There are tons of different farms that you can build in Minecraft, and setting one up for bonemeal is a great idea. A cactus-bonemeal farm uses no redstone and utilizes simple materials.

Bonemeal is an incredibly useful item, but it is easy to run out of it. Instead of constantly longing for bonemeal, make this simple farm! This guide will teach you how to make a basic, single-plot bonemeal farm. To get the most out of this farm, try building a few and chain them together using what you learn below.

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Materials Needed

This farm uses easily accessible blocks that are available early in the game. Check out the list of required materials below:

• 1 cactus
• 1 sand
• 42 blocks (any block to form the structure)
• 1 fence
• 1 bucket of water
• 2 hoppers
• 1 chest
• 1 composter

To craft these materials, you will need an additional 13 iron bars. You should be able to get these fairly quickly after a few mining trips.

Steps To Build A Bonemeal Farm

The basic overview is simple — as mentioned earlier, the bonemeal is basically fueled by a cactus. The cactus in the center of the farm will grow until it hits the fence post, where it will break off and fall into the flowing water. The water will then carry the cactus to the hopper and into the composter. Once enough cactus has filled the composter, bonemeal will funnel through the second hopper and into the chest.

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of the process:

1. Create a 5x5 platform using 25 blocks of your choice.
2. Place one sand in the center block with a cactus on top. Cactuses will only grow on sand.
3. Frame the platform with blocks going around the edges so a 3x3 area surrounds the cactus and sand. This area will hold flowing water later.
4. Replace the block directly in front of the cactus with a hopper.
5. Behind the cactus (in a straight line), place 2 blocks with a fence on the top. This is the fence post that will 'cut' the cactus.
6. In the block directly under the fence, place a bucket of water. The water should flow around the cactus, ending at the hopper.
7. Now, head to the bottom of your farm. Clear out the area directly under the hopper, leaving some additional room to move around and place blocks.
8. Under the hopper, place the composter.
9. Leave a spot under the composter empty for now, but place a chest in front of the composter. Check out the image below for placement.
10. Walk around to the backside of the chest and connect a hopper. Hold down shift when you place the hopper so you don't accidentally open the chest instead.
11. Fill in the area with dirt, and you're done! If you started at ground level, then this arm will go underground. You can keep it like this or raise the farm a little so the collection area will be at ground level.

That was pretty easy! This farm takes up a lot of space, but this is unavoidable. Cactuses cannot be placed directly next to any other blocks, so you will need a minimum of a 3x3 space for a cactus to successfully grow.

After a while, you will start accumulating bonemeal. You can use this material to speed up the growth of trees and crops and use it to craft dyes. Bonemeal is essential to creating any auto-crop farm.

This single-plot farm is easy, but it is not the most efficient. Unless you turn the ticks up in your Minecraft world (making grow cycles occur faster), you will have to wait quite a while for some bonemeal. Fortunately, this farm can be replicated and combined into a larger farm.

Tips For Efficiency

If you want a more efficient farm, you can just repeat this design a few times and line up the farms, or you can compress the farm to take up less space.

Having several cactuses placed one block apart with a fence post and running water below will create an efficient bonemeal farm. Make sure that the water flowing into a hopper connected to a composter, which then travels through another hopper into a chest. If you want a cactus farm, just remove the composter and connect a chest instead. When processed in a furnace, cactuses will create green dye.

You may have noticed that it is a bit ugly. The block choice for this guide is simple, but you can replace it with pretty much any other block. If you want a glass farm, go for it! Additionally, this farm can be built underground. When building underground, just be sure to dig an area big enough to fit the 5x5 foundation as well as the collection area.

Above, you can see an example of the farm expanded. Fence posts are placed between each cactus, and water is placed around the edges, flowing towards the center. A hopper then collects the cactus and turns it into bonemeal. You will need more materials, however, you will not need any additional items besides the ones listed above.

The collection system will remain the same; hopper to composter, composter to another hopper, and hopper to the chest. If your farm is too large for one hopper to collect all the cactuses, just place a few hoppers underneath the water. A minecart collection system works for quickly gathering materials, but you can just go to each chest and grab your bonemeal.

Now, you should understand the basics of creating a bonemeal farm. Many Minecraft farms require some redstone work, but this farm only relies on the growing cycle of a cactus. It will only grow if you are nearby, so this is a great addition to any base. If you want this to be built underground, try placing it under the glass floor of a building!

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