Revised description by @unknown:
Several years ago, it used to be that crops (wheat, carrots, potatoes, and beetroots) could not be planted in blocks at light levels below 8, and if a planted crop's light level fell below 8 it would quickly break and drop the original item when a block update occurred in an adjacent block. This no longer occurs in 1.21.0 (actually, since much earlier). Crops can now be planted in any light level, even 0, and block updates never cause them to break. This ruins several designs for crop farms.
Steps to reproduce:
Build an enclosure with an interior size of at least 5 x 5, made of opaque blocks. Don't include any light source inside it.
Embed a water block in the center of the floor. Replace some of the nearby floor blocks with farmland.
Try to plant crops on the farmland.
Expected results:
You can't plant crops because the light level is 0.
Observed results:
You plant the crops.
Next steps:
Run the command "/randomtickspeed 500".
Place any solid block on the floor next to a crop.
Place any solid block above a crop.
Place a wooden pressure plate on the floor next to a crop, then step on it.
Expected results:
Each step causes the crop to break and drop an item.
Observed results:
The crops don't break. No matter how long you wait, they just sit there.
Additional information:
In Java, crops can be planted at light level 8 or greater and break at light levels below 8. The Bedrock behavior could be described the same way but with light level 0 instead of 8. That is, crops can be planted at light level 0 or greater (i.e. can always be planted) and break at light levels below 0 (i.e. never break because no such light level ever occurs). So this might be as simple as an incorrect value of a parameter or constant.
Original description:
Whilst building a potato-farm in survival I noticed that the crop in the middle - which is supposed to pop off on any block-update as the light-level is too low - didn't break. No matter how low the light-level is, the crop still stays on its place and can even be bonemealed. Light-updates don't seem to trigger it, nor does the blockupdate from the adjacent pressure plate. When testing in creative and waiting a little the crops díd pop, but incredible slow. It therefore seems to me that the crop only realizes it's too dark when it grows a stage.
This bug makes constructing a villager farm using this crop-in-low-light behavior pretty useless, so I hope it gets fixed soon.
Linked issues
Comments
migrated
Auldrick
Could not reproduce in Windows 10 using 1.6.0. I tried surrounding a 3 x 9 plot of fully grown wheat with dirt. The plants all popped off within about 3 or 4 minutes. Then I opened a hole on one end and replanted seeds on all the blocks. The seeds on the blocks farthest from the hole popped off within 2 minutes.
Are you taking account of the fact that tilled farmland is considered transparent? Although there's only a small gap visible at the top, the game treats it just like glass as far as light levels are concerned. So if any light could be entering the farmland from the side or below, the light levels in the crops might not be as low as you think they are.
migrated
Well, it seems you were able to reproduce the issue, as the issue I tried to describe is not that they don't pop off, but that it takes those 2-4 minutes you described for the crops to realize that the light is too low. In earlier versions they would pop off almost immediately.
Auldrick
Ok, I'll confirm this now that I better understand your expectations.
silentwisperer
Can confirm for 1.9, on windows 10.
migrated
Affects 1.16.200 | multiple
Legacy: 1.16.40
[Mojang] Mega_Spud (Jay)
Thank you for your report!
However, this issue has been temporarily closed as Awaiting Response
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silentwisperer
This should be re-opened, as its still an issue.
How to reproduce
1. Dig a hole in the ground, and create a small room with no light sources or sky access.
2. Place some water, farmland, and crops.
3. You can plant, bonemeal, and grow crops like normal. They don't pop off at all.
Expected results:
The crops should pop off instantly when updated by another block placed next to them, when they are in complete darkness.
This bug prevents the creation of several types of farms, and various contraptions that use this mechanic. It's also not in parity with java edition.
Auldrick
In 1.17.11 Hotfix I planted seeds on farmland in a completely dark sealed room (in a cave), then used a shroomlight above to grow wheat. After removing the shroomlight, no plants popped off. I tried several methods of causing block updates. I could not get any plants to pop off.
(I was also able to grow plants in complete darkness using bone meal, but I think that's intended behavior.)
migrated
Still affects 1.17.40.20
Auldrick
The original issue in this report was that it took too long for crops in low light to be broken by block updates. While confirming this, my tests showed that they did in fact break at that time. But by the time silentwisperer commented, he said that they didn't break at any light level and block updates no longer cause them to break at all.
So I spent several hours testing everything about crop growth and interactions with light, hydration, and block updates. This is how it works currently:
Observation | Java | Bedrock |
Crops grow at or above light level | 9 | 9 |
Crops can be planted at or above light level | 8 | 0 (can always plant) |
Block updates break crops below light level | 8 | 0 (crops never break) |
Non-hydrated farmland with no crop on it reverts (eventually) to dirt | Yes | Yes |
Non-hydrated farmland with a crop on it reverts to dirt | No | No |
Crops can grow on non-hydrated farmland (in light level 9+) | Yes | Yes |
The only differences between Java and Bedrock are in observations #2 and #3. Notice the symmetry between these two: The "at or above" value for planting is the same as the "below" value for breaking on a block update. If you consider them together, they have the effect that in Java you can only plant a crop when there's enough light (at or above level 8) to prevent it breaking spontaneously for lack of light (below level 8). Thus you don't waste seeds or seed crops by accidentally planting them in low light and having them pop off and despawn while you're not looking. This makes so much sense that I think Mojang deliberately uses the same value for these mechanics.
In Bedrock, the common value in #2 and # 3 is 0 instead of 8, so it's still symmetrical, but in this case the effect is that you can plant crops in any light level and blocks never break because of low light. This is a change in behavior that must have happened sometime between September 2018 and August 2021. I thought it might be related to the changes in 1.18.0 (Caves & Cliffs Part II), when the light level for monster spawns was changed from 7 ("below 8") to 0, but that was in October 2021, so too late.
Anyway, since the behavior has changed but Mojang still has this issue open, I will amend the summary and description and notify the devs to take a new look at it.
I can confirm this issue is impacting my realm. I can't force a crop in a low-light block in the center of my carrot farm to pop off, using either an observer clock or pressure plates.
However, it does seem to pop off very intermittently, or perhaps only when I first log in to the realm. After several days, my farm has returned about 10 carrots that popped off the center block of my farm.