How to Start a Farm in Minecraft: The 9x9 Water Layout

A first farm needs a hoe, a water block and seeds. Dig one block of water, till the dirt around it with the hoe, and plant. One water block hydrates every farmland block within 4 blocks of it, so a 9x9 square with water in the center gives you 80 plantable spots. That’s the layout shown in the diagram on this page.

Do this on day one or two. Food stops being a worry once a field is growing, and that frees you to mine and explore.

Step 1: the crop field

1. Craft a hoe. A wooden one (2 planks, 2 sticks) is enough to start.
2. Find seeds. Break tall grass. Wheat seeds drop often. Villages also have farms full of wheat, carrots, potatoes and beetroot you can take a few from.
3. Dig the water. Pick flat ground, dig a single block in the middle and pour in water.
4. Till and plant. Use the hoe on the grass or dirt around the water, out to 4 blocks, then plant on every tilled block.
5. Light it. Crops need a light level of 9 or more to grow. Torches around the edge let them keep growing at night and stop hostile mobs spawning on your field.
6. Fence it. A fence keeps animals off. Anything that jumps on farmland, you included, turns it back to dirt.

Harvest when the crop looks fully grown (golden wheat, visible carrots or potatoes) and replant straight away. Put a lily pad or a slab on the water block if you keep stepping in it; the farmland stays hydrated.

Which crops first

Crop	Where to get it	Why grow it
Wheat	Tall grass seeds	Bread, breeding cows and sheep
Carrots	Villages, zombie drops	Good food raw, breeding pigs, golden carrots
Potatoes	Villages, zombie drops	Baked potatoes are excellent food
Beetroot	Villages	Red dye, breeding pigs

Carrots and potatoes are the best value: you replant the crop itself, and each harvest gives several back. Wheat is slower food but you need it for animals.

Step 2: animal pens

Fence an area of at least 8x8 per animal type and add a fence gate. Then lure animals home by holding their food. They follow you while you hold it.

• Cows: wheat. Leather for books, plus beef. See our cow farm guide.
• Sheep: wheat. Wool for beds and carpets.
• Pigs: carrots, potatoes or beetroot.
• Chickens: any seeds. Eggs and feathers; a chicken farm is one of the easiest automatic farms.

Feed two adults of the same type and they breed. A baby grows up in about 20 minutes, and the parents can breed again after 5. If you want one to stay small, use a golden dandelion on it (a dandelion surrounded by 8 gold nuggets, added in 26.1); it stops aging until you use another. Cows are the most useful early: leather is the bottleneck for books, and you’ll want lots of books once you start enchanting.

Step 3: going bigger

Once the basics run, there are two cheap upgrades:

• Villager farmers. Give a farmer villager a composter and some farmland and it will harvest and replant crops itself. Getting the crops out of the villager takes a little extra setup, which the automatic farm guide covers.
• Observer and piston farms for sugar cane, pumpkins and melons. Each plant that grows triggers the observer, a piston breaks it, and a hopper minecart under the floor picks it up.

When you’re ready for fully hands-free food, our automatic farm guide walks through the designs. More survival guides are on the guides hub.