In Minecraft, you can effortlessly gather valuable harvests with an automatic pumpkin and melon farm. Pumpkins and melons are perfect for recipes and trading with villagers, especially when you build an efficient, automatic farm. Besides the well-known crops like wheat or potatoes, you can also grow other items that function a bit differently. A simple water farm, for example, is not sufficient for pumpkins and melons because these two crops grow differently. However, farming them is worth it because they can be used to craft cool recipes and trade with villagers. We’ll show you everything you need to know about pumpkins and melons!
Minecraft Pumpkins: Locations, Uses, and Cultivation
Locations
Full Pumpkins:
- In the Overworld: Pumpkins are orange vegetables that you might have come across while exploring your Minecraft world. You can find them randomly in some biomes, usually even 10 to 20 of them. Each chunk has a 1:32 chance of spawning pumpkins. Interestingly, this makes pumpkin fields rarer than diamonds!
- Shipwrecks: Pumpkins can now also be found in chests in sunken wrecks. The chance is 14.3%.
- Wandering Trader: A third method is trading for an emerald with the wandering trader, but his inventory is always random.
- Woodland Mansion: Sometimes there are rooms here that offer both pumpkins and melons.
Pumpkin Seeds:
- Dungeon Spawner: In the chests, you have an 18% chance of finding pumpkin seeds.
- Mineshafts: There are also chests here that contain seeds with a 27% chance.
- Villages: You can find melon seeds in some of the chests here.
Uses
- Bake a delicious pumpkin pie!
- Trade 6 pumpkins for an emerald with a farmer villager.
- Use shears to make a fun Halloween pumpkin. This also gives you 4 seeds.
- Use this carved pumpkin with a torch for a Halloween lamp.
- Compost pumpkins for bone meal.
- Breed chickens with the seeds.
- Attract parrots in the jungle.
Minecraft Melons: Locations, Uses, and Cultivation
Locations
Full Melons:
- Woodland Mansion: Sometimes there are rooms here that offer both pumpkins and melons.
- Jungle: Similar to pumpkins, you will also very rarely find melons in the wild, but only in the jungle. This was introduced fairly recently and can help you get enough melons at the start.
- Villages: Villages in the savannah also have melons.
Melon Seeds:
- Dungeon Spawner: In the chests, you have an 18% chance of finding pumpkin seeds.
- Mineshafts: There are also chests here that contain seeds with a 27% chance.
- Woodland Mansion: As loot from some chests.
- Wandering Trader: Trade for an emerald if the trade is available.
Uses
- Harvest a ripe melon and receive 3–7 melon slices. From 9 slices, you can craft a melon or harvest it with Silk Touch.
- Compost melons for bone meal.
- Trade 4 melons for an emerald with a farmer villager.
- Breed chickens with the seeds.
- Attract parrots in the jungle.
- Craft a glistening melon slice with 8 gold nuggets for a wonderful food source or for brewing healing potions.
Building an Automatic Pumpkin and Melon Farm in Minecraft: Step-by-Step Guide
Pumpkins and melons have a variety of uses, but most people probably want to exchange the harvests at a trading post (How to Build a Villager Trading Post: Get Valuable Items Through Trading) for emeralds. Both grow on a type of vine and can grow in all four directions from there. This makes the farm design a bit more complicated. But don’t worry, we’ll guide you step-by-step through the process so you can give plenty of melons and pumpkins to villagers and receive emeralds.
Minecraft Farm Building Materials: What You Need for Your Automatic Pumpkin and Melon Farm
- Redstone Dust
- Pistons
- Observers
- Water Bucket
- Hopper
- Chest
- Building Blocks
- Melon Seeds / Pumpkin Seeds
- Hoe
- Possibly Bone Meal
Minecraft Automatic Pumpkin and Melon Farm: Construction Guide for Efficient Harvesting
First, you need to dig a trench 17 blocks long. This is where the melon slices and pumpkins will be collected later. If you’re somewhat familiar with Minecraft, the following mechanism should be familiar to you. In the middle, a plot of land will remain dry at 17 blocks. That’s where you place your hopper and underneath it, a chest. It’s best to build this a bit deeper into the ground, and perhaps two hoppers are needed. More chests won’t hurt if you really want to collect many melons and pumpkins.
Now it’s time for the automatic collection mechanism. Here we use pistons and observers. The observers detect the growth status of the stems and send the signal to the pistons, which then harvest the crops. Leave one row between the water and the redstone free. You should attach the pistons from the front so that the wood faces the water. Attach the observers from the back so that the face also faces the water and the red dot for the redstone points backward.
Now comes the (very simple) redstone function. Basically, we just need to ensure that the signal is transmitted. Place a full block behind the observer. Between and behind the pistons, place a redstone dust each. The farm is now ready for use!
Finally, you need to plant your seeds. You can use either melons or pumpkins, depending on your preference. A mix doesn’t hurt either! Till the field in front of the observers and plant the seeds. You’ll immediately notice that the observers detect this and make the pistons fire. This is intentional! Plant everything. You can help the growth by using bone meal.
Then you just have to wait until melons/pumpkins grow and are automatically harvested by the pistons. All your yields will end up in the chest under the hopper. You can also expand the farm upwards or sideways; there are no limits! In the end, you will have tons of pumpkins and melons.
Conclusion: Why an Automatic Pumpkin and Melon Farm in Minecraft is Essential
If you want to trade a lot with villagers, melons and pumpkins are truly indispensable. Even a few are enough to trade them for emeralds. Otherwise, glistening melons are especially a wonderful food source. An automatic farm is absolutely worth it! Harvest pumpkins and melons continuously on your own server. Rent your Minecraft server and improve your harvest today! The design is easy to build and takes only a few minutes. Additionally, it can be expanded at will.
More interesting articles
Build an Automatic Chicken Farm in Minecraft: Unlimited Eggs, Feathers & Chicken Meat
Minecraft Flower Farm Guide: How to Build an Automatic Flower Farm for Dyes and Bees