Minecraft: Farming Water Radius – How Far Can the Water Reach?

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Minecraft flaunts a spread of fun and excitement for players, from taking down aggressive mobs for some awesome loot to exploring dark and creepy Minecraft caves. But, it’d be hard to get through any Minecraft playthrough without farming some crops using water, and many players wonder how far water can reach as a result.

  • Article Breakdown:
  • Water can reach up to four blocks of soil or farmland in Minecraft, either vertically, diagonally, or horizontally.
  • One block of still water could hydrate a 9 x 9 square radius, but a single source block of flowing water could hydrate an infinite number of soil blocks, depending on the design.

Farming with water in Minecraft

When starting out your adventures in any Minecraft world, food and hunger will quickly become a massive factor. Players have a variety of food options to choose from in the game, including a range of meats gathered through hunting land-dwelling mammals or from fishing for food in Minecraft’s rivers and oceans.

But, one of the most timeless and classic Minecraft food-gathering methods has been to create a solid farm using vegetable seeds. As with farming in real life, farming any type of seed or sapling in Minecraft in order to produce crops will require a plentiful supply of water.

While crops can generally be watered manually or by rain in Minecraft, this is not exactly the best plan since weather patterns in Minecraft are unpredictable overall. In addition, crops will need a steady supply of water to stay hydrated and continue optimum growth.

Players will typically have two options when trying to keep their Minecraft farm hydrated around the clock. They can either gather water from a nearby location using a bucket, or they can choose to set up their Minecraft survival base and farm in a location that’s naturally near water.

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The type of effects that water will have on crops and soil in Minecraft will not differ in either scenario. Water will still hydrate soil or dirt blocks in the same way in Minecraft, regardless of whether they are still by using a bucket of water or flowing by using a river, ocean, natural body of water, or a stream that you’ve made yourself.

How far can water reach in Minecraft?

While both methods can definitely be an excellent way to maintain any Minecraft farm, the first method is far more common among most Minecraft players. This is because it is much easier to find a suitable location based in forests or woodland biomes throughout the Minecraft overworld – especially since there are countless resources you’ll need to have access to apart from water.

While Minecraft players may have access to smaller streams and rivers, most players find themselves having to cart buckets of water back to their Minecraft base just so that they can water their plants. But, depending on how you design your Minecraft farm, you may need far fewer water buckets and blocks than you might expect.

A single block of water in Minecraft actually has the power to keep the soil hydrated for up to four blocks away. This rule applies irrespective of the direction, meaning that soil blocks will be hydrated 4 blocks away from the water block in vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions.

However, water blocks will not hydrate blocks on different levels unless you follow a specific type of design, which we’ll get into later. The hydration rule will only apply when the water and soil blocks are on the same y-axis level, or when the water block is one level above the farmland blocks.

Once the water block is removed, the crops that are surrounding it will randomly start becoming dehydrated, and the blocks will then revert from soil blocks (also known as farmland blocks) to dirt blocks. Blocks that have crops planted in them already will not immediately dehydrate and revert to dirt blocks, but the crops will generally grow at a slower pace.

Farming water radius in Minecraft

According to the Minecraft Wiki, the reach of water in Minecraft essentially means that one single block of water in Minecraft can completely hydrate at least a 9 x 9 block radius on average – totaling 80 blocks. But, this isn’t so convenient in all designs since players will need at least one block to move around and gather crops without trampling them.

This is due to the fact that a farmland block will automatically revert to a dirt block if a player or mob falls on it (in Java, this mob type is restricted to those larger than a 0.512 cubic block). In these cases, the chances will increase according to falling speed. It can also occur when Endermen teleport onto a farmland block, when snow falls directly onto a block, or even when large crops like melons and pumpkins appear on top of another farmland block.

However, things may be different if you want to create farms that have varied shapes, such as L-shapes or blocks. But, there are still a few ways that players could maximize each water block in their Minecraft farms for optimal hydration, growth, and efficiency.

In addition, players can also choose to skip blocks for walking space, especially if they’re not flying. This is because a water block will still hydrate a block of dirt or soil even if they are apart, separated by a different block or a space.

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With all that being said, there may still be plenty of room for potential by using math. According to some Minecraft fans, players could essentially create an infinitely hydrated farm with infinite soil blocks using a single source block of flowing water, flowing downwards to a lower level.

Check out the video below for an example of this concept, posted by Logdotzip:

In such cases, the water would be able to flow down into the same location on the lower level. But, you could also try out a farmland design that continues downward, with a 9 x 9 radius on each level.

After this point, the source water block would theoretically be able to hydrate the 9 x 9 square radius around the block on that level. You could try this out by starting way above the ground level in Minecraft, which would provide the most reliable light levels during the day, but it could also be done underground.

Since crops can grow underground, this could turn into an absolutely massive farm with countless crops. Of course, this is provided that the lighting conditions are suitable for growth and you have a solid method to gather the crops once they are fully grown.

Farming in Minecraft can be understandably trying at times, and it’s no secret that just about every Minecraft player will need to create a farm at some point. Thankfully, water blocks in Minecraft can go further than one might expect, meaning you’ll only need a handful of water blocks for an efficient and well-hydrated farm.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!

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