How to make an instant cactus farm in Minecraft

Cactus farming can be very useful in Minecraft. Not only are cacti harmful to touch and good for defense, they can be smelted into green dye and used in composters to make bonemeal. Given that cacti don't grow terribly often in the desert, farming them is the best way to get a lot of them.

Changing the tick speed can make everything grow faster. When farming, this can be very helpful as it will allow the planted items to grow back almost instantly. Here's how to set up a cactus farm and make it nearly instant.

---

Cactus farming in Minecraft: How to change tick speed to make it instant

The 1.0.14 update introduced the ability for cactus to grow. Before that, players could place one cactus block and it would never grow taller. Now, they can grow up to three blocks, so farming is pretty easy.

Players will need the following items to make a successful cactus farm:

• Piston
• Observer
• Water bucket
• Hopper
• Chest
• Sand

Step 1) The first step is to set up the farm. Sand blocks need to be placed in a row, however long players want. The longer the row, the more of other items will be needed.

There are many different ways to make cactus farms (Image via Minecraft Wiki)

Step 2) A tunnel needs to be dug one block deep and enclosed so water doesn't just flow freely. This is so that any cactus block that falls in will flow where players want.

Regardless of how many sand blocks there are, the tunnel needs to be long enough for the water to flow all the way until it stops (usually seven or eight blocks).

Step 3) At the end, Minecraft players should mine out the block and place the hopper and a chest below it. This will ensure that the cactus blocks will flow down into the hopper and be placed into the chest.

Step 4) On each sand block, there should be a cactus block. Behind this should be one block of any kind. On top of that block, a piston should be facing the cactus so that when it grows, the piston will break it.

Step 5) On top of the piston, players can place an observer that will trigger when a cactus grows to three blocks. Every time it grows that tall, the piston will break the top two and drop them into the water flowing to the hopper.

It can be beneficial to close everything in. This way, no cactus blocks will fly too far away and miss the stream of water.

Changing the tick speed to something significantly higher than the default will make the cactus grow much faster. It can also slow the overall game down, depending on the strength of the device Minecraft is being played on.