Mushroom colonies

Colonies on Rich Soil

A Brown Mushroom Colony or Red Mushroom Colony is a cluster of mushrooms that keeps growing back after you harvest it, like a tomato vine. Colonies only grow on Rich Soil, so they’re the last step of the compost chain: compost becomes Rich Soil, Rich Soil turns a mushroom into a colony, and the colony gives you mushrooms forever.

Brown and red mushroom colonies at different sizes on a bed of Rich Soil.

Starting a mushroom farm

1. Make some Rich Soil from Organic Compost.

2. Place a brown or red mushroom on it. The next time the soil gets a turn, the mushroom becomes a small colony. This happens in any light, even in full daylight.

3. Wait for it to grow, then harvest with shears or a knife. The colony stays and grows back.

You can also find colonies on mycelium in mushroom fields (a patch in about 1 in 15 chunks, see Wild crops). They don’t grow there, so take them home: break a full-size one with shears to get the colony itself, and put it on Rich Soil.

Growing

A colony has 4 sizes. Every so often it gets a 25% chance to grow one size, so from the smallest to full size takes about 14 min on average.

Brown mushroom colony

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. full size

Only on Rich Soil. A colony on mycelium, podzol or anything else keeps its size forever. Rich Soil Farmland doesn’t work either; it has to be plain Rich Soil.

Bone meal always works while the colony is below full size and adds 1 or 2 sizes. It works on any floor, so you can push a wild colony to full size before you take it.

Harvesting

Right-click a colony that has grown at least once:

• Shears take 1 mushroom and shrink the colony by one size. Good for a steady trickle.
• A knife takes every mushroom it has grown at once, 3 from a full colony, and puts it back to the smallest size.

Either way the tool loses 1 durability and the colony stays. Breaking a colony gives more at once (2, 3, 4, 5 mushrooms from smallest to full size), but then it’s gone.

Where colonies survive

A colony stays put on these blocks in any light: Organic CompostRich SoilCrimson NyliumMyceliumPodzolWarped Nylium

On any other solid block it needs the light to stay below 13, like a plain mushroom.

Recipes

A colony on a Cutting Board splits back into mushrooms.

5

5

Good to know

• The red colony works exactly like the brown one, with red mushrooms.
• Colonies speed up nearby Organic Compost, like other mushrooms.
• Rich Soil gives colonies no free bone meal; their own growth is all they get.
• In a composter a colony always adds a layer (100% chance).
• Pick-block (middle click) on a colony gives you the plain mushroom.