Minecraft places great importance on mining elements and using them to craft items you need to survive in the in-game world. However, the game also has aspects like farming which can help get around the tedious mining and exploration work.

In this article, we’re taking a look at how you can grow pumpkins in Minecraft.

Also read: What does Luck of the Sea do in Minecraft?

Pumpkins in Minecraft

A pumpkin in Minecraft is a fruit block that can be used in several ways. The block appears in patches in grassy biomes and has the same texture on all four sides, making it easy to recognise.

Pumpkins can be carved and worn as helmets. While they do not add any armour points, once you’re wearing one, you won’t catch the attention of endermen even when you’re looking at them. Carved pumpkins can also be used for building golems and trading.

Growing pumpkins in Minecraft

Pumpkins can be farmed the same way as watermelons in the game. You’re going to need either a pumpkin itself or pumpkin seeds obtained from pumpkin stems or crafted from pumpkins.

You’re also going to need farmland blocks to plant these seeds. Once planted, they grow into a stem and produce pumpkins on any adjacent dirt, grass, farmland, podzol or coarse dirt block. 

You can make farmland blocks by using a hoe on any dirt, grass or dirt path block; here’s how you can grow pumpkins.

Step 1: Prepare a small farm using farmland blocks. Make sure the blocks are near a water block (up to four blocks away), and plant your seeds by right-clicking the farmland block when you’re holding seeds.

Step 2: Wait for 10-30 minutes for the pumpkin to grow. If you want to speed up the process, use bone meal. Each stem has three maturity phases, meaning you can use bone meal thrice per stem.

Pumpkins have a stack size of 64, meaning you can store up to 64 pumpkins in one inventory block. Once the pumpkin has grown, you can carve and wear it or use it for trading. 

There are several growth factors you should keep in mind when growing pumpkins.

• The block adjacent to the pumpkin stem should be dirt, coarse dirt, farmland or grass in order for pumpkins to grow.
• Pumpkins require a light level of 10 to grow. Placing torches near the pumpkin stem is a good idea as torches provide a light level of 14 decreasing by one per block away from the torch.
• Provided you don’t break the pumpkin stem, each stem can grow infinite pumpkins provided you remove the pumpkin from the stem once it has grown.
• Bone meal will only increase the growth rate of the stem. It won’t have any effect whatsoever once the stem is fully matured. 

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