Minecraft’s got a ton of crops you can grow—carrots, potatoes, beetroot, sweet berries, pumpkins, melons, wheat, even glow berries from recent updates. Set up a solid farm, and you’ll have food and crafting stuff on lock. Problem is, crops take their sweet time to grow. Here’s four easy ways to speed things up in 2025!

1. Optimize Your Farm Layout

Always plant candles near your crops.

Crops need the right setup to grow fast. Farmland’s gotta stay wet, either near water or from rain. Plus, they need a light level of nine or more, and it doesn’t have to be sunlight.

  • Add torches or glowstone: Stick some light sources like torches, glowstone, or lanterns around your crops so they keep growing at night or underground.
  • Mix up crops: Plant different crops side by side, like wheat and carrots in a checkerboard. It makes better use of space and light.
  • Keep it hydrated: Place water blocks smartly. One water block can keep a 9x9 area of farmland moist if it’s in the middle.

2. Use Bone Meal

Bone meals are super easy to get.

Bone meal is your shortcut to instant crop growth. Toss it on a young crop, and it jumps ahead a few stages. Usually, 2–3 uses will get wheat, carrots, or potatoes ready to harvest. For pumpkins or melons, it only speeds up the stem, not the fruit itself.
  • Make bone meal: Craft it from bones dropped by skeletons, fish, or by composting extra crops in a composter. One bone gives three bone meal.
  • Stock up: Set up a skeleton mob farm or toss spare seeds or kelp into a composter for a steady supply.
  • Pro tip: In 1.21, composters are still the go-to for making bone meal without hunting mobs all day.

3. Build Automatic Farms

There's an idea for you to start with.

If you want crops without the work, automatic farms are where it’s at. You can use villagers or redstone to build setups that plant, harvest, and collect crops for you.

Some solid options:
  • Villager farms: Get farmers to do the heavy lifting. They’ll plant and harvest crops nearby. Add a minecart with a hopper or water streams to grab the loot.
  • Redstone farms: Use pistons, dispensers, and water to auto-harvest and replant. These work great for pumpkins and melons.
  • 1.21 update: The Tricky Trials update added the crafter block, which can auto-turn your harvested wheat into bread or other items.

Look up farm designs on YouTube or Minecraft forums for setups that work with 1.21.

4. Utilize Bees

Bees are here to the rescue.

Bees are awesome for giving your crops a boost. When they grab pollen from flowers and fly over your plants, they speed up growth like a natural fertilizer.

  • Add beehives: Place beehives or bee nests close to your crops, within about five blocks. Each hive holds up to three bees.
  • Plant flowers: Scatter flowers around your farm to keep bees busy. Tall flowers like sunflowers are a good pick.
  • Pair with automation: Bees work on their own, so they’re perfect for boosting your automatic farms without extra effort.

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