How to Make an Automatic Bamboo Farm in Minecraft

What Items You Need to Make a Bamboo Farm in Minecraft

Before we start making the bamboo farm, there are some items you'll need to gather and craft on your end in the survival world! So here are all the items you'll need to make a bamboo farm in Minecraft: 

• 150 Wood planks or other building blocks of your choice
• 40 Dirt blocks
• 40 Wood slabs
  
• 36 Glass blocks
• 36 Pistons
• 36 Bamboo 
• 34 Redstone dust
• 34 Normal rails
• 9 Observers
• 2 Powered rails
• 2 Levers
• 1 Hopper
• 1 Chest
• 1 Minecart with hopper
  

Gathering these items may be a challenge to some, but the payoff of getting bamboo and crafting scaffolding is worth it. After you get the items, then you're ready to build this automatic bamboo farm in Minecraft!

How to Make a Bamboo Farm in Minecraft

Build an 18x2 Layout and Place Chest with Connected Hopper

First, you'll want to start by placing 2 rows of wooden planks on the ground, each stretching 18 blocks. On this layout is where all the building and shenanigans will happen, so make sure to pick the right location for the farm!

After that, choose a random spot except for the corners around the layout, and place a chest. Then break a block out of the layout, and in its place get a hopper in your hand, Shift to crouch, and right-click the chest. This should connect the hopper with the chest, so if you throw an item in the hopper, it should appear in the chest!

Be absolutely sure the hopper and chest are properly working. If they aren't, then the bamboo farm won't work as it won't be collected.

Add Levers and Rails Around the Layout

Next up we'll want to add normal rails around the whole layout of the bamboo farm. But in 2 places around the middle in both rows, make sure to place powered rails. You'll also want to power up these rails, so on the side of each powered rail add a lever and right-click it to activate it.

If you're having trouble placing a rail on the hopper, you'll have to do what you did previously when we connected it to the chest. Press Shift to crouch, and with the rail in your hand right-click the hopper to place it!

Place Dirt Atop the Rails and Add a Wood Plank Wall Around

Now we'll place the dirt or grass blocks on which you'll plant the bamboo. So aim at the rails with grass blocks in your hand and right-click it to cover it all! Then on each side make a little 1-block high wall using wood planks. You may have to place a temporary block to add the little side walls. 

If you have built the best Minecraft Redstone ideas previously, then the next part won't be that difficult. That's because we'll place up the pistons which are the backbone behind this bamboo farm!

Add Pistons on Top of the Small Wood Plank Wall

The pistons are what will break the growing bamboo for your farm. You'll have to place pistons atop the small wood plank wall next to the dirt blocks on the 2 big sides. Then on the outside of the piston rows place 1 more row of wood planks. The piston placement build should look a little something like this: 

On the smaller 2-block wide sides, make sure to cover it upward with wood planks as well. As we go on, the build will get taller and taller, so don't forget to adjust for the size on all sides of the bamboo farm!

Add Observers Atop the Pistons and Link Them With Redstone

Observers play a big role in this bamboo farm. They'll detect when the bamboo grows and activate the pistons to break it! You'll place the observers on top of the pistons skipping every 1 block. Then on the outside wall that we added in the previous step, connect all the observers using Redstone dust.

To top off the observers, between each block that was skipped place a wood plank to cover up the little holes. And if you're making this bamboo farm underground, make sure to craft some glowstone blocks and place them in these little holes since a bamboo plant needs light to grow! 

Place Slabs Atop Observers and Plant Bamboo

This is a security measure so zombies and other hostile mobs don't spawn on the farm, so take this into consideration when you're building any other bamboo farms. And that's to place slabs on all the sides on top of the wood planks and observers. The final element here is to enter the hole with the dirt blocks and plant bamboo on all of them!

Each bamboo sapling will start to grow instantly. The observers will pick that up through the Redstone dust and activate the pistons which will break the bamboo! That broken bamboo will go into the chest, but first, we'll have to add one more security measure.

Cover the Middle Top Side of the Farm With Glass Blocks

This is a pretty simple and straightforward step as all you'll have to do is use glass blocks to cover the top empty space above the bamboo farm. This is so nothing could come and enter where the bamboo grows.

Now we have everything set up, from the Redstone dust and observers to the piston and rail layout. All that's left is what the broken bamboo will actually be collected in!

Place the Minecart with Hopper on Rails

This is definitely the trickiest part of the bamboo farm as you'll have to add the minecart with a hopper. But simply placing it won't make it move. So to make it move what you'll have to do is break a rail next to a powered rail and place a dirt block there. Then add the minecart with a hopper on the powered rail, break the dirt block, and add back the normal rail! 

And that's everything there is on how to make a bamboo farm in Minecraft! There are lots of designs for bamboo farms, albeit this is the simplest one you can make. Since bamboo is used for making scaffolding, you can use it to climb up high into the best Minecraft tree house ideas!