minecraft-java-edition
In one of my worlds I built a house on the top of a mountain. When starting to build a wheat farm, I found out that the water keeps freezing, and I have to break the ice blocks:
Does wheat grow even if it is near ice instead of water? If not, how can I prevent the water from freezing?
Cactus must be placed in sand, and not adjacent to another block. Diagonally adjacent is okay.
It will grow even in complete darkness, and does not need water.
I have the following underground farm. It's not optimal in terms of space, but for a farm, it's very efficient, and has automatic harvesting. Planting is always manual on these things unfortunately, and that's the bottleneck for massive production.
TOP VIEW
SSSSSSS
DDDDDDD
DDDDDDD
DDDDDDD
DDDDDDD
SXSSSSX
I replicate the above pattern, one level up to the right for as long as you want. S is stone. D is tilled dirt. The trick is with the X blocks. They are water blocks at the level of the dirt blocks covered with Stone.
LEFT VIEW
S S
SDDDDW
When you view this from the left, you see there's a channel for water to flow out of your monitor. That is what permits automatic harvesting. The water blocks are necessary for hydrating the soil.
On the far right, I place a water gate.
Best Answer
Any form of light except sunlight will melt nearby ice. Specifically, ice will melt in a light level of over 11, so torches will melt ice 3 blocks away.
Placing a block anywhere above the water will also stop it from freezing (although not melt it if it is already frozen), so long as the water is not exposed directly to the sky.
Ice will not hydrate farmland. However water has a 9*9 area in which it hydrates farmland, so you don't need a water source next to each crop.
Also, crops can grow even on dry farmland, just at a slower rate.