Pumpkin

A pumpkin is an uncommon block that appears on grass in a similar manner to mushrooms but does not spread. They are found most commonly in mountain and plain biomes, but can also appear in sandy, snow covered, and forest regions, albeit rarely. They can appear in swamp biomes, and are found alone or in groups.

It is possible to farm pumpkins in the same way as melons; planted pumpkin seeds grow into a central stem that grows until it reaches its maximum size, at which point pumpkins will randomly spawn in vacant dirt/grass next to the stem. Seeds can be found in abandoned mine shafts or crafted from a pumpkin.

Pumpkins can currently only be found with a carved face. It was originally stated by Notch that they were to be found and then subsequently carved by crafting. Instead, pumpkins can be crafted into jack 'o' lanterns (see below). Jeb has stated that pumpkins may eventually spawn uncarved.

Harvested pumpkins can be equipped as a helmet without any actual armor value. It is unique in that it limits the player's view of the world as if it were seen from inside the pumpkin. The pumpkin helmet can be removed and placed into the player's inventory. Although it has no armor value, it can be a serious help during nighttime expeditions: When worn as a helmet, the player may look directly at Endermen without consequences, making it useful for going outside at night. However, due to the limited visibility that the pumpkin mask has, it can be a serious drawback to your ability to effectively spot and engage other mobs. The limited visibility may be modified or removed by the use of texture packs or third person view.

Pumpkins cannot be placed without a block under them. However, you can place them and remove the block directly beneath and it will remain in place. This reveals that the bottom texture is the same as the top. When placed, pumpkins automatically face the player.

When a pumpkin is pushed by a piston it breaks. It also cannot be pulled by a sticky piston.

Pumpkins can be used to make Snow Golems and Iron Golems by stacking 2 blocks of snow/iron, (and also 2 blocks of iron to the side for Iron Golems) and then placing a pumpkin on top as the head.

Farming
For information on other types of farming see Farming (disambiguation)

Pumpkin plants have a central stem that slowly grows until it reaches its maximum size, after which point a pumpkin block will randomly spawn a fruit next to it on an adjacent Farmland or Grass/Dirt block, if there is air above the stem. Pumpkin stems take around 10 to 30 minutes to fully develop. Pumpkins will grow facing south and will revert the farmland under the fruit back to dirt when they grow. Since pumpkins can grow on both farmland and dirt, there is no reason to till the dirt back to farmland after harvesting a pumpkin. Pumpkin stems will only connect to one pumpkin block, and if a pumpkin appears next to an unconnected adult stem, the stem will connect to it and will be unable to grow a pumpkin of its own. Bonemeal will cause a pumpkin stem to become fully-grown, but will not produce a pumpkin immediately. Pumpkin stems cannot be grown in The End unless matured by bone meal and they will not produce pumpkins. Melon stems do grow and produce in The End.

The following farm layouts produce good results:


 * All seed blocks are hydrated.
 * Maximum theoretical efficiency for both farms is 40%.
 * Average efficiency is 38% (left) and 36% (right)
 * Minimum efficiency is 36% (left) and 32% (right)
 * Some places into which a pumpkin block could grow will occupy two or three stems, reducing the maximum yield.

The highest efficiency a pumpkin farm can ever reach is 50%, because it takes two blocks to farm one pumpkin.

The following design ensures that one pumpkin never takes up more than one stem:
 * Each growing area is 9&times;9, but the surrounding non-hydrated blocks are used for growing the outer rows of pumpkins.
 * A basic farm unit is 11&times;11 blocks, then 11&times;20, 20&times;20 and so on (size increases by 9 blocks per farm module).
 * The right-hand growing unit is a mirror image of the left-hand side.
 * Efficiency for the 11&times;11 farm is 37%.
 * Larger farms gradually gain in efficiency, to a theoretical limit of 49%.

The following design does not use space efficiently, but instead gives each stem 2–4 potential places to spawn a pumpkin, encouraging quicker initial growth at the cost of a clumsier design and reduced long-term yield.



Other ways to farm without any time spent harvesting (but at the cost of some redstone) can be viewed in the automatic farming tutorials.

Obtaining seeds
Pumpkin seeds can be obtained in three ways in since Beta 1.9 prereleases:
 * Finding chests in abandoned mine shaft.
 * Harvesting mature stems (0-3).
 * Crafting pumpkins into seeds.

Since the Beta 1.9 prereleases, the player can now obtain seeds from spawned pumpkins by collecting the pumpkin block, and then crafting the block into seeds.

Some, but not all, of the chests found in abandoned mineshafts contain pumpkin seeds. Because chests are so rare, and because the probability of a given chest containing pumpkin seeds is low, it may take a great deal of exploration to find the seeds. One may also find Melon Seeds, another rare seed, in abandoned mineshaft chests.

Once a pumpkin farm has been started, it becomes much easier to obtain more seeds. When the stems are fully mature, they can be harvested for more seeds. Each stem drops between zero and three seeds. The average number of seeds dropped per stem is greater than one. Thus, if mature stems are always harvested, the total number of stems in one's garden grows exponentially, albeit at a very slow pace early on.

Trivia

 * The pumpkin is the only headgear that obstructs the player's view.
 * If pumpkin-wearing was more realistic, the player's view would be unobstructed when wearing the pumpkin, due to eye convergence.
 * It is possible to change the appearance of wearing a pumpkin on your head by editing the texture files. Many players make it so the pumpkin does not obstruct their view.
 * Players who want to wear a pumpkin but do not want their view to be restricted can simply press F1 to stop displaying the HUD.
 * If you use an inventory editor to change a pumpkin's damage value, the pumpkin will have no carving, and you can wear it without the carving. Once placed, it will revert to its normal texture.
 * Regardless of the direction the pumpkin is facing, the upper texture always remains the same.
 * Pumpkins cannot be placed on air, fences, glass, flowers, mushrooms, pressure plates, sugar cane, torches, redstone torches, redstone dust, signs, glowstone, ice, pistons, any stairs, iron bars, slabs or sticky pistons.
 * Although pumpkins can spawn on farmland (tilled dirt), they cannot be placed onto farmland by the player.
 * If a mob is sitting/standing next to a pumpkin stem when a pumpkin grows, the mob will suffocate inside the pumpkin. For this reason, it is wise not to place your pets in pumpkin gardens.
 * If you place a pumpkin next to a fully grown pumpkin stem (without a pumpkin) it will fuse onto the plant.
 * NPC Villagers have a fascination with pumpkins and will stare at one for minutes.