Java Edition:Plant on Invalid Soil

Plants are normally required to be on top of a valid soil block. For example, saplings and flowers must be on a dirt, grass block, or other dirt-like block, cacti must be on sand, nether warts must be on soul sand, etc. There have been many methods that allow plants to be obtained on other blocks that they are not intended to go on top of.

Obtaining

Placement

From pre-Classic rd-161348 to Indev 0.31 20100206-1437, the player could place plants and fungi without any restrictions. At the time this included saplings (added in pre-Classic rd-161348) and roses, dandelions, red mushrooms, and brown mushrooms (added in Classic 0.0.20a). The player can place these plants and fungi on top of any block, including air. The player can also mine the soil block under plants or fungi without them updating. However, the plants and fungi will randomly tick themselves during these versions and decay if not on dirt or a grass block. These blocks will save if the player closes the game before they decay and they can be updated to later versions where this method no longer works. All the plants and fungi will continue to random tick in Indev but an Indev to Infdev converter can be used to update them into later versions.

Block Replacement Bypass

From Alpha v1.0.5-1 to Beta 1.4_01, block replacement bypass can be used to make any plant that existed at the time floating.

• 

  Water that was just placed for block replacement bypass
• 

  The water replaced with a brown mushroom, leaving it floating
• 

  The water replaced with a cactus, leaving it floating and next to a solid block
• 

  The water replaced with a dandelion, leaving it floating
• 

  The water replaced with a rose, leaving it floating
• 

  The water replaced with a red mushroom, leaving it floating
• 

  The water replaced with a sapling, leaving it floating
• 

  The water replaced with a sugar cane, leaving it floating

Full Block Cactus

From Alpha v1.0.6 to Alpha v1.0.10, cacti were a full block that could be placed without restriction like a normal block. This allows the cactus to be placed on any block and be placed next to any block.

• 

  Full block cacti in Alpha v1.0.6 on air and leaves

End Portal

From 13w01a (a 1.5 snapshot) to 15w41b (a 1.9 snapshot) and then later in 16w21a (a 1.11 snapshot) 17w46a (a 1.13 snapshot) Plants on block inside of a portal when its complete will have be.^[1]

The initial break was due to a bug in 16w02a that made creating end portals impossible.^[2] Then the fix for that unintentionally removed the ability to create a portal with blocks inside of it will have their soil replaced with an end portal.^[3]

• 

  Miscellaneous plants planted atop an end portal

Skull Replacement

From 1.7.6-pre2 to 1.7.10, skull replacement can be used to replace the soil underneath any plant with any skull block.

Exit Portal

Placing a plant in soil that's inside the exit portal area, will leave the plant floating once it resets.

This was first possible in 15w31a (1.9 Snapshot) and worked until 17w46a (1.13 Snapshot) where afterwards it would also destroy the plant.

• 

  Place soil inside the exit portal area, and then place a plant on top to float once exit portal is reset.

Melon & Pumpkin Stems

In 17w47a and 17w47b (1.13 Snapshots) attached melon and pumpkin stems would not be destroyed if the farmland it was on was trampled, allowing for them to be on grass and dirt^[4]

• 

  Melon and pumpkin on dirt and grass

Kelp

From 18w07a - 18w11a (1.13 Snapshot) kelp could be planted wherever without any constrictions.^[5]

Note: whenever kelp attempts to grow after 18w11a or on air it will destroy itself this can be avoid by placing another kelp on top of it or clipping 21w37a (1.18 Snapshot)

• 

  Floating kelp in water

Floating Coral Plant

Warning: Downgrading 

This feature uses downgrading which can result in crashes, data loss, or corruption, and requires specific versions. Follow the page instructions carefully.

From 18w10a to 1.13-pre4, Coral Plants didn't break if you destroyed a block under them^[6]. However, you couldn't get Coral Plants until 18w10d since coral reefs didn't generate until this version, so if you want to do this from 18w10a to 18w10c, you would have to use downgrading.

Floating Sea Pickles

From 18w19a - 18w22a (1.13 Snapshot) sea pickles could be placed on anything including air.^[7]

• 

  Floating sea pickle in water

Floating Seagrass

In 1.13-pre5 bone mealing the side or on a block underwater would create seagrass on any block, this includes air and itself.

• 

  Floating Seagrass created with pistons retraction

Sticky Piston

In 1.13-pre6 pulling a block that normally is destroyed when pushing it with a sticky piston, destroys it without updating nearby blocks.

This includes kelp, sea pickles, seagrass, coral, vines, mushrooms, chorus plants, sugar cane and cactus.

Wither Roses

From when they were added in 18w43a to 19w07a (a 1.14 snapshot), wither roses could be placed on many later invalid blocks.^[8]

• 

  Wither roses on various blocks.

Unloading

In 18w43c - 19w05a (1.14 Snapshots) plants in unloaded chunks would not update, allowing for some plants soil to be removed and or swapped.

• 

  Setup to create floating cactus
• 

  Setup to create floating chorus plant

Floating Twisted and Weeping Vines

Pistons

Since when 20w06a (Weeping) 20w11a (Twisted) (1.16 Snapshots) were first introduced the vines were able to float using special setups.^[9]

If the vines attempt to grow they will destroy itself, this can be avoided by either placing a second vine or clipping them since 21w37a (1.18 Snapshot)

• 

  Floating twisted vines setup
• 

  Floating weeping vines setup

Note: these are modified setups to be slightly cheaper, the originals are by _MethodZz_ in their video "The Comeback"

Build Limit

Since 20w09a (a 1.16 snapshot) to 25w42a (present), bone mealing a crimson fungus into its huge version near build limit would grow the tree but cut off the blocks past build limit, including the vines or the block the vines are attached to, leaving them floating in air.^[10]

• 

  Floating weeping vines at build limit

Big Dripleaf on Any Block

From big dripleaf's introduction in 21w05a to 21w42a, big dripleaf could be placed on any block. In 21w43a, big dripleaves were restricted to being placed on only clay, coarse dirt, dirt, farmland, grass blocks, moss blocks, mycelium, podzol, and rooted dirt.

Hanging Roots and Spore Blossoms

Warning: Downgrading 

This feature requires downgrading which can result in crashes, data loss, or corruption, and requires specific versions. Follow the page instructions carefully.

Warning: Corruption 

This feature can corrupt the world. Perform at your own risk.

From when they were first introduced in 21w05a until 21w11a (1.17 Snapshots) hanging roots^[11] and spore blossoms^[12] could be have their support block removed without destroying them.

Due to lush caves not existing until 21w10a and not generating in default worlds until 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1 means for spore blossoms you either have to downgrade from 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1 or regenerate your level.dat in 21w10a as a buffet world with the biome set to lush cave and generate new chunks.

For hanging roots its a little easier with wandering traders selling rooted dirt in 21w13a or via growing an azalea in 21w16a obtained from moss from a wandering trader or shipwreck. you can then bone meal the rooted dirt since 21w11a to get the hanging roots to then downgrade to 21w05a - 21w10a.

You can of course still do the spore blossom method instead as they also generate there as well.

Snow Blocks

From 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1 to 1.18 Experimental Snapshot 7, snow blocks were valid soil for flowers, saplings, nether plants, sea grass, kelp and small dripleaf.

Floating Mangrove Propagule

Warning: Downgrading 

This feature requires downgrading which can result in crashes, data loss, or corruption, and requires specific versions. Follow the page instructions carefully.

In 22w11a (1.19 Snapshot) there's a 20% chance mangrove leaves would grow a propagule just as it decayed which would leave them floating.^[13]

Due to mangrove trees not existing until 22w14a you must downgrade the trees first to obtain this.

• 
• 10K mangrove leaves, the green concrete signifies a floating propagule (1966 were created).

Big Dripleaf on Pale Moss Block

Big dripleaf and a big dripleaf stem on top of pale moss blocks.

From 24w40a to 1.21.4, big dripleafs can be placed on pale moss blocks. Starting in 25w02a, big dripleafs can no longer be placed on pale moss blocks.^[14]

Natural Generation

Lakes

Since at least Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 (possibly earlier)^[test], lakes could generate under grass, flowers, ferns, bamboo, and other plants without destroying them. This allows these plants to be on water, lava, or be floating above the lake. The plants will also remain on the blocks put at the shore of the lake: sand, gravel, stone, diorite, granite, or andesite. This was a very common generation bug until it was made much rarer in 21w20a (1.17 snapshot) with the first attempted fix.^[15][16] Floating grass on lava lakes and plants on sand and gravel was fully removed in 1.17 Pre-release 1, the next version.^[17][18] Floating grass on water lakes was fully removed in 21w40a, finally fixing this method.^[19]

• 

  Floating grass on a water lake
• 

  Grass on the sand of a lake's shore
• 

  Grass on sand in the first version this bug existed in, Beta 1.8 Pre-release-1
• 

  Grass on water in 1.17 Pre-release 3, after the fix that made it much rarer
• 

  Grass on a lava lake's shore that normally is stone but got replaced with granite
• 

  Bamboo floating and on stone above a lava lake

Structures

During generation, structures can remove or replace the soil block underneath many plants while leaving the plant in place.^{[20][21][22][23][24]} This has been possible since at least 18w49a^[test] and remains possible up to 25w42a (present). Examples of this bug happen on the paths of villages, on the floor of village houses, on the floor of pillager outposts, on the surface of a trail ruins, on top of a mineshaft, and on the netherrack and magma blocks in a ruined portal.

• 

  Grass in a villager house
• 

  Grass floating above a mineshaft
• 

  An oxeye daisy and grass on a village path
• 

  Grass and a dandelion on a ruined portal's netherrack and magma block

Update Suppression

Update suppression is a powerful method that allows almost any multi-block discontinued feature to be created by suppressing block updates. This can be used to make any plant floating.

23w13a_or_b Vote Rule

Warning: April Fools' 

This feature requires April Fools' versions and may require the use of file modifications to load. See the tutorial for information on loading these versions.

In April Fools' snapshot 23w13a_or_b, it was possible to vote for the less_interaction_updates vote rule, which will stop most block updates from happening, including the block update that usually happens when you break the support block underneath a plant. This even allows you to place an invalid block underneath the plant, creating a plant with an invalid support block.

1. Till grass or dirt with a shovel to create farmland, or place down farmland as an item.
2. Place the pitcher pod onto the farmland.
3. If you want your floating pitcher crop to be fully grown, wait for it to grow. Otherwise, continued on.
4. Vote for the less_interactions_updates vote rule.
5. Break the support block below the plant.
6. (Optional) - Place any block underneath the plant, creating a plant with an invalid support block.

Unlike other methods, this is intentional, as these vote rules were purposefully implemented by Mojang as the joke for this April Fools' snapshot.

See Also

• Floating Button
• Floating Gravity Block
• Floating Lever
• Floating Nether Sprout
• Floating Pitcher Crop
• Floating Pointed Dripstone
• Floating Rail
• Floating Redstone

References