Minecraft Sugar Cane Farm Guide: Planting, Harvesting, & Uses

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Plus, we detail some useful sugar cane farm designs

Written by Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: November 23, 2024 Fact Checked

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• How to Plant Sugar Cane
|
• Sugar Cane Farm Designs
|
• Sugar Cane Uses

|Show more |Show less

Sugar cane is an incredibly important crafting ingredient in Minecraft, since it can be used to make firework rockets and books. But since there are no sugar cane seeds, how exactly can you plant and harvest a large amount of sugar cane? Thankfully, growing sugar cane is super easy—you just need to find some wild sugar cane to harvest. In this article, we'll teach you how to grow your own sugar cane. Keep reading to learn more.

Quick Steps

1. Harvest wild sugar cane.
2. Plant sugar cane in a grass, sand, or mud block next to water.
3. Wait for the sugar cane to grow (about 18 minutes).
4. Harvest the top two blocks of sugar cane, leaving the bottom block to grow more sugar cane.

Steps

Section 1 of 3:

How to Plant Sugar Cane

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1. 
   1
   Harvest some sugar cane. There are no sugar cane seeds; instead, to plant sugar cane, you can simply plant harvested sugar cane back into the ground. Sugar cane can be mined instantly with any tool.

   • Sugar cane can grow in any biome as long as it's next to water. It's twice as likely to grow in swamp biomes and six times as likely to grow in desert biomes. This means that rivers in desert biomes are the most likely spot to find sugar cane growing.
   • You can also sometimes find wandering traders who sell sugar cane for an emerald, but it's better to harvest it yourself since it's not too difficult to find.
2. 
   2
   Plant the sugar cane. Sugar cane doesn't require a light source to grow, and can grow anywhere as long as the following requirements are met:

   • It must be planted on a grass, dirt, coarse dirt, rooted dirt, podzol, mycelium, sand, red sand, moss, or mud block.
   • It must be planted directly adjacent to a water, waterlogged, or frosted ice block. You can also plant sugar cane directly on top of another sugar cane block.
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3. 
   3
   Wait for your sugar cane to grow. Sugar cane can only grow to be three blocks high. On average, it will take about 18 minutes for a sugar cane block to reach maximum height.

   • To get taller sugar cane plants, you can plant another sugar cane on top of an established sugar cane plant.
   • In Bedrock Edition, you can use bonemeal on a sugar cane to immediately make it grow to three blocks tall. Bonemeal can't be used on sugar cane in Java Edition.
4. 
   4
   Harvest your sugar cane. When harvesting, leave the bottom block of sugar cane in the ground. This will allow the sugar cane plant to keep growing.

   • If you accidentally harvest the entire sugar cane plant, you can simply re-plant one sugar cane block to replace the harvested plant.
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Section 2 of 3:

Sugar Cane Farm Designs

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1. 
   1
   Double row design This design is not as efficient, but is much easier to set up and harvest.

   • To create this design, place rows of water separated by rows of blocks that sugar cane can grow in (i.e. grass, sand, etc.).
   • Plant your sugar cane. Each block of water will supply two sugar cane plants, with the exception of the water blocks at the end of each row, which can supply three plants.
2. 
   2
   Grid design This design is still pretty simple, but is more efficient than the double row design. However, it's a little more annoying to harvest than the double row design.

   • To create this design, create a grid of water blocks surrounded by blocks that can grow sugar cane (i.e. grass, sand, etc.).
   • Plant your sugar cane. Each water block will supply four sugar cane plants.
   • Place lily pads on the water blocks to make it easier to walk around the sugar cane farm. Light blocks can also be placed under or above the water blocks to stop mobs from spawning.
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Section 3 of 3:

Sugar Cane Uses

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1. 
   1
   Crafting Sugar cane is used to craft the following items:

   • Paper: Three sugar cane will create three paper. Paper is used to make a number of items, including books and firework rockets.
   • Sugar: One sugar cane will create one sugar. Sugar is used to make many items, including cake, fermented spider eye, pumpkin pie, and a few potions.
2. 
   2
   Composting When placed in a composter, sugar cane has a 50% chance of raising the compost's level by one.
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