If you’ve ever found yourself low on food mid-cave dive or stuck for spooky decoration ideas for your base, you probably already know how useful fungi can be in the Overworld. Learning how to grow mushrooms on Minecraft is one of the most underrated low-effort skills you can pick up, even if you’re just a casual player who only logs on a few times a week. Unlike wheat or carrot farms that need constant sunlight, water, and tilling, mushroom farms are low-maintenance, work in dark spaces, and can produce a steady supply of food or brewing ingredients with almost no upkeep once set up. We’ve tested every method of growing mushrooms across both Java and Bedrock editions, so we’ll walk you through what works, what doesn’t, and how to avoid common mistakes that waste your time and resources.
What You Need to Know Before You Grow Mushrooms on Minecraft
Mushrooms come in two standard types in vanilla Minecraft: red and brown, and both follow the same core growth rules, with a few small differences that matter for your farm design. Mushrooms will only plant and grow on blocks with a light level of 12 or lower, so if you place one in full daylight or right next to a torch, it will pop off immediately and drop as an item you can pick up. Brown mushrooms restore slightly more hunger points when cooked into mushroom stew, while red mushrooms are the primary ingredient for fermented spider eyes, a key component for weakness and strength potions. You don’t need any rare items to get started, either. You can find starting mushrooms spawning naturally in dark caves, swamp biomes, dark forests, and mushroom fields biomes, or you can buy them from wandering traders for a single emerald each if you’re having trouble finding them in the wild. Silk touch tools are only required if you want to move mycelium or podzol blocks to your base, but those are optional for basic farm setups.
Step-by-Step Basic Mushroom Farm for Survival Mode
If you’re a new player or just need a small, low-effort farm for personal use, this underground design will take you less than 10 minutes to build and will produce enough mushrooms to keep you fed for weeks. First, dig a 6x6x3 room anywhere below ground level, far enough from surface light that the default light level of the room is 7 or lower. You can use torches placed 7 blocks apart to keep light levels below 12 for mushrooms while stopping most hostile mobs from spawning, so you don’t have to worry about creepers sneaking up on you while you harvest. Next, cover the floor with whatever solid blocks you have on hand—dirt, cobblestone, and even netherrack work fine for basic growth. Plant 4 to 6 starting mushrooms around the room, spaced at least 3 blocks apart from each other. That’s all the setup you need. Over time, the mushrooms will spread to adjacent empty blocks that meet the light level requirement, and you can harvest the extra ones as they pop up. I used this exact farm on my first hardcore world, and it kept me alive for 3 months when I couldn’t find any cows for milk or wheat for bread.
Advanced Giant Mushroom Farm for Mass Production
If you play on a multiplayer server, brew a lot of potions, or just want to stockpile huge amounts of mushrooms for trading, a giant mushroom farm is the way to go. When you apply bone meal to a small mushroom planted on mycelium, podzol, or moss blocks, it will grow into a giant mushroom that drops up to 20 small mushrooms when broken. Giant mushrooms don’t have light level requirements for growing, as long as the small mushroom is planted on the correct block type, so you can build this farm above ground in full sunlight if you want. To build a simple manual giant mushroom farm, you’ll need these materials:
- 1 stack of podzol or mycelium (you can find podzol in old growth taiga biomes, or mycelium in mushroom fields biomes)
- At least 2 bone meal per mushroom you want to grow (composters are a cheap way to make unlimited bone meal from crop waste)
- A silk touch tool if you want to move mycelium or podzol without breaking it
- A stack of glass blocks to build a roof over the farm if you want to stop mobs from spawning on the farm floor
Common Mushroom Growing Mistakes to Avoid
Even though mushroom farms are low-effort, there are a few common missteps that can slow down growth or break your farm entirely. Don’t plant mushrooms too close together—if two mushrooms are within 2 blocks of each other, they won’t spread to adjacent blocks, so you’ll get far lower yields than you would with proper spacing. Another mistake is placing full light sources right next to your growing area; even a single torch placed within 2 blocks of a mushroom will make it pop off and drop as an item. Many new players also don’t realize that mushrooms can spread up or down one block, so if you build your farm right next to your storage room or base, you may end up with fungi growing on your chests or crafting tables after a few in-game days. I made this mistake on my first survival base, and it was funny at first until I had to spend 20 minutes picking mushrooms off all my enchanted gear chests. You can safely grow mushrooms in full sunlight if you plant them on mycelium or podzol blocks—they won’t spread in high light, but they will stay planted so you can use bone meal to grow giant mushrooms whenever you want.
Growing fungi is one of the simplest, most rewarding low-effort farms you can build in Minecraft, no matter what play style you prefer. Whether you’re a new player just learning the ropes of survival, or a veteran looking for a steady supply of brewing ingredients, taking the time to learn how to grow mushrooms on Minecraft will save you a ton of time and stress down the line. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different farm designs, either—you can build tiny hidden farms under your base, or giant decorative giant mushroom forests for your creative builds, whatever fits your needs. Next time you’re exploring a dark cave, grab a few of the red or brown mushrooms you find on the ground, and give building your own farm a try.