Sugar Cane

Sugar cane is a block found as 1–4-block-tall. It plants near water in the Overworld. As an item, it is an important crafting ingredient.

Obtaining[]

Sugar cane can be mined instantly with anything.

When the spot a sugar cane block is placed in becomes unsuitable, such as when the supporting block is removed, the sugar cane block uproots and drops as an item. In Bedrock Edition, sugar cane uproots immediately after all adjacent water is removed. In Java Edition, sugar cane uproots on the next block update or random tick.

A sugar cane block drops itself as an item if a piston tries to push it (trying to pull it does nothing) or moves a block into its space.

Natural generation[]

Sugar cane can generate naturally near water and ice, as two (¹¹⁄₁₈ chance), three (⁵⁄₁₈ chance), or four (²⁄₁₈ chance) blocks tall. Rare taller sugar canes can be found if the world generator places two smaller canes on top of each other. It generates in approximately 0.8 sugar cane per chunk seeing as how they only generate near bodies of water.

Sugar canes attempt to generate 10 times in any Overworld biome, which requires water. An extra 10 attempts are made in swamp biomes, and 50 in desert biomes, which makes sugar cane twice as frequent in swamps and six times as frequent in desert biomes, making the banks of rivers that cut through deserts lined with sugar canes. Sugar canes do not grow faster in swamps or deserts they only spawn a increased amount.

Sugar cane cannot generate in caves in Java Edition.^[1]

Trading[]

Wandering traders can sell sugar cane for an emerald.

Usage[]

Due to its water-displacing properties, sugar cane can interestingly be used to create underwater paths, allowing players to move at normal speed and breathe if it is two blocks in height.‌^{[Java Edition only][2]}

Sugar cane takes on a different shade of green depending on the biome in which it is placed.

Crafting ingredient[]

Farming[]

Sugar cane can generate naturally up to any number of blocks tall, but grow only to a height of three blocks, adding a block of height when the top sugar cane block has received 16 random block ticks (i.e. on average every 18 minutes on Java Edition or 54 minutes on Bedrock Edition, but the actual rate can vary widely). Sugar cane must be planted on a grass block, dirt, coarse dirt, rooted dirt, podzol, mycelium, sand, red sand, suspicious sand, moss block, or mud that is directly adjacent to water, waterlogged block, or frosted ice (not merely above or diagonal to water), or on top of another sugar cane block. The adjacent water block can be covered with another block, whether opaque or transparent, and sugar cane can still be placed and grow next to it. Sugar cane grows regardless of light level, even in complete darkness.

In Bedrock Edition, bone meal can be used to instantly grow sugar cane to three blocks. Only one bone meal is consumed. In Java Edition, bone meal cannot be used on sugar cane.^[3]

On average, it takes 18 minutes for a single block of sugar cane to grow 3 blocks tall.

Composting[]

Placing sugar cane into a composter has a 50% chance of raising the compost level by 1.

List of colors[]

Java Edition[]

These values are generated by the biome dyeing algorithm. See Biome colors for more information.

Biome	Category	Rainfall	Sugarcane Color	Temperature Affects	Render
Badlands	Mesa	No	#90814d	No
Beach	Beach	Rain	#91bd59
Birch Forest	Forest	Rain	#88bb67
Cold Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Dark Forest	Forest	Rain	#507a32
Deep Cold Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Deep Frozen Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Deep Lukewarm Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Deep Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Desert	Desert	No	#bfb755
End Barrens	The End	No	#8eb971
End Highlands	The End	No	#8eb971
End Midlands	The End	No	#8eb971
Eroded Badlands	Mesa	No	#90814d	No
Flower Forest	Forest	Rain	#79c05a
Forest	Forest	Rain	#79c05a
Frozen Ocean	Ocean	Snow	#80b497
Frozen River	River	Snow	#80b497
Old Growth Spruce Taiga	Taiga	Rain	#86b783
Old Growth Pine Taiga	Taiga	Rain	#86b87f
Ice Spikes	Icy	Snow	#80b497
Jungle	Jungle	Rain	#59c93c
Sparse Jungle	Jungle	Rain	#64c73f
Lukewarm Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Windswept Hills	Extreme Hills	Rain	#8ab689
Mushroom Fields	Mushroom	Rain	#55c93f
Nether	Nether	No	#bfb755
Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Plains	Plains	Rain	#91bd59
River	River	Rain	#8eb971
Savanna	Savanna	No	#bfb755
Savanna Plateau	Savanna	No	#bfb755
Windswept Savanna	Savanna	No	#bfb755
Small End Islands	The End	No	#8eb971
Snowy Beach	Beach	Snow	#83b593
Snowy Taiga	Taiga	Snow	#80b497
Snowy Plains	Icy	Snow	#80b497
Stony Shore	None	Rain	#8ab689
Sunflower Plains	Plains	Rain	#91bd59
Swamp	Swamp	Rain	#6A7039	If temperature below -0.1, used #4C763C.	/
Taiga	Taiga	Rain	#86b783
Old Growth Birch Forest	Forest	Rain	#88bb67
The End	The End	No	#8eb971
The Void	None	No	#8eb971
Warm Ocean	Ocean	Rain	#8eb971
Wooded Badlands	Mesa	No	#90814d	No
Windswept Forest	Extreme Hills	Rain	#8ab689

Bedrock Edition[]

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Block states[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Video[]

Note: This video was made before sugar cane had a different shade of green depending on the biome.

History[]

This page would benefit from the addition of more images. 

Please remove this notice once you've added suitable images to the article.
The specific instructions are: Appearance when affected by MC-48831

Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.11					Added reeds in the Seecret Friday Update 6.
					Reeds are informally referred to as "bamboo" or "papyrus" by many players.
					Since reeds can be washed away with water currents or instantly destroyed by removing the water adjacent to them, automated reed farms can be made.
					Reeds can be used to craft paper.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Notch has retconned reeds into sugar cane so that it can now be crafted into sugar, included in the recipe for the cakes.
1.6		Test Build 3			Arrows no longer stick to sugar cane, and instead, they pass through. However, snowballs still come into contact with any sugar cane blocks, as if they are solid.
1.8		Pre-release			Sugar cane can now grow and be placed onto sand as long as they are adjacent to water. This update allows sugar canes to appear next to water ponds in desert biomes.
					Sugar cane is now available in the creative inventory in both block and item forms.
Java Edition
1.0.0		?			The sugar cane block has been removed from the creative inventory.
1.7.2		13w36a			Sugar cane is now tinted depending on the biome it's in.
					The item texture remained unchanged, however, and still used the color palette from Alpha to 1.6.4.[4]
1.9		15w43a			Sugar cane no longer breaks if its adjacent water is turned to frosted ice.
1.13		17w47a			The ID of sugar cane has now been changed from reeds to sugar_cane.
					"Sugar Canes" have now been renamed to "Sugar Cane".
					Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 83, and the item's 338.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of the sugar cane item has been changed.
		19w03a			Placing sugar cane into a composter has a 20% chance of raising the compost level by 1.
		19w05a			Sugar cane now has a 50% chance of increasing the compost level in a composter by 1.
					Added wandering traders, which sell sugar cane.
1.16		20w13a			Sugar cane has been moved from the Miscellaneous tab to the Decoration Blocks tab in the Creative inventory.[5]
1.17		21w11a			The texture of the sugar cane item has been changed, so that it actually matches the color it uses when placed again.[4]
		Pre-release 1			Sugar cane now generates in mushroom fields.[6]
1.19		22w15a			Sugar cane can now be planted on mud.
1.20		23w14a			Sugar cane can now be planted on suspicious sand.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-release					Added sugar cane.
v0.2.0					Despite being visible in the inventory, sugar cane does not drop anything when mined, making it unobtainable in Survival mode.
v0.2.1					Survival players now start with an infinite stack of sugar cane in the inventory.
v0.3.0					Sugar cane now drops its item form when mined.
					Survival players no longer start with an infinite stack of sugar cane in the inventory.
v0.5.0					Sugar cane can now be grown on sand.
					Sugar cane can now be obtained after activating the nether reactor.
v0.8.0		build 5			Bone meal can now grow sugar cane to maximum height.
v0.9.0		build 1			The color of sugar cane now changes depending on the biome they are in.
					Using bone meal on sugar cane is no longer able to break blocks above it.
v0.12.1		build 1			Sugar cane is no longer available from the nether reactor.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Due to a bug, sugar canes no longer change color depending on the biome.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.13		beta 1.2.13.5			The color of sugar canes now changes depending on the biome, once again.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of the sugar cane item has been changed.
					Sugar cane can now be bought from wandering traders.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Sugar canes can now be used to fill up composters.
1.17.0		beta 1.17.0.50			The texture of the sugar cane item has been changed, so that it actually matches the color it uses when placed again.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added sugar canes.
					Sugar canes are solid, making it useful for growable walls. Unlike on Java Edition, they were never renamed to Sugar Cane.
TU2					Sugar canes are no longer solid, and arrows pass through them.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		The color of sugar cane now changes depending on the biome they're in.
TU60	CU51	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	Sugar cane can now be grown with bonemeal.
		1.90			The texture of the sugar cane item has been changed.
		1.91			Sugar cane can now be bought from wandering traders.
					Sugar canes can now be used to fill up composters.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added sugar cane.

Sugar cane "item"[]

The following content is transcluded from Technical blocks/Sugar Cane.

Appearances[]

Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.11					The sugar cane item uses this texture in inventories, when held in first person view, or as a dropped item.
?					The sugar cane item uses the aforementioned texture when held in third person.
Java Edition
1.4.2		12w34a			The sugar cane item uses the aforementioned texture when in an item frame.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-release					The sugar cane item uses this texture in inventories, when held in first person view, or as a dropped item.
v0.6.0					The sugar cane block item now renders with a red background in the inventory.
v0.6.1					The sugar cane block item no longer renders with a red background in the inventory.[8]

Names[]

Java Edition

Item names did not exist prior to Beta 1.0.

• Beta 1.0 - Beta 1.6 Test Build 3: Reeds
• Beta 1.6 - ?: Sugar cane

Bedrock Edition

Uncraftable items did not have visible displayed names prior to v0.5.0 alpha.

• v0.5.0 alpha - ?: Sugar cane

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Sugar Cane" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

• When a sugar cane is broken at the second level, the time resets (for example, if a two-block high sugar cane is broken, but is just about to grow to the third stage, it would reset that time).
• By placing more sugar canes on top of a sugar cane plant, it is possible to create tall sugar canes (up to y=319, the maximum height for building), although they do not naturally grow this high.
• Before sugar cane received an official name, they were sometimes referred to as bamboo, a block added 9 years later. Other names were "reeds" and "papyrus".

Gallery[]

Renders[]

• 

  Plains

• 

  Taiga

• 

  Snowy plains

• 

  Jungle

• 

  Desert

• 

  Swamp (cold)

• 

  Swamp

• 

  Badlands

In-game[]

• 

  A large sugar cane farm using 2×2 water holes.

• 

  Water flowing over sugar cane.

• 

  Naturally generated sugar cane found underwater.

• 

  A cactus and sugar cane stalk generated next to each other.

• 

  Sugar cane found in the ravine.

• 

  Reeds generated in the winter mode.

• 

  Sugar cane growing between biomes.

• 

  Sugar cane growing on red sand in a badlands biome.

• 

  Sugar cane generated without a water source.

• 

  Sugar cane generated in a swamp biome.

• 

  Sugar cane growing in a savanna biome.

• 

  Sugar cane growing in a forest biome.

• 

  Sugar cane growing with lava flowing around it.

• 

  Sugar canes few seconds before breaking because the water is frozen.

• 

  A sugar cane plant that generated in an underground water lake.

• 

  Another example.

Heights[]

• 

  Four-block tall sugar cane.

• 

  Four-block tall sugar cane.

• 

  Four-block tall sugar cane in a plains biome.

References[]