Alright anyone who has seen me on /economy this week has probably heard me talk about this but I was doing some extensive testing and comparisons. So the current "meta" of economy is that a max pumpkin (or melon) farm is 10-13 layers, depending on who you ask. After that point, the crophoppers fail to keep up with the incoming pumpkins (or melons) and you're essentially losing money / wasting the dirt layers you placed. The thing is...as someone who watches a fair amount of ilmango's videos on youtube...I am aware of the java edition feature - crops grow faster when planted in rows. I did a side by side comparison - one chunk was pure pumpkin, the other was pumpkin and melons planted in alternating rows. (See below) I did a test just seeing how many items came from each chunk in the span of an hour. I did check both chests at 15 minute intervals just to make sure the rates were consistent (and they were) Layer one: Pumpkin Farm: 710 Items in the chest Pumpkin & Melon Farm: 1376 Items in the chest (194% of the Pumpkin Farm) Layer two: Pumpkin Farm: 1283 Items in the chest Pumpkin & Melon Farm: 2480 Items in the chest (193% of the Pumpkin Farm) Layer three: Pumpkin Farm: 2275 Items in the chest Pumpkin & Melon Farm: 3536 Items in the chest (155% of the Pumpkin Farm) Layer four: Pumpkin Farm: 3015 Items in the chest Pumpkin & Melon Farm: 3120 Items in the chest (103% of the Pumpkin Farm) Layer five: Pumpkin Farm: 3594 Items in the chest Pumpkin & Melon Farm: 3472 Items in the chest (97% of Pumpkin Farm) After the fifth layer, I could see the way things were going and decided to give up on comparing layer by layer. Once I built all 13 layers, curiosity got the better of me and a quick 30 minute test (where I didn't get exact item counts) showed the Pumpkin and Melon farm operating at approximately 66% of the Pumpkin Farm. "Why the drop off after 2 layers?" Astute observation and good question. You'll note with the data above that I didn't say "items generated" but rather "items in the chest". The limiting factor after 2 layers is actually the hopper speed. Due to the way hoppers work on the server (seemingly less frequently but pulling out up to sixteen items (from the first slot)), the hoppers end up backing up and that causes problems for getting the items into the chests. Sure you're "generating" more pumpkins and melons overall...but if you can't get them into the chest it doesn't matter. But even at 3 layers (technically at 4, but the difference is so close that I'd recommend just going full pumpkin) it is substantially better to mix your crops. "If it isn't better...why share this guide?" Well first of all, we should all keep in mind this one important fact: I am an idiot. Keeping that in mind, lets actually address the assumption in this question: "if it isn't better". Turns out: it actually is. You are generating more items - if only there was a way to get them out of the hopper fast enough... Hopper Minecarts* (thanks JAWD543) Hopper minecarts will pull items out of the crophopper at INSANE speeds, they do NOT contribute to the hopper limit on your island, AND, if you nudge the minecart into the right space...it can actually rest ontop of 3 hoppers beneath it, each throwing items into their own dropper clock systems to get the items out as fast as possible. (See Below) JAWD543 has been experimenting with this and was able to get 5 full layers and the hoppers are keeping up. (I assume a 6th layer will be attempted soon, but right now the barrier for JAWD is a lack of funds for dirt xP) HOWEVER at 5 layers and approximately 200% improvement over standard Pumpkin farms, the system will be nearly equivalent to a "maxed out" pumpkin farm with simply 1 more layer. The fascinating thing about this is that it reduces the cost of a full farm from $65,520,000 (252 blocks per layer * 13 layers * 25 chunks * $800) to only $30,240,000 (252 blocks per layer * 6 layers * 25 chunks * $800). That's makes full farms WAY more accessible. *I suspect that if the use of hopper minecarts becomes widespread in this capacity, limits will QUICKLY be added, so I cannot in good conscious recommend people rely on this. Lastly, to actually answer the question that this section is asking: it's nice to have data. Whether this is useful for someone who wants to build a full 25 chunk farm layer by layer (and they can massively improve their profits for the first few layers) OR if this discourages someone like me who watched an ilmango video and is incredibly stubborn, I think it's useful to know. Why didn't you just keep the hopper minecart knowledge to yourself and secretly make tons of profits? I actually answered this in a previous question:
Very Intriguing! I would also be interested to know if specific biomes alter growth rates. I found on a forum that supposedly melons grow much faster in jungle biomes. Maybe this is something we could test?
In the vanilla game biomes shouldn't affect growth rate of crops. Unless there's server-specific plugins that change the behavior, I doubt you'll see a change in rates.
Isn't 1.19 update going to completely change meta from these types of farms? Might be a waste of resource to build one now....
Yeah I'd also hesitate to invest significant energy into a large project like this at the moment. With that said, melon / pumpkin farms will still be viable in 1.19 AND the changes to the way crophoppers work will actually make the mixed crop farms even easier.
