How to Stop Glow Berries From Growing in Minecraft

Glow berries are a new food item that was added to Minecraft in the Caves & Cliffs update (version 1.17). They grow on cave vines which are climbable plants that generate naturally in lush caves.

While glow berries provide a useful food source, their rapid growth can quickly take over an area if left unchecked. Fortunately, there are a few simple methods to stop glow berries from spreading out of control in your Minecraft world.

Understanding Glow Berry Growth

Before learning how to restrict glow berry growth it helps to understand how they spread

• Glow berries grow from cave vine blocks. When broken, cave vines drop berries and can be replanted.

• Placing a glow berry on the bottom of any block creates a cave vine The vine grows downwards, adding new vine blocks whenever air is below

• Cave vines grow until they reach age 25. Bone meal instantly grows them to this maximum length.

• Newly generated parts of a cave vine have a 1/9 chance to spawn with glow berries. So not all parts of a vine bush will bear fruit.

• Breaking the bottom-most vine block resets the age, allowing it to regrow. Any grown berries are retained.

Preventing Glow Berries From Growing

Here are 5 simple techniques to stop the growth and spread of glow berry cave vines:

1. Break the Bottom-Most Vines

Since cave vines grow downward from the bottommost block, breaking those blocks prevents further spreading. The vine becomes stunted at its current height.

Breaking the bottom also resets the age of that part back to a random number below 25. So it can restart growth if any air becomes available underneath again.

To fully prevent regrowth, remove all vine blocks connected to the bottom section after breaking it. Or disrupt any air blocks below to block downward expansion.

2. Contain Them With Non-Air Blocks

Cave vines require air blocks below them to spread downward. So a simple way to halt growth is to surround vines with solid blocks like stone or dirt on all sides.

For example, if glow berries start growing on a ceiling, place blocks on the floor below to cut off vine extension.

This containment strategy works for cave vines originating from ceilings or walls. Just envelope any downward-facing vines in non-air blocks to impede growth.

3. Submerge Their Base in Water or Lava

Both water and lava prevent cave vines from growing. Flowing either liquid over the bottommost vine blocks stops further downward expansion.

The vines don’t even have to be fully submerged. Just let water or lava flow over the tips of the lowest cave vine section. Thistechnique is easiest if vines start above liquid level, like on a cavern ceiling. Then you can drip liquid down.

Be careful with lava of course! But using water is an inexpensive and safe growth inhibitor. The water source blocks can be easily recovered too.

4. Use Shears on the Tips of Vines

An alternative to breaking vine tips is to shear them with shears. This immediately sets the vine’s age to 25, halting further growth.

Shears don’t drop any glow berries, so you can restrict a cave vine’s size without losing resources. The existing berries remain to be harvested.

For maximum control, shear all tip sections on vines you wish to cease growth on. Remember shears only work on bottom vine tips facing air blocks.

5. Plant Vines at Maximum Age

When initially planting glow berries, you can stop automatic growth by spawning cave vines at age 25.

Set the “age” block state to 25 when placing the vines. This causes them to generate at max length and skip the downward expansion phase.

Generating vines at full maturity lets you easily build glow berry farms and other structures with growth pre-disabled.

Note this only works when first placing vines. It won’t reset or stop already growing cave vines.

Other Tips for Managing Glow Berries

Beyond stopping vine spreading, here are some other useful tips for managing glow berries:

• Harvest fully grown sections often to curb expansion from berry regrowth.

• Use light sources like torches or glowstone to restrict where vines can begin growing.

• Get vines started on soil or nylium so they can’t expand across all blocks.

• Plant vines in spots mobs can’t reach easily to avoid accidental breakage.

• Use fences, glass, or other barriers to block mobs that trample vines.

• Farm glow berries efficiently with observers, pistons, and other redstone devices.

• Move vine growth to your advantage by planning berry placements carefully!

With a mix of smart harvesting, structural barriers, mob control, and redstone farming methods, you can easily keep glow berry cave vines contained. Just remain vigilant, as their rapid growth can quickly get out of hand if left alone for too long.

Glow berries provide a useful food and crafting ingredient in Minecraft. But their swift downward growth from cave vines can inundate areas if left unchecked. Stopping their spread requires disconnecting the bottommost vine blocks from air spaces to stunt growth. Water and lava flows, shears, breaking tips, and containment in blocks all accomplish this. With proper berry vine control, you can safely enjoy cultivating glow berries without them engulfing your world!

In Minecraft, glow berries do not grow back on the same vine after being harvested. When you pick a glow berry, it’s gone from that spot. However, new glow berries can grow on the same vine if the vine continues to grow downward. The new vine segments have a chance to spawn a glow berry.