Sugar cane must be planted on a grass, dirt or sand block that is directly adjacent to water (not merely above or diagonal to water). When fully grown it will stand three blocks high of sugar cane. Mature sugar cane should be harvested by hitting the middle block, to avoid replanting. Its growth rate is not affected by light, and it does not need light to grow.
Sugar cane, like saplings, wheat, and cacti, will only grow if the chunk they are on is loaded into memory, so a player should not venture too far from the field.
Sugar cane became substantially more valuable with the addition of villager trading, as sugar cane can be crafted into paper, which can then be exchanged for emeralds or other items.
Manual farming design
Sugar cane can be farmed manually by hitting every second (from the bottom up) block of mature sugar cane. Water and sugar cane can be placed, in different patterns.
A complex pattern of interspersed water blocks can get you about 80% efficiency (plants per block of farm), but harvesting it is somewhat difficult. Slabs, or especially lily pads and carpets, can be placed over the water to ease harvesting.
Long parallel rows between canals get roughly 65% efficiency, but are much easier to harvest. Also, you have a clear line of sight down the rows, making it much easier to check for lurking creepers or such.
Note that sugar cane needs to be next to water, but not necessarily a source block. Thus you can run 8-block long canals down 1-deep trenches, with source blocks only at the outer ends. 3 canals with 6 rows of cane can feed into a 2-deep canal (also 8 blocks long), which in turn feeds into a hopper. Cover the 2-deep trench with slabs, and one piece of fence over the hopper. This gives you a 9×9 farm with 48 cane plants. Mirror this twice around the hopper, and you have a 17×17 farm with 192 plants. Any cane you miss running down the rows will end up in the hopper, which you can get at through the fence.
- Efficient Sugarcane Farm.png
This compact pattern allows planting four sugar cane per water block.
- Sugarcane67.png
This pattern allows faster harvesting, since the player can run breaking every sugar cane in a row.
Compact farm
A very easy to follow and easy to make tutorial.
| YouTube Video (view on YouTube) |
|---|
Semi-automatic farming design
A semi automatic farming design uses pistons, that break sugar cane and send the items to a collection point, where the player can gather it all, or a hopper for automatic gathering. Unlike the fully automatic design in the semi-automatic pistons are triggered by the player.
Water canal design
In the following design a row of pistons push the sugar cane to a water canal:
A redstone timer can also be attached to the pistons to make them push the sugarcane without having to manually perform the operation. It utilizes the same set up, but has an automatic mechanism attached, and with hoppers and a chest set up at the end of the water canal, the process can be fully automated with ease.
Water canal design without pistons (Pocket Edition)
In Minecraft Pocket Edition, where pistons are not available, a semi-automated farm can be created using the fact that water rushing down next to Sugarcane causes it to "pop" and scatter. This Instructable shows how to build a simple farm based on this principle. This setup gives a 60 sugarcane post-replanting harvest with 2 rows of 15 plants. These farms can be combined to make 4 row or 8 row farms.
Tower design
Instead of using slow water canals to deliver the items to the player, gravity can be used for a much faster retrieval, building a vertical tower farm, as shown in the following video:
| Sugar tower farm (view on YouTube) |
|---|
Fully automatic design
A fully automatic design unlike the semi-automatic ones is triggered automatically either by redstone clocks or block detector mechanisms.
Crazy no loss piston worm design
This design uses a lot less pistons, is fully automatic and picks up all of the drops. It can be a little bit unreliable, however.
Daylight sensor
This design is triggered once every Minecraft day (20 minutes of gameplay) with a daily pulse generator that uses a daylight sensor. The items are gathered by an array of hoppers and stored in chests. The design is stackable.
Hopper Timer
Using the same diamond shape idea Dataless showcased in his latest LP showcase, this gives you a lot of sugar cane.
Block detector
This design uses a block update detector (BUD) mechanism that triggers the mechanism when a sugar cane farm grows to its full size. Items are gathered by flowing water and hoppers, that store them into chests. The design is stackable. The more BUDs placed the more sugar cane rate collection achieved, as the sugar cane where the BUD is placed can take much time to grow, while other ones may be fully grown and not generating any new sugar cane blocks.
Completely automated design
A dispenser based clock can be fed via hopper (or dropper, depending on vertical level) chain directly from the farm output. A comparator can be used to measure when the last hopper begins to fill with items, triggering a secondary chain of hoppers to feed further harvest into a chest for pickup. A T-flop can be used to trigger the farm every ten minutes, or a counter can be used to pick any increment of 5, for better efficiency. Note: A pulse limiter is needed between the T-flop or counter output and the farm pistons, else the pistons will simply stay in the extended position and inhibit growth.
80% efficiency farming
The following diagram shows an 12 by 8 farm, utilizing 61 sugar cane and 22 water blocks, with a perimeter walkway.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
While an odd-shaped 80% efficient farm is possible, this design sacrifices some efficiency (79.2% efficient in an 11x7 farm, not counting the walkway) for ease of maintenance by including a rectangle perimeter walkway around the farm. The water placed in the walkway is required for watering the immediately adjacent sugar cane. Lily pads can be placed on the water blocks for convenience; this does not interfere with the sugar cane's growth.
Limitations and mitigation
The 80% efficiency design mentioned above has a limitation. When harvesting, it is easy to fall into the pools of water. The player must watch where they are going in order to ensure this does not happen. This can be solved by covering the water with either lily pads, slabs, or carpet.
Another limitation is lighting the design. There is currently no set location for lighting. With a larger design, mobs may spawn in the farm and interfere with harvesting or damage the structure. Glowstone or a sea lantern could be placed at the bottom of each pool of water to prevent this, mainly because glowstone and sea lanterns won't stop emitting light when it's submerged underwater.
The design can be modified to deal with these two limitations by placing glowstone or jack o'lanterns above each pool of water, or above certain pools in a pattern which provides sufficient light. This also allows the farm to double as an oak tree farm, should the player need wood as opposed to sugar cane. Dirt or cobblestone would be placed above the other pools to prevent the player falling in while mining. If the player does not have access to glowstone, torches could be placed on top of dirt or cobblestone on each pool, with the disadvantage of being easily knocked while harvesting.
- Endlesscane01.jpg
A dispenser clock will power everything for you
- Endlesscane02.jpg
When the item disappears, a pulse is triggered.
- Endlesscane03.jpg
The dispenser running out can be a problem, but the hopper solves the problem with a little work.
- Endlesscane04.jpg
The clock gives off a pulse every 5 minutes. Sugar canes tend to take longer than that to reach full height.
- Endlesscane05.jpg
To make it more efficient, put a repeater between the clock and harvest pistons, so it only goes off every 20 minutes.
- Endlesscane06.jpg
The blocks in front of sticky pistons make it a little less likely that a piece of cane will be left on the sand instead of the water.
- Endlesscane07.jpg
The water flow will feed the hoppers.
- Endlesscane08.jpg
And the hoppers will feed the clock, so you don't have to refill it.
- Endlesscane09.jpg
When the clock is full, the last hopper in line will fill as well. A comparator can pick up that signal.
- Endlesscane10.jpg
A hopper pulling from above, without being directly fed, will do nothing when receiving power from a torch.
- Endlesscane11.jpg
Current caused by the last hopper in line filling up will let this one turn on and fill a chest. Come back when you need more cane and just pull it out. No waiting, no levers, no replanting, and no refilling the clock ever.