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
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Glow berries grow from cave vine blocks. When broken, cave vines drop berries and can be replanted.
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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
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Cave vines grow until they reach age 25. Bone meal instantly grows them to this maximum length.
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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.
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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:
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Harvest fully grown sections often to curb expansion from berry regrowth.
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Use light sources like torches or glowstone to restrict where vines can begin growing.
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Get vines started on soil or nylium so they can’t expand across all blocks.
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Plant vines in spots mobs can’t reach easily to avoid accidental breakage.
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Use fences, glass, or other barriers to block mobs that trample vines.
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Farm glow berries efficiently with observers, pistons, and other redstone devices.
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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!
Sounds[]
Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Eat1.ogghttps://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Eat2.ogghttps://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Eat3.ogg | Eating | Players | While a player is eating something | entity.generic.eat |
subtitles.entity.generic.eat |
varies [sound 1] | 0.8-1.2 | 16 |
Eating | Friendly Creatures | When a player finishes eating something | entity.generic.eat |
subtitles.entity.generic.eat |
1.0 | 0.6-1.4 | 16 | |
https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Burp.ogg | Burp | Players | When a player finishes eating something | entity.player.burp |
subtitles.entity.player.burp |
0.5 | 0.9-1.0 | 16 |
- ↑ Can be 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5
Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Eat1.ogghttps://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Eat2.ogghttps://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Eat3.ogg | Players | While a player is eating something | random.eat |
0.5-1.1 | 0.8-1.2 |
https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/File:Burp.ogg | Players | When a player finishes eating something | random.burp |
0.5 | 0.9-1.0 |
Growth[]
Placing glow berries on the bottom of a block creates a cave vine that grows downward one block at a time as long as air is beneath it, and its age is less than 25. When the glow berry is placed, the vine is given a random age between 0 and 25. As the vine grows, the bottom-most vine increases the vines age by 1. Once age 25 is reached, the vine stops growing. Breaking the vine will change the vines age to a random number between 0 and 25. Each newly-grown cave vine block has a 1 in 9 chance of bearing glow berries. Only this tip can ever naturally grow them.[Java Edition only][more information needed]
Using bone meal on a cave vine produces glow berries if the vine was not bearing any.
In Java Edition, cave vines stop growing if shears are used on the tip (the age of the vine will be set to 25).
In Bedrock Edition, if placing glow berries in the Nether, cave vines are able to grow and produces glow berries.
No string needed! The New Way To Stop Plants From Growing In Minecraft 1.18
FAQ
How to stop Glow Berry vines from growing in Java?
In Java you can stop glow berries and a few other vine type plants from growing by using shears on them. Is this not also a feature in bedrock or am…
How to stop cave vines from growing bedrock?
Using shears on the tip of a Cave Vine, Twisting Vine, Weeping Wine or Kelp now causes it to stop growing.
How to stop twisted vines from growing?
Twisting vines now stop growing if shears are used on the tip. Added twisting vines. Twisting vines can be composted.
Do glow berries grow back?
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.
How do you stop glow berries from growing?
The shears should be able to stop the growth on more items. In 1.18, the items the shears stops growth on is cave vines (glow berries), kelp, weeping vines (red nether vines), and twisting vines (green nether vines). How do you propagate glow berries? To grow Glow Berries, you’ll need to place a Glow Berry on the bottom of any hanging block.
How do you grow glow berries?
Glow berries can be collected from a cave vine by using or breaking the vine. This yields one glow berry when the vine is bearing them and nothing when it is not. A cave vine also breaks if water runs over its location or if a piston extends or pushes a block into its location. Glow berries can be placed on and grown from the bottom of most blocks.
Why are my Glow berries not growing?
Before you know it, you will have a glow berry farm set up. If you planted glow berries underneath a solid block, leaving lots of space below, but your cave vines take forever to grow or they don’t grow at all, this means that the growth process is stuck. For some reason, sometimes cave vines refuse to grow.
How do glow berries work?
Placing glow berries on the bottom of a block creates a cave vine that grows downward one block at a time as long as air is beneath it, and its age is less than 25. When the glow berry is placed, the vine is given a random age between 0 and 25. As the vine grows, the bottom-most vine increases the vine’s age by 1.
What are glow berries?
Glow berries are a food item obtained from cave vines and can be used to plant them. Cave vines are a climbable, bonemealable plant that hangs off ceilings and grows glow berries. Cave vines with glow berries produce light. Cave vines can be instantly broken with any tools or by hand.
Can a cave vine grow glow berries?
Using bone meal on a cave vine produces glow berries if the vine was not bearing any. In Java Edition, cave vines stop growing if shears are used on the tip (the age of the vine will be set to 25). In Bedrock Edition, if placing glow berries in the Nether, cave vines are able to grow and produces glow berries.