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Among exploring and building, there's one more core activity of Minecraft that most players will need to learn about: farming to survive. With a myriad of different crops and plants to farm, players have the option to grow just about anything their heart desires. However, each plant has its own requirements.

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Mushrooms are an underappreciated food that many Minecrafters choose not to grow, and for good reason; they require a bit more thought to grow in a safe manner, without attracting too many mobs, while also ensuring it's actually worth the effort. Here's all the details on how to start a successful mushroom farm in Minecraft.

10 Finding Mushrooms

To even farm mushrooms, players will first have to get their hands on them. Luckily, this isn't too difficult to do. Mushrooms can be found in caves occasionally, but perhaps the easiest way to find them is to go to a dark oak forest and break down some of the bigger mushrooms.

Alternatively, traveling into the Nether is also a great way to easily find mushrooms, since it's the only crop that grows in that dimension as of now. The player should get a few of both types of mushrooms, both red and brown.

9 Mushroom Islands

It wouldn't be proper to talk about mushroom farming without bringing up the rare and mysterious mushroom island. This is a biome, often in an island form, which can be found in every Minecraft world if the player explores around enough.

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These islands are great for mushroom farming, due to the amount of mycelium dirt that's around. Not just that, Mooshrooms, when sheared, will drop mushrooms and transform into normal cows in the process. It's a niche farming method, but an option regardless.

8 Why Farm Them

Mushrooms, compared to other crops, aren't the best ones to farm due to the environment they need. That being said, they have a few uses that most players don't really think about. For one, they can be made into mushroom stew, which has one of the best hunger saturation in the game.

For two, mushrooms are used extensively in potion making. To create a fermented spider eye, a player will need a brown mushroom, which is why having a farm at hand is much easier than going out to look for one.

7 Required Blocks

The cool thing about growing mushrooms is that these crops will grow on any type of block, making them pretty resilient and easy to crop given the right circumstances. However, there are a few blocks that make the task much easier.

If the player plants mushrooms on mycelium or podzol, they won't have to worry about the mushrooms being within an area of proper light level. Mycelium can be found on mushroom islands, while podzol is prevalent in giant tree taigas and bamboo forests.

6 Required Environment

The most important requirement for a mushroom to grow is the correct light level. It's also why it's pretty risky to farm mushrooms, because its low light level might invite mobs to spawn into the farm.

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Mushrooms require a light level of 13 or less. To check the light level, players can press F3. Moreover, mushrooms will never grow directly under the sky, which means they should always be covered by a roof or other type of structure.

5 Farming Huge Mushrooms

If the player has a ton of space available, they can opt to farm big mushrooms, as seen in dark oak forests. These will not only yield more mushrooms per single plant, but also look quite impressive. In order to grow big mushrooms, however, the player must plant them on podzol, mycelium or dirt and grass variants.

The mushroom requires a space of 7x7 blocks, and a room that's over 7 blocks tall. Once the area is secured, place a small mushroom on the block of dirt and then use bone meal to make it grow to a full size.

4 Farming Small Mushrooms

For a small mushroom farm, players need to take into account the low light level required. Although mushrooms don't require any water, nor do they need to be placed in a specific manner, it's absolutely vital they're either grown on podzol or mycelium or have an appropriate light level.

To avoid having mobs spawn inside the farm, players should place torches in the ceiling two blocks above their mushroom farm, by mining one block into the ceiling. This creates just the right light level.

3 Mushroom Spread

The convenient thing about mushroom farming is that the player doesn't need to plant a ton of mushrooms at a time. Only one or two mushrooms will do whenever planting for the first time or replanting.

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This is because mushrooms naturally spread as they grow and will continue to do so on any available blocks nearby that fit in the right growing conditions.

2 The Nether Farming Method

If achieving the right growing conditions is a problem, it's probably best to create a mushroom farm in the Nether. This is pretty easy, since the Nether doesn't spawn regular mobs, aside from Zombie Pigmen, who are by default passive towards the player.

An even better spot is to travel to the Nether roof, where mushrooms are able to grow freely on the bedrock surface without any monsters spawning. This is the ultimate farming location for them.

1 Automatic Farming Method

Depending on where the player has decided to set up their farm, they can choose to go for an automatic farming method that involves either pistons or water. Once a farm is fully grown, a flow of water can be used to harvest all the mushrooms at once.

In the Nether, players can use pistons instead of water, since water will simply evaporate. Pistons can be used to push blocks of glass under the mushrooms, which will basically force them off, since mushrooms can't grow on "air" blocks like glass.

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