How to make green dye in Minecraft and how to color your items with it

Even without mods, Minecraft is an incredibly colorful day. And using dyes, you can add colors of your own. There are 16 different types of dye in Minecraft, and one of the easiest to craft is green dye. Here's how to make it, and what you can use it for.

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  • You can make green dye in Minecraft by smelting pieces of cactus.
  • Combining green dye with certain items can color those items green.
  • You can also combine green dye with blue or white dye to craft cyan or lime dye.

Even without mods, Minecraft is an incredibly colorful day. And using dyes, you can add colors of your own.

There are 16 different types of dye in Minecraft, and one of the easiest to craft is green dye. Here's how to make it, and what you can use it for.

How to make green dye in Minecraft

To craft green dye, you'll need three things: Cacti, a furnace, and fuel to power that furnace.

You can find cacti growing all over desert and badlands (also called mesa) biomes. To craft a furnace, fill the outside edges of your crafting table with cobblestone. And for fuel, you can use coal, charcoal, a bucket of lava, or nearly anything made of wood.

You’ll find cacti in the desert. Mojang; William Antonelli/Insider

Place your cactus pieces in the top slot of the furnace, and your fuel in the bottom slot. Wait a few seconds for the arrow icon to fill up, and you'll make green dye. Every piece of cactus will give you one piece of green dye.

It takes about ten seconds to make each piece of green dye. Mojang; William Antonelli/Insider

What you can use green dye for in Minecraft

Like other types of dye, green dye's main purpose is for changing the color of certain items.

You can combine green dye with any of these items to make a green version of that item:

  • Beds (you need to use a white bed in Java Edition)
  • Candles
  • White carpets
  • Shulker boxes
  • Terracotta
  • Wool (you need to use white wool in Java Edition)
  • Banners
In Minecraft: Java Edition, you’ll need to use a white bed or white wool to dye them. Mojang; William Antonelli/Insider

In addition, you can combine green dye with sand and gravel to make green concrete powder, with glass or glass panes to make stained glass, and with firework ingredients to make a green firework star.

Lastly, you can use green dye as an ingredient to craft other colored dyes. Combining green dye with blue dye or a piece of lapis lazuli makes cyan dye, and combining it with white dye or bonemeal makes lime dye.

William Antonelli Tech Reporter for Insider Reviews William Antonelli (he/she/they) is a writer, editor, and organizer based in New York City. As a founding member of the Reference team, he helped grow Tech Reference (now part of Insider Reviews) from humble beginnings into a juggernaut that attracts over 20 million visits a month. Outside of Insider, his writing has appeared in publications like Polygon, The Outline, Kotaku, and more. He's also a go-to source for tech analysis on channels like Newsy, Cheddar, and NewsNation. You can find him on Twitter @DubsRewatcher, or reach him by email at wantonelli@businessinsider.com. Read more Read less

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