Overview
Cactus is the desert's only crop and one of the game's few blocks that damages you simply for being adjacent to it. Touching one deals damage continuously, and any item or mob pushed into a cactus is destroyed or killed — which is exactly why cactus is the standard component in item-disposal systems and in cheap mob grinders. It grows on sand or red sand up to 3 blocks tall, needs no water and no light, and refuses to grow if any block is horizontally adjacent to it, which is the rule that dictates every cactus farm layout: a checkerboard of sand columns with a gap between each. Smelted in a furnace, cactus produces green dye, and it is the only source of green dye in the game, which makes a cactus farm mandatory for anyone dyeing wool, concrete or terracotta green. It also composts at a high rate. A fully automatic cactus farm is one of the simplest builds in Minecraft: grow to 3 blocks, let the top block break itself against an adjacent block, and collect with a hopper below.
Green dye, which comes from nowhere else in the game, plus item disposal and mob damage in farms, and a fully automatic crop that needs neither water nor light.
Minecraft classifies Cactus as a plant block. It is gathered by mining rather than crafted. With a hardness of 0.4 it gives way immediately under almost any tool.
Any tool works, and so do bare hands. Mining it returns the block itself, so it is safe to relocate. A blast resistance of 0.4 means a single creeper will clear it away.
It stacks to 64. It goes into exactly one recipe: Green Dye.
How to get it
Break naturally generated cactus in a desert or badlands and replant it on sand or red sand. It grows up to 3 blocks tall and will not grow at all if any block touches it horizontally.
Tips
- It will not grow with any block horizontally adjacent, so space cactus columns at least 1 block apart.
- Smelt cactus in a furnace for green dye — there is no other source of green in the game.
- A block placed beside the growth height breaks the new cactus automatically, which is the classic auto-farm.
- Cactus destroys any item that touches it, which makes it the standard rubbish chute in a sorting system.
Properties
Cactus has a blast resistance of 0.4, so any explosion nearby destroys it. It blocks light completely and emits no light of its own. One inventory slot holds 64, the normal full stack. It is renewable, so a single world can supply an unlimited amount of it.
- Transparent
- No
- Required tool
- Any
- Renewable
- Yes
Drops
Mined with any, Cactus drops itself.
Used to craft
Cactus is an ingredient in 1 recipes, producing Green Dye.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Cactus in Minecraft?
Mine Cactus with any and it drops itself.
What tool do you need to break Cactus?
No specific tool is required — Cactus can be broken by hand.
Is Cactus blast resistant?
Cactus has a blast resistance of 0.4, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Cactus fit in one stack?
Cactus stacks to 64, which puts 3,456 of them in a double chest.
Is Cactus renewable?
Yes. Cactus can be obtained again and again in one world, so building with it does not exhaust the supply.
