How to Plant Mushrooms in Minecraft: Grow Fast
Knowing how to plant mushrooms in Minecraft is a useful skill that opens up a reliable food source and crafting ingredient. Mushrooms come in two varieties: red and brown. They can be harvested and used to make food or potions. When growing mushrooms, it is important to find the right type of environment. Mushrooms like dark and moist areas. Make sure to keep the area where you are growing mushrooms clean and free of debris.
The benefit of growing mushrooms in Minecraft is that they can be used as a food source or for crafting potions. They are also a renewable resource, which means that they will grow back after being harvested.
Once you have gathered all of the items that you need, you can begin.
In this article, we will talk about how to plant mushrooms in Minecraft and grow your own supply from scratch.
How to Plant Mushrooms in Minecraft: Getting Started
First, you will need to find a mushroom. Both red and brown mushrooms can be found in dark places, such as caves, dense forests, or mushroom biomes. If you are searching for cave systems, learning how to spot azalea trees in Minecraft can help point you toward underground areas worth checking. If you spend a lot of time navigating uneven terrain underground, adjusting auto-jump in Minecraft can also make cave exploration more comfortable. Once you have a mushroom in your inventory, you can place it directly from your hotbar — there is no need to use a crafting table to prepare it first.
To plant a small mushroom, select it in your hotbar and right-click on a valid block. The easiest blocks to plant mushrooms on are mycelium, podzol, or nylium, because mushrooms can be placed on these surfaces at any light level. On other solid blocks such as dirt or grass, mushrooms will only stay planted in low-light or dark areas (light level 12 or below). If the surrounding area is too bright, the mushroom will pop off the block. Once placed, you can harvest mushrooms simply by breaking them.
Mushrooms can also be grown using bone meal. Bone meal is an item that can be crafted from bones or obtained by killing certain mobs, and a Smite weapon enchantment can make it easier to farm skeletons and other undead for bones. If you are farming undead regularly, a weapon damage enchantment can help speed up the process. When you apply bone meal to a small mushroom, it does not simply speed up growth — it attempts to grow a huge mushroom in its place. For this to work, the mushroom must be planted on a valid block such as dirt, grass, podzol, mycelium, or nylium.
You also need to leave a clear area around and above the mushroom, since huge mushrooms require a lot of space to generate. A good rule of thumb used by many players is to ensure at least a 7×7 footprint and enough vertical headroom (around 7 or more blocks). If you are building test farms in creative mode, Minecraft utility commands can make it easier to clear space and adjust conditions quickly. If there is not enough space, the bone meal will have no effect and will be wasted, so it is worth checking your surroundings before applying it.
How to Plant Mushrooms in Minecraft and Farm Them
Mushrooms can be farmed in two main ways: by setting up a dark environment for natural spread, or by using bone meal to grow huge mushrooms for larger harvests.
Method 1: Small Mushroom Farming (Spread Mechanics)
Small mushrooms spread naturally over time. When a mushroom is placed in a sufficiently dark area (light level 12 or below), it will slowly spread to adjacent valid blocks. To take advantage of this, you can build a dark room or tunnel farm. For a detailed overview of game mechanics, the official Minecraft Wiki page on mushrooms is an excellent reference.
- Dig out a large, flat space underground, or cover a surface area so no sunlight reaches the floor.
- Place mushrooms on the floor, spaced a few blocks apart so they have room to spread to neighboring blocks.
- Wait for the mushrooms to spread, then harvest them — always leaving at least one mushroom behind to continue the spread cycle.
Mycelium, podzol, and nylium are the best base blocks for a mushroom farm because mushrooms can grow on them at any light level. This means you do not need to carefully manage lighting, making these blocks ideal for surface farms or brightly lit indoor setups.
Method 2: Huge Mushroom Farming (Bone Meal)
For faster, larger harvests, you can grow huge mushrooms using bone meal. If you want to know how to plant mushrooms in Minecraft for maximum yield, this is the most efficient method. Plant a red or brown mushroom on a valid block such as dirt, grass, podzol, mycelium, or nylium, and make sure there is enough open space around it — approximately a 7×7 footprint and at least 7 blocks of vertical headroom.
Apply bone meal, and a huge mushroom will grow instantly, yielding many mushroom blocks that drop multiple mushrooms when broken. This method produces far more mushrooms per cycle than waiting for natural spread and is the preferred approach for efficient farms.
Farming Mushrooms for Food
Mushrooms cannot be eaten on their own and cannot be cooked in a furnace or over a campfire. Instead, they are used as crafting ingredients for several useful food items. If you want to make rabbit stew more reliably, learning about animal breeding in Minecraft can help you keep ingredients stocked.
The most common use is mushroom stew. To craft it, combine 1 brown mushroom, 1 red mushroom, and 1 bowl in any arrangement on a crafting table. The result is a bowl of mushroom stew that restores hunger when consumed. Bowls are crafted from 3 wooden planks arranged in a V-shape on a crafting table.
Mushrooms are also ingredients in other food recipes:
- Mushroom Stew: 1 brown mushroom + 1 red mushroom + 1 bowl (any arrangement on a crafting table)
- Rabbit Stew: Cooked rabbit + carrot + baked potato + brown mushroom + bowl
- Suspicious Stew: 1 brown mushroom + 1 red mushroom + 1 bowl + 1 flower (the type of flower determines the status effect applied)
Mushrooms are not brewed directly into potions. A Potion of Regeneration is made by combining an Awkward Potion with a Ghast Tear in a brewing stand — mushrooms play no role in that recipe. However, if you are comparing poison potion ingredients with other brewing recipes, brown mushrooms do have a role in brewing: they are one of the ingredients used to craft a fermented spider eye (brown mushroom + spider eye + sugar), which is then used as a brewing ingredient in several potion recipes, including those that invert or corrupt existing potion effects.
Understanding how to plant mushrooms in Minecraft and manage a steady farm means you will always have the ingredients on hand for these recipes. Mushroom farming is a great way to secure food and crafting materials in Minecraft while you focus on bigger projects like crafting a beacon. If you also spend time in the wider Minecraft universe, this Minecraft Dungeons weapon guide can help you plan your gear in the spinoff game. With a little bit of planning, you can have an infinite supply of mushrooms!
