6

I really like the wheat farms described in this answer, because it's impossible to trample farmland and harvested crops always bounce back at you.

Are there any similar designs optimized for melon farming?

I tried putting blocks directly above where melons grow, but then I can't get any slices that fall back to where the stem is.

Community
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Maxpm
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  • I know there's a way to build a fully automatic watermelon farm. No input necessary, just put water to take all the loot to wherever you want. Not exactly what you're looking for, but in my opinion it's better. I'll post it as an answer if you want. – Mr Smooth Nov 06 '11 at 22:49
  • What exactly are you looking for? Just a design that makes it impossible to trample the melon stem (while still harvesting all the melon slices)? – Raven Dreamer Nov 07 '11 at 00:09
  • @RavenDreamer Yes. Farmland-trampling should be impossible (or at least very difficult), and melon slices should bounce to an easily-accessible place. – Maxpm Nov 07 '11 at 03:34

5 Answers5

3

You can build a fully automatic melon farm by using stick pistons and regular pistons.

The only downside is that it's quite large per-melon, but since it's fully automatic, I think the downside is easy enough to cope with.

Mr Smooth
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    I have my own (simpler, but using the two-piston concept) melon farm, and slices can still fall onto the stem block occasionally and be lost. So while this doesn't solve that problem, you cease to care because you've got more melon slices than you could ever need in no time. – agf Nov 07 '11 at 15:10
  • melons are the new cacti – alexanderpas Dec 22 '11 at 19:18
3

I place a glass block directly over the stem. This ensures light gets through but I don't squish my melon seeds.

Ken
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  • I like this answer – fredley Nov 07 '11 at 17:17
  • The wiki says that stems need to have a free block above them. Are you sure this works? – Maxpm Nov 07 '11 at 17:19
  • Quite sure, I can provide pictures of proof if needed. In my underground melon farm I have this setup (vertically): fertile soil => melon stem => glass block => torch. The melon stem is directly next to another fertile soil block where the melon grows. – Ken Nov 07 '11 at 22:23
  • It was my impression you'd have to wait until the stem was adult before placing the glass block? Or does it grow with a transparent block above it? – agf Nov 09 '11 at 19:15
  • @agf, I can't recall if they were grown or not. – Ken Nov 11 '11 at 22:44
2

Note: This no longer works in the latest release of minecraft.

Fence posts directly beneath tilled soil (till after placing the fence, usually) prevent the farmland from being trampled.

This is likely unintended behavior, so it may be fixed in the future.

In the meantime though, this means you can walk up and down your melon farms as needed, and you'll never trample the stems while collecting melons or tilling.

Mr Smooth
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Raven Dreamer
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  • This doesn't work for melons though, they still until the dirt when you harvest them. Wheat doesn't however, which is odd. – Mr Smooth Nov 06 '11 at 23:48
  • @MrSmooth That happens regardless whenever you harvest melons. The OP is just looking for a way to avoid accidentally trampling the stems. (If I'm understanding them correctly) – Raven Dreamer Nov 07 '11 at 00:06
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Build a melon farm according to a design that means each melon can only grow in one place:

FFFFFFFF
MMMMMMMM
WWWWWWWW
FFFFFFFF
MMMMMMMM

Since you have to re-hoe after harvesting a melon anyway, this design means there's no difference in the amount of hoeing that needs to be done.

fredley
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  • Do you have to re-hoe the dirt next to a melon? I seem to recall not doing it, and still seeing growth. – Cyclops Nov 07 '11 at 12:53
  • You only need to re-hoe where a melon has grown. In my design since each melon can only grow in a single spot, you can just walk down the line once harvesting, and again re-hoeing, making harvesting quite efficient. – fredley Nov 07 '11 at 13:39
1

What I usually do for a melon farm (and for pumpkins farm, also) is the following:

FFFFFFFF
DDDDDDDD
DDDDWDDD
FFFF?FFF
FFFFFFFF
DDDDDDDD
DDDDDDDD
FFFFFFFF

D = Dirt
F = Fertile soil (with stem)
W = Water
? = Anything (I usually put up some fences and blocks, like a lamp post)

Then, I just add sticky pistons below the dirt, wired to a button. And, above the stems, I put up glass, so not to step in it and turn the fertile soil back to dirt. This ensures you only have to push a button and walk through the dirt to get all the melon slices. Nice and easy.

Of course, you can replicate this structure as many times as you want. I personally find that 2 or 3 of those gives all the melons you'd want.

Danilo Martins
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