If you’ve ever found yourself stranded in a dark cave with no wheat seeds, no animal spawns, and a rapidly depleting hunger bar, you’ve probably spotted wild mushrooms growing on stone or dirt and wondered if you can cultivate them. A lot of new players skip over mushroom farming because they assume it’s more complicated than planting wheat or carrots, but it’s actually one of the lowest-effort, most reliable food sources you can build in early survival mode. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to answer how do you grow mushrooms on Minecraft, from small basic farms to large automatic builds that produce stacks of resources per hour.
What You Need First to Grow Mushrooms on Minecraft
Before you start building your farm, there are a few core supplies you’ll need to gather first, and some key rules you have to follow to make sure your mushrooms actually spread and grow. Unlike most overworld crops, mushrooms don’t need water to grow, but they do have very specific light requirements that trip up a lot of new players.
Light level is the single most important factor for basic mushroom growth. For standard mushroom planting on regular dirt, cobblestone, or most common blocks, the light level directly on the block you place the mushroom on has to be 12 or lower. If the light level is higher than that, the mushroom will pop off the block immediately and you’ll have to pick it back up. The only exception to this rule is if you plant the mushroom on mycelium, podzol, or crimson/warped nylium — those blocks let mushrooms grow in full sunlight with no light restrictions.
You’ll also need at least one mushroom to start your farm. You can find red and brown mushrooms spawning naturally in dark caves, swamps, dark oak forests, and the Nether. Both types work exactly the same for farming, the only difference is the stew they make and the color of giant mushrooms they grow into. You don’t need any special tools to plant or harvest them, just an empty slot in your hotbar to place them.
Step-by-Step Basic Mushroom Farm for New Players
If you’re in early survival mode and just need a small, reliable source of mushroom stew to keep you fed while you mine and build, this 5-minute farm is perfect for you. It requires almost no supplies, works in any biome, and produces enough mushrooms to keep you and a friend fed full time.
First, dig out a 6x6 room that’s at least 2 blocks high, either underground or inside a covered structure. Place torches on the upper walls of the room, not on the floor — this keeps the light level on the floor of the room between 5 and 12, which is the perfect range for mushroom growth. Next, place 4 to 5 mushrooms on the floor of the room, spacing them at least 2 blocks apart from each other.
Never place mushrooms directly next to each other, as they won’t spread if they’re too crowded. Once you’ve placed your starting mushrooms, all you have to do is wait. It usually takes 1 to 3 in-game days for mushrooms to start spreading to empty blocks around them. You can harvest full-grown mushrooms by punching them, and leave a few behind to keep the farm producing. If you want to avoid waiting for spread, you can use bonemeal on a mushroom planted on mycelium or podzol to instantly grow a giant mushroom, which drops up to 20 small mushrooms when broken.
Upgrading to a Large-Scale Automatic Mushroom Farm
Once you have more resources and want a farm that produces stacks of mushrooms without any manual work, you can upgrade to an automatic mushroom farm. These builds are perfect if you use a lot of fermented spider eyes for potions, trade mushrooms with villager farmers for emeralds, or run a server with multiple players who need a shared food source.
If you spend a lot of time grinding for resources between building projects, you might already use casual games to fill the waiting time while crops grow or smelting finishes. Many players who take quick 5-minute breaks between farm checks play 777 Game for a low-stakes fun distraction that doesn’t pull them away from their Minecraft session for too long.
To build a basic automatic farm, start by making a 10x10 platform out of mycelium or podzol, raised 3 blocks off the ground. Place glowstone blocks every 4 blocks on the ceiling above the platform, and cover each glowstone block with a waterlogged trapdoor to keep the light level on the platform at the correct range while preventing mobs from spawning on the light sources. Place 10 to 15 starting mushrooms evenly across the platform, then add water streams along the edges of the platform that lead to a hopper system.
When mushrooms grow, they will pop off the platform if they’re in a space that’s too small, and the water will carry them to the hoppers, which deposit them into a connected chest. This farm runs completely on its own, and you just have to stop by the chest every few in-game days to collect your harvest. The biggest benefits of this build include:
- Produces stacks of mushrooms per in-game hour with zero manual labor once built
- Can be expanded easily by adding extra platform layers for higher yield
- Works in all biomes without modification if you use mycelium or podzol for the base
Automatic mushroom farms are one of the most low-effort, high-reward food sources for late-game survival. You can even add a crafting table and bowl loader to the end of the hopper system to automatically turn your harvested mushrooms into mushroom stew, so you never have to worry about crafting food manually again.
Always use waterlogged trapdoors over your light sources to prevent mobs from spawning on top of them. If you skip this step, you’ll end up with zombies and creepers spawning on your glowstone blocks, which can fall onto your farm and destroy it, or attack you when you come to collect your harvest.
Creative Uses for Your Harvested Mushrooms
Most new players only use mushrooms to make mushroom stew, but they have a ton of other useful uses for both survival and creative builds. For survival players, mushrooms are a core ingredient for fermented spider eyes, which are used to brew weakness, poison, and harming potions. You can also use them to make suspicious stew, which gives you a random status effect when eaten, including useful buffs like regeneration or speed if you get lucky.
For creative players, mushroom blocks are a fantastic decorative block that comes in red, brown, and white variants that work great for building fairy houses, forest paths, or whimsical base accents. You can get mushroom blocks by breaking giant mushrooms with a silk touch tool, and you can place them in any pattern you want to make custom giant mushrooms that fit your build’s aesthetic.
Bonemealing a mushroom on podzol or mycelium will grow a giant mushroom regardless of light level, making it perfect for fast bulk harvesting. If you need a lot of mushrooms quickly for trading or brewing, planting 10 mushrooms on a podzol patch and bonemealing them all will give you enough mushrooms to last for weeks of gameplay in just a few minutes. You can also use brown mushrooms to make mushroom blocks that emit a low light level, which works great for mood lighting in underground bases without attracting mobs.
Now that you know how do you grow mushrooms on Minecraft, you can stop skipping this incredibly useful crop in your survival worlds. I used to ignore mushroom farms entirely until I got stuck on a skyblock world with no animal spawns and no wheat seeds, and it quickly became my go-to first build for every new playthrough. Start small with a basic underground farm first to get the hang of the light level rules, then upgrade to an automatic build once you have the resources, and you’ll never run out of food or potion ingredients again.