Glow berries are one of Minecraft’s most valuable food items. They entered the Minecraft world in the 1.17 update. Unlike other food sources, they have a significant impact on your game.
You can use them as a light, you can climb up and down them, and they also regenerate your health. This versatility makes them such a critical item to master.
We have put together this ultimate guide so you can learn how to find, grow, and harvest glow berries.
What are Minecraft glow berries?
Glow berries are a popular topic of discussion between Minecraft players. But what exactly are glow berries?
Glow berries are a form of food that you can collect from cave vines.
- You can eat them to achieve a balanced diet.
- You can plant them to grow more berries.
- You can use them as a light source.
How to find glow berries in Minecraft?
Glow berries found in Lush Caves
Lush caves are the spawn location for cave vines.
To find a lush cave:
- First, find an azalea tree. Lush caves are always close to an azalea tree.
- Next, dig down below the azalea tree.
- Finally, collect the glow berries by breaking the cave vine.
Glow berries found in a chest
To find a chest with glow berries:
- First, travel to a new location (an area you haven’t explored yet).
- Enter a mineshaft or ancient city.
When you find a glow berry in a chest, you can make more by using bone meals (we will explain bone meals later).
The chart below has the odds of you finding a chest in mineshafts and ancient cities.
Please note only one berry will drop at a time; even fortune enhancement will not change this.
How can you grow glow berries in Minecraft?
Growing glow berries is a great strategy. Follow the easy steps below to get started:
- You need to have a glow berry to grow your own. Follow the earlier guide on how to find glow berries in chests or lush caves if you don’t have one.
- Now it’s time to create the right conditions to grow them. You need to build between 2-26 blocks with air between the ground and the bottom of the block. We recommend making a row of 6. (Note: they will grow from any solid block.)
- Plant the glow berries under the blocks. Do this by right-clicking on the bottom of the block (the same way you hang chains or lanterns).
If you have followed our setup guide correctly, your glow berries will turn into a cave vine. The vine will produce more glow berries as the game progresses. You don’t have to provide a specific lightning or water cave vines.
Now, it’s time to speed up growth by hitting the cave vine with your bone meal. This step is crucial as only one in 9 growths will produce a glow berry.
The best strategy is to use bone meal to get more glow berries and then use those new berries to plant more vines. Before you know it, you will have a glow berry farm set up.
Why aren’t my glow berries growing?
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. All you have to do is to break the old vines to create the new growth, which will have a chance to grow a berry.
If you’re growing your vines as a decoration, you can use bone meal once the vine is the length you want.
How long does it take to grow Glow Berries?
You might be thinking, “How long does it take to grow glow berries?”. There is no specified time, but it is a slow process, especially if you go to the maximum length of 26 blocks.
Cave vines will have an age between 0-24 (If you’re using Java push F3 to check age.) Then, just like kelp, they will grow until they reach 25. To continue growth, you can break the end off or add another vine to the end to change the age.
How do you stop glow berries from growing?
If you need to stop glow berries from growing for any reason, use the method below.
- In Java, right-click shears and use them on the tip of the cave vine. If you left-click, it will just cut the vine and grow back.
How to use Glow Berries in Minecraft?
There are several ways to use glow berries.
Food
Glow berries are rare in 1.17.1, but we recommend eating at least one to achieve a balanced diet. Press and hold the action button when the glow berry is in the hot bar to eat it. Eating it will restore 2 hunger points and 0.4 hunger saturation points (this is important for controlling health regeneration and sprinting ability).
Keeping a high hunger level is important. When the hunger bar is at 18 points, the health regenerates. If it falls below, the player loses the ability to sprint. If the hunger bar is at zero, the player’s health depletes.
Light
Glow berries growing from the bottom of blocks have a light level of 14, making them the perfect ceiling light. This light level makes it easier for you to move through dark caves. Also, unlike other torch options, they are a natural light source that you can keep farming more when you run low.
Decoration
Glow berries and their complex vine structures have become the main design feature of underground caves for Minecraft players since the caves and cliffs update.
Although underground, the caves have plenty of light and are safe from large groups of mobs. Creating vine farms has also enabled you to put your creative touch on your underground base.
Climbing up and down
Cave vines make an excellent climbing tool. You can easily climb up and down through your caves by attaching grow berries strategically underneath solid blocks.
Breeding foxes
To breed a fox:
- Feed two foxes a glow berry; this will make a baby fox.
- Then, lead the baby fox away from its parents.
Feed your new baby fox another glow berry to reduce its growing time by 10%.
Composting
You can also compost your glow berries. Each glow berry in a composter has a 30% chance of increasing the compost level by 1.
Final word about growing Glow Berries in Minecraft
As you can see, learning to find, grow and harvest glow berries will impact your Minecraft experience significantly. You will be able to achieve a balanced diet, see where you’re going, and climb up and down your cave.
