I still remember my first Minecraft survival world where I spent three days running from creepers and forgetting to stock up on food. I stumbled into a dark cave, found a single brown mushroom, and had no idea I could plant it to keep my hunger bar full for weeks. I ended up starving to death 10 minutes later, but that mistake taught me just how useful these little fungi are. If you’ve ever struggled to keep your hunger bar full while exploring remote biomes or building deep underground, learning how to plant mushrooms on Minecraft is a total game-changer. They don’t need water, sunlight, or constant tending, making them perfect for new players and veteran survivors alike.
What You’ll Need Before You Start Planting Mushrooms on Minecraft
Unlike wheat, carrots, or other farm crops, mushrooms have very few requirements to grow. You don’t need a hoed plot, a water source, or even any special tools if you’re just getting started early in survival mode. The only hard rule to remember is that basic mushroom planting needs low light to work, unless you’re using a special type of block. Before you get started, gather these supplies:
- 1+ red or brown mushroom (found in dark caves, swamps, dark forests, mushroom fields biomes, or the Nether)
- A solid planting block (dirt, cobblestone, mycelium, podzol, crimson nylium, or warped nylium work best)
- Optional: Silk touch tool to collect mycelium or podzol for outdoor planting in full sunlight
- Optional: Bone meal to speed up growth into huge mushrooms for mass harvests
You can grab mushrooms almost anywhere if you know where to look. I usually pick up a few on my first cave run, before I even have enough iron to make a full set of tools. You don’t need a farm plot or water to grow mushrooms, which is what makes them such a great early-game food source. Light level is the most important factor for basic mushroom planting – if the block you place the mushroom on has a light level higher than 12, the mushroom will pop off immediately and drop as an item you can pick back up.
Step-by-Step Basic Mushroom Planting for Survival Mode
If you just need a small, low-effort farm to keep you fed while you build your base, this basic method works every time. It only takes a minute to set up, and you won’t have to tend to it after it’s built. First, find a spot with low light: this can be a natural cave, a shaded area under dense tree cover, or a small enclosed structure you build yourself. I usually build a 3x3 room with a dirt floor and no torches, right off my main base storage area.
Place your solid block down, then right-click with the mushroom in your hand to plant it. If you want to build a small farm that spreads over time, space your initial mushrooms at least one block apart from each other. Over the course of a few in-game days, they will spread to adjacent empty blocks that meet the light level requirement, so you’ll have a steady supply without doing any extra work. When you need to harvest, just punch the mushroom to collect it, and leave at least one planted to keep spreading.
If you want to avoid hostile mobs spawning in your mushroom farm, use light levels between 7 and 12. This is the perfect sweet spot: mushrooms will grow and spread normally, but zombies, creepers, and skeletons can’t spawn in that level of light. You can use dim light sources like soul torches or redstone lamps on low power to hit this range easily. I’ve had small farms running for months in my survival bases without a single mob spawning inside, just by sticking to this light level rule.
How to Grow Huge Mushrooms for Mass Production
If you want to stock up on hundreds of mushrooms at once, or use mushroom blocks for building, growing huge mushrooms is the fastest way to do it. These giant versions of regular mushrooms drop 10 to 20 small mushrooms each when broken, so you can get enough food to last for weeks in just a few minutes. The requirements are a little more specific than basic planting, but they’re still easy to meet even early in the game.
First, plant your mushroom on either mycelium, podzol, crimson nylium, or warped nylium – these blocks let you grow mushrooms even in full sunlight, so you don’t have to worry about light levels as much. If you don’t have any of these blocks, you can plant the mushroom in a space with a light level under 12 instead. Next, make sure there is a 7x7x7 empty space around the mushroom, with no blocks blocking its growth. The only exception is the block it’s planted on, of course.
Once you have the space cleared, right-click the mushroom with bone meal. It will instantly grow into a huge red or brown mushroom, depending on what type you planted. Break all the mushroom blocks (the cap and the stem) to collect dozens of small mushrooms, plus any full mushroom blocks if you use a silk touch tool. Huge brown mushrooms have a solid, flat top you can use as a hidden roof for secret bases. I built a huge brown mushroom base in a plains biome once, and raiders never even noticed it was a player build for months. It was the perfect hidden storage spot for all my most valuable items.
Creative Uses for Planted Mushrooms Beyond Food
Food is far from the only use for planted mushrooms, though. Even if you play exclusively in creative mode, these versatile blocks can add so much to your builds that most new players overlook. Small mushrooms are perfect for adding tiny, natural details to forest builds, witch huts, fairy gardens, or swamp villages. You can scatter them around tree bases or along paths to make your natural builds feel more lived-in and less artificially perfect.
Red mushrooms emit a faint light level of 1, which is too dim to see by, but perfect for subtle mood lighting. I use them all the time in fantasy tavern builds, hidden fairy grottos, or Nether base decor where I don’t want the harsh glow of torches or lanterns ruining the vibe. They don’t require any power source, so you can place them anywhere you want a tiny bit of ambient light without extra work.
Mushroom blocks don’t burn, so they’re a great fireproof building material for Nether builds. They have a unique, soft texture that looks great for path edges, wall accents, or even full roof structures. You can also mix red and brown mushroom blocks to create natural-looking floor patterns in forest builds without using different types of wood or stone. I recently used a mix of brown mushroom blocks and mossy cobblestone to build a path through a dark forest build, and it looked way more natural than a standard dirt or stone path.
No matter what your play style is, mushrooms are one of the most underrated resources in Minecraft. You don’t need fancy gear or a huge base to get started, just a single mushroom and a dark spot. Whether you’re a new survival player looking for a reliable food source to get you through your first few nights, or a creative builder looking for unique decorative details, knowing how to plant mushrooms on Minecraft opens up so many fun, useful possibilities. I still keep a small mushroom farm in every survival base I build, even when I have plenty of steak or golden carrots, just because it’s so low-maintenance and reliable.