Hacks for Minecrafters: Redstone

This is the smallest farm you can have—it’s only one block of dirt! But it can get you a stack of wheat, carrots, or potatoes in a hurry, if you have the bonemeal. In fact, because it relies on bonemeal, you may want to place this near your skeleton farm!

What You Need:

1 sticky piston

3 dispensers

3 repeaters

1 stone pressure plate

2 redstone torches

11 redstone dust

1 bucket of water

Lots of bonemeal

2–3 crop starters (grass seeds, carrots, or potatoes)

2+ building blocks (I’ve used 1 light blue wool and 1 orange wool in the contraption. For the décor I’ve used cobble, stone brick, spruce wood planks, slabs of these three, plus spruce wood, glowstone, and cobble stairs.)

1. Dig a 1x1 hole 3 blocks deep. At the bottom, place a sticky piston facing up. On top of the sticky piston, place a block of dirt. This will be the single block of dirt you farm on! (The piston will extend later on to make the dirt flush with the ground.)

2. Replace the block of dirt in front of the hole with a block of your choice (I’ve used light blue wool), and on top of that place a stone pressure plate. This will be what you stand on when you are farming. The pressure plate will activate the contraption.

3. Around the other three sides of the hole, place dispensers facing inward. These will place three bonemeal on your farm to make your crops grow really fast.

4. Dig out the sides and front around the light blue wool, in a U-shape. This trench should be 2 blocks deep. Also dig out the 1 block of dirt beneath the light blue wool.

5. At the bottom of the trench, and to the right of the light blue wool, place another block. I’ve used orange wool here.

6. Now we’re going to make a timing mechanism, or clock, that we’ll use later to move our single block of dirt up and down. First, place a repeater pointing to the orange wool. Place a redstone torch on the front side of the orange wool.

7. Connect the redstone torch to the back of the repeater with 3 redstone dust. The clock should start flashing on and off! Your clock should also sizzle out after a few rounds. This is called burn out and it happens to torches when the timing is too fast for them to keep up. To slow the pulse down, right-click the repeater once to give it a 2-tick delay. After a few moments, the torch will relight and the clock will start up again.

8. Now we are going to connect the clock to the pressure plate above. Place a redstone torch on the front of the light blue wool. This powers the redstone trail below it, turning off the torch on the orange wool. Now, when you step on the pressure plate, the torch beneath it will turn off. This will let the clock start pulsing again.

9. Next connect the clock to the sticky piston. Dig out the block that is two blocks beneath the left dispenser and place one redstone dust there. This powers on the piston, which extends and pushes the dirt block up.

10. Now we can connect the clock to the dispensers. On the center and right dispensers, place 2 repeaters pointing into them as shown. The repeaters help the redstone dust point in the right direction at the dispensers.

11. Dig out a trench, on the right of the contraption, to carry the redstone trail up from the clock to the two repeaters you have just placed. You’ll need 6 redstone dust for this trail.

12. The third dispenser can be connected by placing 1 redstone dust to its side.

13. Now dig a hole behind the left dispenser and place your water in it. This will help keep the farm hydrated.

14. We’re ready to test the farm. Add lots of bonemeal to the three dispensers, and hoe the dirt block between them so that it is ready for planting. To get your farm to start, stand on the pressure plate. With your wheat seeds (or carrots or potatoes) in your hand, right-click (and keep the right-click pressed) on the soil as it moves up and down. The dispensers will dispense bonemeal quickly. (The dispensers only place bonemeal if there is a crop before them.) As soon as your crop is mature it will pop off the dirt and into you!

NOTE: The pressure plate only gives out a signal when you are standing on it. If you replace it with a lever, you can turn your mechanism on and off so you can walk around it. Of course, it won’t be planting or bonemealing crops, but you can look around to see the redstone flashing and the piston moving.

15. Now you can add any design touches you want. Here, I’ve covered up the redstone with cobble, stone brick, and spruce wood, and added spruce and glowstone columns. I also added stairs up to the platform and down to the farming pressure plate. It might be a good idea to also add chests to hold bonemeal, hoes, seeds, and crops.

NOTE: When you decorate around your contraptions, be careful to leave space above the redstone dust. When redstone is being trailed up a block in a staircase fashion, the vertical trail going up (on the side of the block) also needs a block of space above it. It is easy to forget and cover this up, and stop the redstone pulse from traveling.