What is podzol used for in Minecraft 1.19?

Podzol is a special type of dirt block in Minecraft 1.19. It has been in the game for a long time and is one of the lesser-known and lesser-used blocks. New players jumping into the sandbox game for the first time will not be aware of this block at all. However, it can be useful in several ways.

Dirt is the most common type of block in Minecraft 1.19. Be it a normal grass block or a rare mycelium block, it covers the most amount of surface area in the overworld realm. Grass and normal dirt blocks are much more common than podzol and other blocks like mycelium. There is a way to find and use these special blocks in the game.

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Podzol in Minecraft 1.19: Uses, generation, properties and more

Generation of the block

These blocks are quite uncommon in the game as they only generate in a few types of biomes like Old Growth Taiga and Bamboo Jungle biomes. Other than that, they can be dropped by an Enderman if they are holding one, or they can be obtained by trading with a wandering trader.

The block generating in old-growth taiga biome underneath a spruce tree (Image via Mojang)

They specifically generate whenever there is a spruce tree around. If players grow a spruce tree with four saplings, any type of dirt block or moss block will be converted to podzol if they are underneath that tree. The game converts six blocks to the east and south of the tree and five blocks to the west and north of the tree to podzol.

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Main usage of the block

Mushrooms can be grown on the block without any light level restrictions (Image via Mojang)

These blocks do not have any major use in the game. They are only used to grow mushrooms at any light level, like mycelium. Players can place small mushrooms and grow them with bone meal without any restrictions to light level or obstruction of the sky.

The only plus point about these blocks is that they are much more common than mycelium. Mycelium blocks are only found in mushroom biomes that are the rarest in Minecraft 1.19. If players want to grow loads of mushrooms and want a common block for them, podzol is the best option. However, unlike mycelium, these blocks can also be used to grow flowers, saplings, and even grass.

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Obtaining the block

It can only be obtained with silk touch shovel otherwise it drops as normal dirt block (Image via Mojang)

Like any other special dirt block, these cannot be obtained simply by breaking by hand or a normal shovel. If players break them normally, these blocks will drop as normal dirt blocks. Hence, players must always use a silk touch enchanted shovel. Silk touch enchantment helps tools to break blocks as they are without changing their properties.