Crypto's Cacti Farm - Version 1

Simple cactus farm I've been using on a server to save time getting green dye. This design plants 64 cacti and makes collecting it all effortless by the flick of a lever, and is an easy starting point for those looking to get into playing with Redstone in Minecraft.

I made this farm more for saving time on dye as opposed to one of maximum efficiency which is why this is version 1, version 2 will be more efficient but it will be sometime in the distant future as I have other projects for this blog taking longer to complete than intended.

Check out option 3 at the end of this blog entry for some starting ideas of making more efficient cacti farms.

Now to building this farm; the first thing to do is make sure you have the following items.

Ingredients:

• 32 Redsand blocks (Alternative: normal sand, can use other block types ONLY with sticky pistons),
• 32 Pistons (if using other block types then sand in the above ingredient, you will need sticky pistons),
• 6 stacks of Sand to fill in the 18x18 work area (minus 32 sand blocks if using Redsand on pistons),
• 5 stacks of Sandstone (or optional material to keep sand in place and suits your build style) for the piston layer,
• 1 more stack of Sandstone blocks (or other optional material of your choice) for the Redstone circuitry layer.
• 8 Redstone Repeaters (place them all at default ticks/clicks),
• 1 Redstone Lever,
• 1 Redstone Torch (I like to use it as a status indicator of pistons being on/off),
• 64 Cacti blocks to start a full field (can work with less to start but that will take longer),
• 3 stacks of Redstone Dust (total may not be exact),
• 1 wooden door (for making an entryway to the lever when built).

Optional Ingredients

• Torches/Glowstone - lighting and/or for survival maps against mob spawning,
• Decorative blocks of your choice for the walls around the redstone circuitry (step 2) and the cacti farm itself (simple fence or any other decorative design you can imagine),
  Note: ensure that it does not break the circuits or stop cacti from being planted and growing.
• Ladder and trapdoor (in place of the standard wooden door for lever access).

Build steps.
I highly suggest you download a copy of the screenshots file as I refer to them through this build. Most steps are easy to follow in the pictures however I have added the below details to hopefully be a guide to building this farm.

The screenshots have green wool for demonstration of where cacti would go when the farm is completed, my border is iron blocks but you can use any block type so long as it does not stop cacti from being planted and growing inside the farm.

Screenshots are here.

Step 1
Clear and level a space totaling 19x19 blocks.
This area makes up 17 x 17 internal blocks available for placing 64 cacti blocks, plus the extra block space around the farm area for a border you can design to make it blend in with your build style and/or the environment of your area.

Step 2
Inside the area just cleared (entire area minus 1 block for the border), hollow it out by digging down 4 blocks. You can use ladders or make a stairway to get down from the border outside of this area.

In my screenshots I have made a basic wooden door with sand/sandstone block stairway (not actual stairs) you can use to get into the farm. Up to you if you want to fit in a trap door, water+signpost elevator or other means of traveling up and down.

I have lined the hollowed area with smooth sandstone walls and a sandstone floor; however you can customize with materials used to suit your build style ir just leave the borders alone to save time (provided it is not flooded with water/lava).

Digging Alternative:
You can build upwards instead of digging down first. I have dug down in this build though to better illustrate build steps in my screenshots. If you do build upwards, do remember not to follow my steps in the exact same fashion based on the pictures (since I placed green wool as a guide for where cacti will go when the farm is completed). An advantage though is no digging needed and door placement is much simpler.

Step 3
Place sandstone blocks and redstone components as shown in the step3-red1-picX (you did grab a copy of the screenshots I hope), used in these shots are;

• 1 redstone torch,
• 1 lever,
• 6 redstone dust,
• 1 redstone repeater
• 1 piston
• 1 redsand block

Clone the rest of the redstone circuitry, piston placement and sandstone as shown in the step 3 screenshots.

Note: Normal sand can be used instead of redsand, or any other block type when used with a sticky piston.

Step 4
Taking note of the spacing between each piston (iron blocks highlight air gaps), place sandstone blocks. Then place the pistons facing upwards as shown in the screenshots.

Notice also the placement of a redstone repeater, you can see in my pictures how the repeater strengthens the redstone signal and allows us to have all 8 pistons in this row active.

Step 5
Make 3 more copies of the circuitry we did in step 4, noting placement of the pistons lines up with the first one in the row completed in step 3.

Remember to place the redstone repeaters in the correct position on each row (between pistons 4 and 5).

Step 6
Test the pistons all go up and down as intended by using the lever, if anything fails check that all redstone is in the right spots, repeaters are active and on default ticks/clicks (that is each was just placed down and not clicked on) and facing the right direction.

Step 7
The redstone circuitry now gets sealed in a dark area so place down some torches/glowstone. In survival maps this will guard against mob spawning in this dark area and potentially damaging the system.

After that, place down sandstone blocks on the layer with the base of the pistons (this is for placing sand into the farm so cacti can grow)

Step 8
Place sand on top of the sandstone we just placed, the sand should be the same layer as the redsand with the pistons set in the off position.

Step 9
Place 1 block of cacti on the north and south side of each of the redsand blocks.

Note: Do this with the pistons down otherwise you won't be able to place the cacti.

While waiting around 10 mins for the cacti to fully grow, work on the farms border and appearance.

Step 10
When all cacti are 3 blocks high (fully grown), flick the lever on the redstone circuitry once (turn it on then turn it off after all pistons are extended). Head on up and collect all the cacti blocks, 3 stacks of 64 in total,

Step 11
Replant 1 stack on cacti like we did in step 9.

Note: A future version to be built will be more automated without needed to do this step, see option 3 below for how this can be done.

Congratulations, cacti farm version 1 complete.

All you have to do now is revisit the farm, wait for cacti to grow, flick the lever on and then off, and replant 1 stack of cacti.

Profit is 2 stacks of cacti per visit, more than enough to make plenty of green dye to use or combine with other dye types (expensive but I do love using Cyan Stained Clay).

Other ideas I haven't done yet for this blog entry.

Option 1
Add a second cacti farm on top of this one using glass to make the floor then cloning this farm.
Doable: ' Cacti do not need light to grow and are non-flammable.' Source.

Option 2
Expand the farm by attaching more pistons, redstone dust and repeaters to the existing system. A simple option is to expand via step3 to add more rows and step4 to add more pistons to the end of each row in step3.

Option 3
Redesign the farm for levers to work horizontally and move the top 2 cactus blocks instead of all 3, check out this for an illustrated working example.

I will leave those things up to you to try; with my adaptation of option 3 to appear in a future blog entry.

If you get stuck, I have also uploaded a copy of a Minecraft save with the completed farm here.

Remember to say thanks or add suggestions with the comments section below (be patient as it will take me some time to moderate comments); donate me some Bitcoin or check out my income earning web links. Any or all of these will help encourage me to work on this blog.

Happy Minin',
Crypto4coin.