4

Can I repeatedly shear tree leaves to get unlimited saplings?

If so, would this work on Silverleaf Trees?

Just to clarify, I was attempting at shearing leaves to get the leaf block AND a sapling, then planning on placing the collected leaf block back down, and repeating. Primarily to get Silverleaf Saplings.

3
  • Can you clarify? You can only shear as many leaves as there are on the trees...
    – shanodin
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 17:19
  • You're looking for a Thaumatic Grafter with Repair II on it.
    – user28379
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 17:20
  • Yes, no, and no. ;)
    – gnovice
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 17:26

2 Answers 2

4

You can farm leaves from trees, either breaking them for the chance of producing a sapling or using shears or a Silk-Touch-enchanted tool to collect the leaf block. But you can't do this repeatedly for the same tree as leaves do not grow back. You will have to grow a new tree to get more leaves.

As for Silverwood trees, you can break their leaves for a small chance at getting a sapling (on average around 1 per tree). Harvesting the leaves with shears will just give you the leaf block, without any chance at a sapling. In addition, items/enchantments designed to increase item yield or chance of item drop, like Fortune or a grafter, do not appear to work on Silverwood trees.

Note: Apparently, collecting leaves with a Silk-Touch-enchanted tool can sometimes give you both the leaf block and a sapling. It's not clear if this is a bug or intentional, but I imagine this only works on vanilla trees.

3
  • I sometimes get saplings shearing vanilla trees too, so its not just silk touch. The question is if I can place the leaves back down and CONTINUE to shear them for more saplings.
    – Ender
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 21:14
  • 1
    @Ender Are you very sure it's from the same block? Once you shear some leaves there are going to be disconnected blocks that will decay on their own. Might you have sheared a leaf block that just had a sapling sitting on top of it from a different block decaying, or coincidentally sheared a leaf at the same time a nearby block decayed into a sapling? Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 21:23
  • @SevenSidedDie I wouldn't swear my life on it.
    – Ender
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 21:25
1

The way Minecraft stores data is in the block itself. Not when you break it. When the leaf is first spawned by the world generation, the data at that point controls whether or not the leaf drops a sapling. It is not decided when the block is broken which is a common misconception.

So, when the block is broken with shears/silk touch, the data is removed BUT will not drop a sapling because Minecraft (Mojang) does not want you getting infinite saplings with this. When you place the leaf back down, it will generate whether or not to drop a sapling or not.

Fortune on axes runs its own randomizer to determine how many leaves the block should drop but ALSO removes the data currently in the block, like silk touch.

5
  • can you provide some form of source to back this up?
    – Ender
    Commented Aug 27, 2013 at 0:05
  • 1
    Do I really have to download MC Coder Pack just to decompile and then show code that most people won't understand? The stuff I'm talking about isn't on the wiki. Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 0:40
  • Not neccesarily, but you may have noticed that nobody upvoted this answer, and that's likely because you have no source. Some of us spend days on a single answer or question, slowly improving it over time, until it reaches the quality we wish it to be. It all depends on your ambition. Nobody is forcing you to do anything, least of all me.
    – Ender
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 15:21
  • This is false. The only data stored in leaves are "decayable " and "checkDecay", both of which are related to the block decaying. The method dropBlockAsItemWithChance, which is run when a block is destroyed contains the following code, cut short so this fits in a comment int i = this.getSaplingDropChance(); if(world.random.nextInt(i){ spawnAsEntity(worldIn, pos, new ItemStack(Item.getItemFrommBlock(Blocks.SAPLING),1,this.damageDropped(state))): } In summary, you're wrong
    – Tornado547
    Commented Jun 1, 2019 at 21:30
  • I don't know why the code formatting broke
    – Tornado547
    Commented Jun 1, 2019 at 21:32

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.