I'm growing adjacent chunks in my farm -- without even being in them!! It's God-damned magic or voodoo or some zany new technology that I can't even begin to fathom. I demand answers. Is it a server setting which determines which chunks are loaded for growth updates (etc) in relation to the player or did 1.3 change the way chunk updates work in SMP or or...
Exactly. I left shortly before 1.3 hit for a little vacation, and I come back to find the whole God-damned world's gone upside down. Pre-patch only the chunk you were standing in updated. This is a major game-changer for farming.