What tall seagrass is
Tall seagrass is a two-block-tall underwater plant that grows on the floor of most ocean biomes in Minecraft. It looks like regular seagrass but stretches across two blocks of water instead of one, giving reefs and shallow coasts a fuller, more layered look.
It’s a passive decoration block with one practical use: when you break it without shears, it drops two pieces of regular seagrass, which is what feeds and lures sea turtles. That makes tall seagrass the fastest way to stock up on the seagrass item without grabbing one tile at a time off the ocean floor.
Tall seagrass was added in the 1.13 Update Aquatic alongside regular seagrass, coral, and the rest of the ocean overhaul. If you’re playing on any modern version of Java or Bedrock, it’s already in your world wherever the right biome generates.
Where to find tall seagrass
Tall seagrass generates naturally in these biomes:
- Warm ocean
- Lukewarm ocean
- Ocean
- Cold ocean
- Deep ocean variants of all of the above
It doesn’t spawn in frozen oceans or rivers. The thickest patches sit in warm oceans, mixed in with coral and kelp. In normal and cold oceans, you’ll see it in scattered clumps along the sand and gravel floor.
It can’t generate inside a structure, so you won’t find it inside ocean monuments or shipwrecks, only on the natural seabed around them.
Depth doesn’t matter much for spawning, but it does affect how easy it is to harvest. In deeper oceans you’ll want either a Respiration helmet, a Depth Strider boots setup, or a doorway air pocket trick so you can swing shears without drowning. In shallow coastal water you can stand on the surface and dive once per plant.
How to get tall seagrass
There are two ways to put tall seagrass into your inventory as a block.
Shear it
Use a pair of shears on the bottom half of a tall seagrass plant. Both halves break and you receive one tall seagrass item. This is the only way to pick the plant up as itself, with both halves intact.
Breaking the plant with anything else (hand, sword, pickaxe) destroys it and drops two regular seagrass items instead. Useful if seagrass is what you actually need.
Grow it with bone meal
Right-click a regular seagrass block underwater with bone meal. About half the time, the seagrass grows into a tall seagrass plant. Repeat until you have what you need. If the block above the seagrass isn’t water, bone meal does nothing.
You can also bone-meal an empty patch of sand or dirt that’s covered in water, which scatters a mix of seagrass and tall seagrass over a small area. This is the fastest way to plant a kelp-free patch of seagrass near a base.
How to place tall seagrass
To place tall seagrass, you need two stacked water source blocks above a solid block like sand, dirt, gravel, or stone. Aim at the bottom water block and right-click with tall seagrass in your hand. The plant fills both water tiles.
A few placement rules to know:
- Both halves must sit in water. If the top tile isn’t a water source, the plant won’t place.
- It can be planted on most full solid blocks, but not on slabs, fences, glass, or leaves.
- You don’t need light. Tall seagrass grows and stays put at any light level, including pitch dark caves.
If the water above the plant is later removed, the top half pops off and only the bottom remains as regular seagrass.
How tall seagrass behaves underwater
Tall seagrass is a non-solid plant, which means water flows through it and players, mobs, and items pass right through. It does not block movement, sight, or fluid in any way. It’s basically a visual layer on the ocean floor.
It’s also waterlogged by default. You can’t drain the water out without breaking the plant. That makes it safe to put in any aquarium or pool as long as both water tiles stay intact.
Boats, tridents, and arrows all pass through it without breaking it. The only ways a tall seagrass plant disappears on its own are: the water above it is removed, the block below it is broken, or a player or mob breaks it directly.
What tall seagrass drops
Tall seagrass has two possible drops depending on how you break it. Using shears on the bottom half drops one tall seagrass item, with both halves of the plant breaking together. Breaking it any other way (hand, sword, pickaxe, axe, even TNT) gives two regular seagrass items instead.
Fortune does not affect either drop, and Silk Touch is not required for the shears version. Breaking tall seagrass gives no XP.
What tall seagrass is good for
Feeding and breeding turtles
This is the main reason most players harvest tall seagrass. Each plant gives two seagrass when you break it without shears, and seagrass is what you feed adult turtles to put them in love mode. Two adult turtles in love mode produce eggs once one of them returns to its home beach.
Seagrass also heals baby turtles and speeds up their growth, the same way wheat works for cows and sheep.
Aquariums and decoration
Because it stands two blocks tall and looks dense, tall seagrass fills out underwater builds in a way regular seagrass can’t. A bed of mixed seagrass and tall seagrass around coral or a glass aquarium looks far more like a real reef than a single-tile carpet of plants.
Hiding redstone
Tall seagrass is non-solid, so signals from observers and tripwires pass through it. Builders sometimes use it as a visual cover for underwater pressure plates, hoppers, or item frames, since it blends into the seabed.
A simple seagrass farm
If you want a renewable seagrass supply at home, you can build a small farm with a 2-block-tall pool of water, a sand or dirt floor, and a bonemeal stockpile. Right-click bone meal on a regular seagrass plant inside the pool to turn it into tall seagrass, then punch the plant to harvest two seagrass per hit. Replant a single seagrass and repeat. With a stack of bone meal you can pull dozens of seagrass in a few minutes without leaving your base.
Tips and common mistakes
- If you want the tall seagrass block itself, always shear it. Anything else gives you regular seagrass instead.
- If you want seagrass to feed turtles, do not shear it. Punch it bare-handed and pick up the two seagrass each plant drops.
- Bone meal is the fastest way to farm seagrass. Stand near a sandy seabed with a stack of bone meal and spam it on water-covered sand.
- You can’t pick up tall seagrass with a Silk Touch pickaxe. Only shears work.
- If a build keeps “breaking” the plant, check the water above it. If anything removes the top water source, the plant breaks itself.
Java and Bedrock differences
The block behaves the same on Java and Bedrock: same biomes, same shears interaction, same drops, same bone meal behavior. The item ID is the same too (tall_seagrass), so commands that work on one edition work on the other.
Frequently asked questions
Can you pick up tall seagrass without shears?
No. Without shears, breaking tall seagrass gives you two regular seagrass instead of the tall plant. Shears are the only tool that returns the item as itself.
Does tall seagrass need light to grow?
No. Tall seagrass grows from bone meal at any light level, including total darkness. The only requirement is water above and a placeable block below.
Will tall seagrass spread on its own?
No. Unlike kelp, tall seagrass does not grow taller or multiply over time. The only way to get more is to bone-meal seagrass or place it manually.
Can tall seagrass grow on gravel or magma blocks?
It grows on sand, gravel, and dirt naturally. Bone meal will place it on most full solid blocks under water, including stone, but it won’t stick to magma blocks, slabs, fences, or transparent blocks.
Does tall seagrass attract fish or turtles?
Not directly. Fish and turtles spawn based on biome conditions, not on plant placement. Seagrass is only useful as a turtle feed item once you’ve found turtles.
Can I plant tall seagrass in a one-block-deep pool?
No. The plant needs two stacked water source blocks. A single water tile is too shallow, and the plant won’t place.
Worth the trip
If you’ve got a coastal base or a turtle hatchery in the works, a single bone meal trip out to a warm ocean usually nets enough seagrass to keep the turtles fed for hours of play. Shears in one hand for the tall plant itself, bare fists in the other for raw seagrass, and you’ll never need to scour the seabed by hand again.