I have a cactus farm, on a Minecraft server, which works perfectly when I'm near. But there isn't any cactus that grows when I'm disconnected or far away from the farm.
I know that's because the chunks are unloaded, so I tested by setting the spawn point just next to the farm (because chunks are loaded at the spawn). I also tested the command forceload, which is provided by Minecraft itself, and also the plugin KeepChunks.
But none of these methods work. In fact, the Redstone circuit remains loaded and works, but the plants don't grow.
Do you know a way to load a chunk as if a player is in it? Or a way where the plants in the targeted chunk grow?
PS: My server runs on Craftbukkit 1.14.4
Best Answer
Currently, the random ticks only happen within the 16x16 chunk area around the player. That means even keeping the chunks loaded doesn't help if there's nobody within the radius.
The common vanilla approach is to move the farm near frequently visited areas, where players' presence will keep the farm active. Alternatively, just afk near the farm to keep it running.
The somewhat less vanilla approach are server-side bots (e.g. provided by the Carpet mod) - they act like players for the purposes of random ticks and mob spawning.
And the sneaky approach is to build a zero-tick based cactus farm, then afk by it for a couple hours. It will produce more cactus than you'd know what to do with. I'm not sure if it works on Craftbukkit though.