3 Simple Ways to Farm Mushrooms in Minecraft

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Easily grow a plentiful supply of mushrooms with this helpful guide

Written by Travis Boylls

Last Updated: September 17, 2024 Fact Checked

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Small Mushroom Farming

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Large Mushroom Farming

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Breeding Mooshrooms

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Do you want to farm mushrooms in Minecraft? Mushrooms can be used to create a variety of food ingredients, including Mushroom soup (which has very high hunger saturation), rabbit stew, suspicious stew, and a fermented spider eye, which is used in potion making . They can also be added to a composter for a 65% chance of raising the compose level by 1. ^{[1]
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Research source} Mushrooms usually grow slowly in low-light areas. This can make them hard to grow. However, there are a few tricks you can use to farm mushrooms. This wikiHow article teaches you how to farm mushrooms in Minecraft.

Things You Should Know

Mushrooms grow in areas where the light level is less than 12. They can spread if there are no more than 4 mushrooms of the same type in a 9x9 area.
Apply bone meal to a mushroom to turn it into a large mushroom. Large mushrooms can be harvested for up to 20 small mushrooms.
You can breed mooshrooms by feeding them wheat. Mooshrooms can be sheared for mushrooms, which will turn them into regular cows.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Small Mushroom Farming

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Both red and brown mushrooms grow in a variety of areas where there is low light. They can be found underground in caves, in swamps, old-growth taiga forests, mushroom islands, and The Nether . You can harvest mushrooms by hitting them with your hand and walking over them.
You can find an area to grow mushrooms in a cave or you can build an area to farm mushrooms that has a roof overhead to block direct sunlight.

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Place dirt blocks in the area where you want mushrooms to grow. Mushrooms can spread to dirt blocks as long as there are no more than 4 of the same type of mushroom in a 9x9 square area. Decide how many mushrooms you want to farm and create a dirt area that is the appropriate size for your needs.
- Alternatively, you can plant mushrooms on mycelium or podzol blocks and they can grow at any light level. Mycelium can be found on mushroom islands, and podzol can be found in old-growth taiga forests.
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Place torches sparsely around the growing area. Mushrooms only grow in areas where the light level is less than 12. Regular torches have a light level of 14, which drops by one light level every square. This means you need to make sure the torches are at least 2 squares away from the growing area. The light level should be dim, but bright enough to keep hostile mobs from spawning (they spawn at light levels 7 and below). ^{[2]
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- Alternatively, you can use soul torches, which have a light level of 10. Soul torches can be crafted from a stick, charcoal, and soul soil, which can be found in the Nether.
Mushrooms can spread up to two dirt blocks away. Plant the mushrooms so that they are spread out, with no more than one type of mushroom type per 9x9 square area.
It'll take a while for mushrooms to spread. Each block has about a 12.5% chance of growing a red mushroom and a 25% chance of growing a brown mushroom. The more mushrooms you have planted, the better the odds of your mushrooms spreading.
Mushrooms will stop spreading when there are about 5 mushrooms of a specific type in a 9x9 area. Once an area reaches its maximum number of mushrooms, hit them with your hand and then walk over them to collect them. Leave at least one mushroom per 9x9 area so they will continue to spread.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Large Mushroom Farming

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Both red and brown mushrooms grow in a variety of areas where there is low light. They can be found underground in caves, in swamps, old-growth taiga forests, and The Nether . You can harvest mushrooms by hitting them with your hand and walking over them.
All fish have a chance of dropping bone meal when they are slaughtered. The easiest way to get bone meal is to get bones from slain skeleton mobs. You can use the bones to craft bone meal using a crafting table . ^{[3]
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Build an area for a large mushroom to grow. If you are building an area outside, it should have a solid roof overhead to block direct sunlight. The light level should be below 12 so that mushrooms can be planted. If you are building an area inside of a cave, you need to make sure the ceiling is high enough for a large mushroom to grow.
- Large red mushrooms need an area that is 7x7 blocks wide and 6 blocks tall. Large brown mushrooms require an area that is 9x9 blocks wide and 8 blocks tall.
- Alternatively, you can plant mushrooms on mycelium or podzol blocks and they can grow at any light level. Mycelium can be found on mushroom islands, and podzol can be found in old-growth taiga forests.
You can plant either a red or brown mushroom. Make sure you plant it in an area with a low enough light level for mushrooms to grow. If the light level is too high, you will not be able to plant the mushroom.
Equip the bone meal and apply it to the mushroom. This will cause the mushroom to instantly turn into a giant mushroom.
You can use an axe or a sword to break down the large mushroom. As you break the mushroom's canopy, it will drop small mushrooms. You can generally get up to 20 mushrooms per large mushroom you break.
Simply walk over the dropped mushrooms to collect them.
This is the most efficient way of harvesting mushrooms. Repeat this process as many times as you want to get as many mushrooms as you want.

Method 3

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Breeding Mooshrooms

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You need wheat to breed mooshrooms. You can grow wheat by cutting down tall grass to gather seeds. Plant the seeds in tilled soil next to a source of water. Wait for the wheat to fully mature before harvesting it.
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Find a mushroom island. Mushroom islands are one of the rarest biomes in Minecraft. It may take a while to find one. They are generally found in the middle of oceans and large bodies of water. They are islands covered with mycelium, large mushrooms, and mooshroom cows. If you find an island with two or more mooshrooms, you can breed them for mushrooms and steaks. ^{[4]
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- Mooshrooms are red cows that have mushrooms growing on them. They can only be found on mushroom islands. ^{[5]
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If you find two or more mooshrooms on a mushroom island, you can build a fence around them to keep them close together.
Equip the wheat that you harvested and feed it to both mooshrooms. This will put them in the mood to breed. When they breed, they will produce a baby mooshroom. You can breed the mooshrooms as often as you want to produce as many mooshrooms as you want.
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Shear the mooshrooms. Once you have three or more mooshrooms, you can shear them with a pair of shears to produce mushrooms. Shearing a mooshroom will turn it into a regular cow.
- You can craft a pair of shears out of two iron bars using a crafting table.
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Collect the mushrooms. After shearing a mooshroom, simply walk over the mushrooms it drops to collect them.
- Once a mooshroom has been sheared, it becomes a regular cow and is no longer useful for farming mushrooms. You can slaughter it for meat. Make sure you leave at least two mooshrooms unsheared so that you can continue to breed them.