Bamboo

Bamboo is a versatile, fast-growing, bonemealable plant found primarily in jungles, which is used for crafting (particularly scaffolding and bamboo wood), smelting and breeding pandas.

A bamboo shoot is the initial non-solid sapling form of planted bamboo.

Obtaining

Bamboo shoots cannot be obtained through vanilla means. In Bedrock Edition, they can be obtained through add-ons or inventory editing. In Java Edition, they are completely unobtainable.

Breaking

Bamboo can be mined with any tool, but a sword breaks the block instantly, even with Mining Fatigue. Flowing water also breaks bamboo shoots, but not mature bamboo stalks.

Natural generation

Bamboo generates in widely scattered single shoots within jungle biomes. Bamboo generates much more densely in the bamboo variants of jungles, covering large areas of the landscape. Bamboo does not generate in sparse jungles.^[1]

Mob loot

In Java Edition, a panda drops 1 bamboo when killed. Looting does not affect the drop rate.^[2]

In Bedrock Edition, a panda drops 0-2 bamboo when killed. Looting increases the drop by 1 per level.

Fishing

Bamboo can be found while fishing in jungle biomes as a junk item.

Chest loot

Usage

When broken, any bamboo block placed or grown above it is also broken. A bamboo block drops itself as an item if a piston pushes it or moves a block into its space. When bamboo is first placed as a shoot it's not solid and can be destroyed by water flowing into it. After growing at least one block taller it becomes solid and can't be destroyed by water. To transform a bamboo shoot into a solid bamboo block place another bamboo on top of it.

Unlike most plants, bamboo cannot be composted.^[3]

Farming

Bamboo can be planted on moss blocks‌^{[JE only]}, grass blocks, dirt, coarse dirt, rooted dirt, gravel, mycelium, podzol, sand, red sand, suspicious sand, suspicious gravel, mud, bamboo shoot, or on itself. At default random tick speed (3), each plant grows on average every 4096 game ticks (204.8 seconds). When bone meal is used on it, it grows by 1–2 blocks. Bamboo can grow up to 12–16 blocks tall. The top of a bamboo plant requires a light level of 9 or above to grow.

Because bamboo breaks in almost the same way as sugar canes, a sugar cane farm can be easily adapted to this use. While water is not needed with such a farm, some spacing is recommended if the harvest is done manually as mature stalks are solid.

Pandas

Bamboo items are eaten by pandas and can be used to speed up the growth of baby pandas. Bamboo can also be used to breed pandas when at least 8 blocks of bamboo are within 5 blocks of the pandas, making the panda the only animal in the game to have extra breeding requirements. At this point, the player can feed them bamboo and they mate to have a baby.

Fuel

Bamboo can be used as fuel for smelting. Each bamboo item smelts 0.25 items. Crafting two bamboo into a stick and using that as fuel is equivalent, smelting 0.5 items.

Bamboo can be crafted into other items to increase its fuel efficiency.

• By crafting 9 bamboo into 2 bamboo planks, 3 items can be smelted instead of 2.25, a 33.3% increase in efficiency.
  • In Bedrock Edition, the fuel efficiency can be further doubled by crafting the bamboo planks into twice the amount of slabs.^[4]
• In Java Edition, by crafting 14 bamboo into 3 ladders, 4.5 items can be smelted instead of 3.5, a 28.6% increase in efficiency.

Flower pots

Bamboo can be placed in a flower pot, where it retains the design it has in its item form.

Crafting ingredient

Appearance

The appearance of bamboo changes as it grows. When first placed, it takes the form of a small shoot, which has no hitbox. When it grows one block taller it grows to 2 pixels in length and width and the top block has leaves coming off it. At 3 blocks, the top 2 blocks have leaves and at 4 blocks the bamboo expands to 3×3 pixels. At 5 blocks tall, the top 3 blocks have leaves on them. As the bamboo grows, the leaves move up and stay at the top 3 blocks. Destroying a block of bamboo does not change the appearance of the blocks below it. Bamboo is oriented at a random position in the block that it is in.

Sounds

Bamboo

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Bamboo Shoot

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Block states

Java Edition:
Bamboo

Bedrock Edition:
Bamboo:

Bamboo Sapling:

Achievements

History

Bamboo shoot "item"

The following content is transcluded from Technical blocks/Bamboo Shoot.

Appearances

Names

Bedrock Edition

• ? - ?: tile.bamboo_sapling.oak.name

Issues

Issues relating to "Bamboo" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• Because bamboo grows quickly (on average 1 growth per 200 seconds), just 500 plants in an automatic farm produce more items than a hopper can collect (2.5 items per second). A single hopper can move only enough items to keep 6.25 furnaces running.
• Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in Minecraft, which reflects its status as the fastest-growing plant known in real life.
• While bamboo cannot be composted in Minecraft, it can be composted in real life.

Gallery

• 
  The first image featuring bamboo, from MINECON Earth 2018.
• 
  A group of pandas eating bamboo, shown at MINECON Earth 2018.
• 
  Planted bamboo growing.
• 
  A bamboo shoot growing through a tree.
• 
  Bamboo seen in a jungle biome variant.
• 
  Bamboo Jungle in an Amplified world in 1.19-rc2.
• 
  Multiple naturally generated bamboo stems growing by a river.
• 
  Grown Bamboo with three parts
• 
  Zuri chopping down bamboo for a baby panda.
• 
  Smartphone wallpaper of the aforementioned artwork, showing more of the treetops and bamboo.
• 
  Packing for the Diamond Level Panda, modeled after bamboo.

References