Grass Ladder

Grass Ladder

Screenshot of a soil ladder populated with grass

A slightly more efficient ladder, taking grass upwards

Getting grass down to bedrock level or up to a floating city requires the use of a grass ladder to allow the grass to spread vertically from where it is currently growing.

• Each dirt block must have a light level of at least 9
• At least one player needs to remain in the area to keep the chunk loaded so that the the grass propagation is calculated
• There needs to be air above the dirt block so grass can grow
• Grass can jump down 3 blocks, but up only one, therefore it's faster to bring grass down than up for the same distance
• The more grass blocks that can spread to a dirt block, the faster it will become grass, so add multiple 'rungs' to your ladder

Since Minecraft 1.0, this technique has become obsolete for most players due to the silk touch enchantment being able to harvest grass blocks, as well as grass blocks being given fairly frequently by the hourly gift system, but can still be used early-game or if you are low on resources.