You can use Pumpkins for a variety of things in Minecraft. You can turn them into tasty pies and much more, making Pumpkins more versatile of a crop than many others. They’re also pretty easy to farm.
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What You Need to Know About Farming Pumpkins
Firstly, you’ll need to plant some Pumpkin Seeds into some Farmland. To make Farmland, use a Hoe on a Dirt block and you’ll see the top of it change. Interestingly, unlike many other plants, Pumpkin Seeds do not technically need water to grow. However, Farmland needs to be hydrated, otherwise, it will turn back into normal Dirt and will break whatever crop is planted on it. Pumpkin Seeds also need light to grow–level 9 and above to be exact.
It roughly takes 20 to 30 minutes on average for a Pumpkin stem to fully mature, though, this can be sped up with Bone Meal like with other plants. However, the Bone Meal will only make the stem mature and won’t produce a Pumpkin.
Unlike most other kinds of crops, Pumpkins do not grow straight up from the seeds you plant in the soil. Instead, a stem will grow from the seeds. When the stem is mature, it will turn from green to yellow before producing a full Pumpkin and placing it nearby. A Pumpkin will always spawn adjacent to its stem, though only if the spaces around the stem are free and above a certain kind of terrain block. If another block or item is occupying all of the spaces adjacent to a stem, no Pumpkin will grow.
List of Blocks that Pumpkins Can Grow on
- Dirt
- Coarse Dirt
- Grass
- Farmland
- Podzol
- Moss Blocks
Where to Find Pumpkin Seeds and Pumpkins
In addition to being able to craft 1 Pumpkin into 4 Pumpkin Seeds, you can also find them in the Chests of Villages, Mineshafts, Dungeons, and Woodland Mansions. The odds for finding them in Mineshafts, Dungeons, and Woodland Mansions is between 18% to 28%, but finding them in the house Chest of a Taiga biome Village is around 40%.
On a related note, Taiga biome Villages are also the best place to find patches of fully grown Pumpkins. Pumpkin patches will spawn in Taiga biome villages instead of Wheat farms. Furthermore, the same is true for Snowy Taiga Villages, however, these only exist in the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft.
Additionally, Pumpkins can spawn in small groups within pretty much any biome that has grass. Although, their spawn rate is very low, even lower than that of Diamonds. Wild Pumpkins also need to spawn in clear grassy areas that have nothing else in them, even flowers will get in the way.
Tips for Growing Pumpkins Faster
Pumpkins grow the fastest when they are near a lot of hydrated Farmland. Farmland will be hydrated up to 4 blocks away from any water. Pumpkin Seeds that are in hydrated Farmland that is surrounded by other blocks of hydrated farmland will grow more quickly. All Farmland is dry when you initially use a Hoe to till the soil, however, it will always become hydrated eventually if there is water nearby.
Pumpkin stems will also bear Pumpkins faster when stems are not directly next to each other. In terms of farming efficiency, it’s usually better to pack a bunch of stems together to increase your yields. This will overall increase how many Pumpkins you get, however, if you only want to grow a few Pumpkins quickly, it’s better to keep the stems separated.
Stems will also produce Pumpkins more quickly if they are not broken. After a stem plops a Pumpkin down, you should break the Pumpkin to harvest it. Do not break the stem, as this will require you to re-plant some seeds and allow them to mature again. You’ll get Pumpkins much faster if you do not break matured stems.
You’ll also want to make sure that your Pumpkin farm is well lit. To speed up your farm’s growth, surround it with Torches so that it will stay lit, even at night. Being lit at night will allow your Pumpkins to grow throughout the dark hours as well. Torches produce a light level of 14, which is more than enough to keep Pumpkins lit enough to grow throughout the night.
What You Can Use Pumpkins For
After you’ve harvested your Pumpkins, you can craft them into a few different things. Firstly, you can combine 1 Pumpkin with 1 Sugar and 1 Egg to make a Pumpkin Pie, which restores 4 hunger icons. Since this is as much as cooked meats, which are the best food items in the game, Pumpkin Pies can be a great food source.
You can also turn Pumpkins into Carved Pumpkins by using Shears on them. Carved Pumpkins can be used for creating Jack o’Lanterns, spawning golems, and can even be used as a helmet.
