Automatic Sugar Cane Farm — Paper & Emeralds on DonutSMP
Sugar Cane is arguably the most profitable crop in Minecraft — paper trades with Librarian Villagers convert it directly into emeralds, and it's trivially easy to automate.
Materials Needed
- • Sugar Cane
- • Sand or Dirt blocks
- • Water source blocks
- • Observers (one per cane)
- • Pistons (one per cane)
- • Hoppers and chests
- • Redstone dust (if not using observers)
- • Building blocks for structure
1. How Sugar Cane Growth Works
Sugar Cane grows on Sand or Dirt that is directly adjacent to a water block. It grows up to 3 blocks tall, adding one block at a time on a random tick schedule (average growth time: ~18 minutes per block).
The farm works by detecting when sugar cane reaches 3 blocks and breaking the top 2, leaving the base to regrow.
2. Basic Design
1. Dig a 1-deep trench for water, running the full length of the farm 2. Place Sand or Dirt on both sides of the water 3. Plant Sugar Cane on each block 4. Behind each sugar cane (at height 2), place a Piston facing the cane 5. Behind each Piston, place an Observer facing the sugar cane (the face with the "eyes" toward the cane) 6. The Observer detects when sugar cane grows to block 3, fires the Piston, which breaks the cane
Broken sugar cane items fall into the water and flow to hoppers at the end. Connect hoppers to chests.
3. Scaling Up
Build multiple rows side by side. Each row is: `[Observer][Piston][SugarCane][Water][SugarCane][Piston][Observer]`
You can stack rows directly next to each other — water channels collect items. Build as many rows as you need — 50+ rows produce excellent rates.
For vertical stacking: build a second layer 5 blocks above the first with the same pattern. This doubles output per ground area.
4. Collection System
Water streams on the ground level carry broken sugar cane to one end. A hopper chain at the collection point feeds into chests.
For larger farms, use multiple collection points or hopper minecart systems under the water channels.
5. Converting to Emeralds
Three Sugar Cane → three Paper. Librarian Villagers buy 24 Paper for 1 Emerald (or as few as 5 Paper if cured from Zombie Villager).
A medium-sized sugar cane farm (~100 cane) produces enough paper for 4-8 emeralds per hour passively. Scale up for more.
This is one of the simplest emerald-generating loops in the game.
