar Cane in Minecraft
Before we dive into the farm itself, let’s go over the various uses of sugar cane in Minecraft.
- Paper: Paper, obtained from sugar canes, can be used to make books and maps.
- Sugar: Sugar can be used to make a cake and certain potions in Minecraft.
- Composting: You can also use sugar cane in a composter to increase the compost level by 1 (50% chance) and get bone meal easily.
- Water Displacement: In the Java edition, you can use sugar cane to create underwater roads by displacing water.
Items Required to Make Sugar Cane Farm
You need the following items to make a sugar cane farm in Minecraft:
- A bucket of Water
- Fifteen Dirt blocks
- Sixteen Solid blocks (any)
- Fifteen Pistons
- Seventeen Redstone Dust
- One Observer block
- One Hopper and a Chest
- Fifteen Sugar Canes
- Glass blocks and a door (optional)
Instead of dirt blocks, you can also use grass, coarse dirt, rooted dirt, podzol, mycelium, sand, red sand, moss, or mud blocks. But the dirt blocks are usually the easiest to collect. The rest of the items don’t have any alternatives, so you’ll have to explore your Minecraft world to collect them.
Make Automatic Sugar Cane Farm in Minecraft
Our automatic sugar cane farm is inspired by the design made by YouTuber Wattles. But we have also added some subtle changes and an additional Minecraft 1.19 feature to improve its functionality.
Item Collection and Crop Area
Follow these steps to make the base of an automatic sugar cane farm in Minecraft:
1. To begin, place 7 blocks of dirt or its alternatives in a straight line. This is where the sugar cane will grow.
2. Then, leaving the space of one block, create another row of dirt blocks. After that, place one dirt block on the edge of the gap in the middle.
3. On the edge where there is no block, create a hole that’s two blocks in length and one block deep. Then, put a hopper in the hole with a chest connected to it.
4. Finally, to finish this basic area, empty a bucket of water on the inner side of the solid block located at one edge of the middle row. It will create a stream of flowing water that leads right to the hopper.
Automatic Observer Area for Sugar Cane Farm
Follow the steps below to automate your sugar cane farm in Minecraft:
1. First, place a series of pistons parallel to the dirt blocks. These pistons should be on the back side of the dirt blocks and at least two blocks higher than the dirt blocks.
2. Then, place an observer right above the piston behind the isolated dirt block. It should face towards the water.
3. Next, start building from behind the observer block and place a solid block on top of every single piston. Make sure that these solid blocks are connected to the block placed behind the observer.
4. Finally, to connect the whole system, place red stone dust on top of every newly placed solid block and the observer.
5. Now that your whole sugar cane farm setup is ready, you need to close it off by placing glass or any solid blocks. We would suggest you cover the top as well to avoid lightning strikes.
How Does Sugar Cane Farm Work in Minecraft
The sugar canes only grow on dirt-like blocks if they are next to the water. Using that logic, our farm slowly grows sugar cane to a height until they are right in front of the observer. As soon as the observer notices the sugar cane in front, it sends a Redstone signal. This signal activates all the pistons in the farm to break the sugar cane from the middle.
When the middle part of the sugar cane breaks, it also takes down the top part with itself. The broken parts of sugar cane drop as an item in the flowing water, which takes them to the hopper. The hopper collects the sugar cane inside the adjacent chest. Meanwhile, the bottom part of the sugar cane remains safe and the cycle starts again.
Use Allay to Improve Sugar Cane Farm
An unfortunate problem that a sugar cane farm, and several other food farms, in Minecraft face is that the dropped item doesn’t always go into the collection system. For example, when the sugar cane is harvested by the piston, it might end up getting dropped on the dirt block instead of inside the water. To avoid such a scenario, many players rely on various complex Redstone mechanics.
But the simplest solution is getting an Allay in Minecraft. The Allay can collect the fallen sugar canes and easily throw them on top of a hopper. To make the Allay do such a complex task, you have to place a jukebox next to the hopper. This specific jukebox should continuously play music to keep the Allay attached and not wander away. Now, whenever Allay will throw the sugar cane at the jukebox, it will be automatically collected by the hopper next to it.
If you want to use an Allay on your Minecraft farm, you need these additional items:
- Eight Pieces of Redstone Dust
- One Solid Block (Any)
- One Noteblock
- An Allay
- One Lever
- Two Redstone Repeaters
Follow the steps below to add an Allay to your sugar cane farm:
1. First, move the chest from the front of the hopper and place it to the side. You might have to place the hopper again to connect it to the chest.
2. Then, place a jukebox at the initial spot of the chest and create a Redstone machine around it. Here, you will need to add a solid block next to the Jukebox and build a line of Redstone on top of that block. This line should pass through Redstone repeaters in the same way as the screenshot you see below.
3. To start this Redstone system, put a lever next to one of the Redstone pieces. Then, turn the lever on and break it immediately. Doing so will force the whole machine to be stuck in a loop.
4. Finally, you need to get an Allay to your farm and hand it a piece of sugar cane. The Allay will connect itself to the jukebox and start working. Moreover, it is best to create a larger structure around your farm to prevent the Allay from flying away.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Creeper proof a Minecraft farm?
The easiest way to keep your farm safe from Creepers is by placing a few cats around it. Creepers are generally scared of cats and turn away from the area on seeing cats.
Does a sugar cane farm need sunlight in Minecraft?
Sugar cane doesn’t require any sunlight to grow. You can keep it fully covered in darkness too.
Does bonemeal work on sugar cane?
The bonemeal helps in the growth of sugar cane only on the Bedrock edition.
Make an Automatic Sugar Cane Farm in Minecraft
With that, you are now ready to make your own sugar cane farm in Minecraft. It is one of the easiest automatic farms that you can make in the game. But if automation isn’t an issue, you can also try to make a cow farm in Minecraft. With proper planning and some luck, it can be ready and running within 10 minutes of spawning in the game. However, we would suggest you gather enough knowledge of the Minecraft biomes before starting any mob farm. Having said that, how will you use the sugar cane farm in Minecraft? Tell us in the comments below!
