Whether you want to establish a base with your friends on the best Minecraft servers or prepare for long adventures, food is a vital resource. But, you don’t need to roam around your world hunting for bread or meet to collect it. If you know how to plant seeds in Minecraft, you can get a chamber full of food without even leaving your base. Let’s find out how!

How to Plant Seeds in Minecraft (2023)

From finding seeds to growing them automatically, our guide goes over everything you need to know about farming in Minecraft. Make sure to explore it thoroughly to avoid any confusion.

Types of Seeds in Minecraft

When it comes to seeds in Minecraft, you can categorize them into main categories.

Seeds:

• Wheat seeds
• Melon seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Beetroot seeds
• Torchflower seeds

Items that act like seeds:

• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Nether Wart
• Cocoa Beans
• Pitcher Pods

How to Get Wheat Seeds in Minecraft

Wheat is the staple crop of Minecraft and getting its seeds is extremely easy. You can get it through the following methods:

• Breaking wheat which grows in farmlands of villages
• Breaking all variants of grass
• Chests of Trail Ruins
• Village chest (savanna house/fisherman)
• Trading with Wandering Traders
• Gift from nitwit/unemployed villagers under Hero of the Village effect

Find Beetroot Seeds in Minecraft

Beetroots seeds are one of the rarest seeds in Minecraft. They only have a 20% chance of appearing in desert villages and a mere 5% chance of generating in plains villages. You can also find them in the chest of these structures:

• Dungeon
• Mineshaft
• End City
• Trail Ruins (suspicious gravel)
• Woodland Mansion
• Village (snowy)

But, the most reliable way to obtain beetroot seeds in Minecraft is by trading with Wandering Traders for one emerald.

How to Make Melon and Pumpkin Seeds in Minecraft

You can find pumpkin and melon seeds in the following places within Minecraft:

• Dungeon
• Mineshaft
• Woodland Mansion
• Village (taiga) - Pumpkin only

But, more players stick with crafting these seeds using the fruit itself. Follow these steps to learn how:

1. First, search for pumpkins and melons in your world. Pumpkins can generate randomly in all biomes, while melons only grow naturally in jungle biomes.

2. To make your search easier, you can find pumpkins in the farmlands of taiga and snowy taiga villages. For melons, look in the farms of savanna villages. You can use our guide on how to find villages in Minecraft to find these farmlands in no time.

3. Once you find a fully grown melon or pumpkin, break it to collect its fruit.

4. Then, convert the pumpkin or melon slice into seeds by placing it in the crafting grid.

Get Ancient Seeds from the Sniffer

Thanks to the Minecraft 1.20 update, we now have a new set of seeds called ancient seeds in the game. These seeds are unique in that they don't spawn in chests, appear in trades, or drop from their plants. So, follow these steps closely to learn how to get them:

1. First, make a brush in Minecraft using a copper ingot, a feather, and a stick.

2. Then, search for ocean ruins in the warm ocean biome of Minecraft. This structure is quite easy to spot if you keep exploring.

3. Once you find an ocean ruin, uncover the suspicious blocks in it using the brush. Eventually, you will find a Sniffer egg in one of them.

4. Next, go back to the land and place down the Sniffer egg. It can take anywhere between 1-2 in-game days to hatch.

5. After the egg hatches, a baby Sniffer (Snifflet) will appear. You'll need to wait for approximately 20 minutes for it to grow into an adult Sniffer.

6. Once the Sniffer becomes an adult, it will sniff around blocks and periodically dig up ancient seeds. This sniffing mechanic works on dirt (all variants), mud, moss, grass, and muddy mangrove root blocks. You can expect to get one ancient seed around every 8 minutes.

Types of Sniffer Seeds

The Sniffer in Minecraft can uncover two types of ancient seeds:

• Torchflower Seeds: It grows into the beautiful Torchflower. You can place it on dirt (& its variants) blocks and in flower pots for decoration. Moreover, like other flowers in Minecraft, you can also craft it into orange dye.
• Pitcher Pods: It grows into pitcher plants. Although they grow out of a pod, the pod disappears once you break the plant. Plus, just like the Torchflower, you can place them on compatible blocks and turn them into cyan dye.

How to Use Seeds to Grow Crops in Minecraft

Now that you know how to gather basic seeds in Minecraft, it's sow them and reap the rewards. Here's how:

1. First, make a hoe in Minecraft by combining two wooden planks with two sticks. You can also use the Minecraft 1.20 ore distribution guide to find material for a stronger hoe. But, a wooden hoe is more than reliable for basic farming.

2. Then, use that hoe on a dirt block to turn it into farmland. This method works on all types of dirt in the game.

3. Next, use a bucket in Minecraft to place some water close to your farmland block. It doesn't have to be next to it. Alternatively, you can also create your farm next to a lake or a river, to avoid worrying about irrigation.

4. Finally, use your collected seeds on the farmland blocks to plant them. Every seed takes a different amount of time to grow. But, you can use bone meal to speed up the process.

You can use the farmland block to grow a variety of seeds including wheat, beetroot, pumpkin, melon, Torchflower, and pitcher.

How to Plant Carrots and Potatoes in Minecraft

Interestingly, not every crop in Minecraft requires seed to grow. You can directly plant carrots and potatoes into the farmland to grow them into a crop. This method works because when you harvest these crops, you receive 2-4 items for each one planted.

Finding these plants is also not as hard as the other crops. Carrots spawn in the farms of plains and snowy villages while potatoes show up in farms of snowy, pains, and taiga villages. Additionally, zombies, husks, and zombie villagers also have a chance of dropping carrots and potatoes when defeated.

How to Get and Grow Nether Wart

In the world of Minecraft, the crops aren't limited to the overworld biome. So, let's dive into farming in the Nether dimension:

1. To begin, first make a Nether portal in Minecraft and use it to travel to the Nether dimension. But, also make sure you have a Potion of Fire Resistance in your inventory to avoid any accidents.

2. Then, search for the Nerther fortress by exploring the areas around you.

3. Once you find the fortress, it's time to explore its staircases. You will find a farm of Nether wart beneath the stairs. Alternatively, you can also search for bastions and find smaller farms in them. Doing so will also give you a chance to trade with Piglins in Minecraft.

4. Once you find the farm, use any tool or your hands to break the Nether warts and pick them up.

5. Furthermore, don't forget to pick up some soul sand blocks too. The Nether warts only grow on soul sand, irrespective of the dimension.

6. Finally, travel back to the overworld, create a farm base with soul sand, and plant your Nether warts into them. It takes them about 35 minutes to grow and unfortunately, you cannot use bone meal to speed up the process.

How to Automatically Plant Seeds in Minecraft

While growing crops in Minecraft yields a bunch of benefits, the process itself can be a bit tiresome. So, let's explore some methods to automate planting seeds in Minecraft:

• Farmer Villager: The farmer villagers have the unique ability to pick up and plant seeds in Minecraft. They can even harvest mature crops. You can use an Allay to collect your crops while allowing the farmer to handle seed planting in your farms.
• Mods: You can use some of the best Minecraft village mods to completely automate the farming process. Some of the mods on our list even include items to guard your farms while you are away.
• Community: While playing on the best Minecraft servers, you can make a community farm that multiple players collectively maintain. This reduces the burden of planting seeds and maintaining the farm at the cost of sharing the rewards.
• Observer Farms: You can use an observer and a piston to automatically break your crop when it grows. Unfortunately, this system doesn't allow you to automate the process of sowing seeds.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you water seeds in Minecraft?

While there is no need to water seeds in Minecraft, the farmland they are planted on must be irrigated. To achieve this, all you need to do is ensure there's water within a 3-block radius of your crops. The water doesn't have to be a source block or next to the farmland.

What happens if you don't water the seeds?

If you don't water the farmland block in Minecraft, it slowly loses its moisture and turns into a dirt block.

Can seeds grow without water Minecraft?

You can grow pumpkins, melons, and Netherwart in Minecraft without water.

Do torches help plants grow in Minecraft?

The plants need a light level of 9 or higher to grow. You can place torches, lanterns, or even Froglights to make your crops grow overnight.

Plant Seeds and Grow Crops in Minecraft 1.20 Today

Now that you know how to grow crops in Minecraft, it’s time to outsource the work. To do so, simply find a village in Minecraft and get all its farmers to your farm. These mobs don’t only have the ability to harvest crops but even to sow the seeds. But, they cannot protect themselves, so make sure to get an Iron Golem to keep them safe. With your farming team in place, you can enjoy a bountiful harvest without doing the hard tasks. Happy farming!