On my current map, I set up home in the middle of the desert, with a neighboring sylvan area about 200 blocks away to the south.
To be sure, the desert biome has some great advantages: lots of sand, open areas, and so forth. But it's lousy for animal husbandry or doing complex farming.
So I gathered up some dirt and planted some at the foot of my tower. It works fine for growing trees, but I notice that grass does not grow on it, ever.
So I tried planting dirt blocks at the edge of the sylvan biome. Sure enough, grass grew on it, but it looked orange and sickly -- obviously not lush.
My question is, can I set a large swath of area to another biome by replacing the top block? Can I turn a desert into a forest if I place a dirt level that touches a naturally occurring forest biome?
Or is this based on more than the top level, and perhaps the weather?
On my current map, I set up home in the middle of the desert, with a neighboring sylvan area about 200 blocks away to the south.
To be sure, the desert biome has some great advantages: lots of sand, open areas, and so forth. But it's lousy for animal husbandry or doing complex farming.
So I gathered up some dirt and planted some at the foot of my tower. It works fine for growing trees, but I notice that grass does not grow on it, ever.
So I tried planting dirt blocks at the edge of the sylvan biome. Sure enough, grass grew on it, but it looked orange and sickly -- obviously not lush.
My question is, can I set a large swath of area to another biome by replacing the top block? Can I turn a desert into a forest if I place a dirt level that touches a naturally occurring forest biome?
Or is this based on more than the top level, and perhaps the weather?
For the section I've highlighted - Is the dirt at the base of your tower in direct contact with any other grass, or is it completely isolated? If it is completely isolated, then you will need to silk touch some grass blocks and plant them within the area you want the grass to grow. Grass "grows" by spreading from block to block.
As for the yuck color of it, it will alway be that color within a desert biome... sorry.
The color of the grass is directly connected to the biome it is in, so if you silk touch a grass block in a forest and replant it in a desert, it will instantly become the color of "desert grass." The layout of the biomes (currently) is directly related to the seed AND the update version... that is why the weather changes with new updates that change the biome code and the grass and trees will also change color to correspond to the new biome code for that seed with each update that changes that code. (Gosh, I hope that makes some sense.) As I understand, the implementation of the ANVIL format (if they ever implement that feature of it) will change this situation somewhat... allowing for the editing of biomes by the player.
To be sure, the desert biome has some great advantages: lots of sand, open areas, and so forth. But it's lousy for animal husbandry or doing complex farming.
So I gathered up some dirt and planted some at the foot of my tower. It works fine for growing trees, but I notice that grass does not grow on it, ever.
So I tried planting dirt blocks at the edge of the sylvan biome. Sure enough, grass grew on it, but it looked orange and sickly -- obviously not lush.
My question is, can I set a large swath of area to another biome by replacing the top block? Can I turn a desert into a forest if I place a dirt level that touches a naturally occurring forest biome?
Or is this based on more than the top level, and perhaps the weather?
For the section I've highlighted - Is the dirt at the base of your tower in direct contact with any other grass, or is it completely isolated? If it is completely isolated, then you will need to silk touch some grass blocks and plant them within the area you want the grass to grow. Grass "grows" by spreading from block to block.
As for the yuck color of it, it will alway be that color within a desert biome... sorry.
The color of the grass is directly connected to the biome it is in, so if you silk touch a grass block in a forest and replant it in a desert, it will instantly become the color of "desert grass." The layout of the biomes (currently) is directly related to the seed AND the update version... that is why the weather changes with new updates that change the biome code and the grass and trees will also change color to correspond to the new biome code for that seed with each update that changes that code. (Gosh, I hope that makes some sense.) As I understand, the implementation of the ANVIL format (if they ever implement that feature of it) will change this situation somewhat... allowing for the editing of biomes by the player.