Pumpkin
Pumpkin is the orange Halloween-staple gourd — generates naturally in patches, used for jack-o-lanterns, golems, and savoury baking.
Description
Player-grown crops start from the seeds — obtained by breaking a wild gourd or finding seeds in dungeon chests — planted on tilled farmland adjacent to a free space. The seed grows a stem, and after several stages the stem produces a pumpkin in any cardinal-direction free dirt or grass. Crafting uses include pumpkin pie (one pumpkin, one egg, one sugar — the most filling food in vanilla), the jack-o-lantern (combine with torch), and seed extraction (one fruit in any crafting slot returns four seeds). Carving with shears creates the wearable carved variant, used to spawn iron golems and snow golems.
Farming Guide
How to grow and use a Pumpkin in Minecraft
-
1
Get pumpkin seeds
Break a naturally generated pumpkin and place it in a crafting grid to get four pumpkin seeds, or find seeds in dungeon and mineshaft chests.
-
2
Plant on farmland
Hoe a dirt or grass block into farmland near water, then plant the seeds. Leave an empty dirt or grass block next to the stem for the fruit to grow.
-
3
Wait for the fruit
The stem matures through several growth stages, then spawns a pumpkin on one adjacent free block. Bone meal speeds up the stem, but not the fruit itself.
-
4
Harvest the pumpkin
Break the pumpkin with any tool — an axe is fastest. The stem stays and grows a new pumpkin, making the farm renewable.
-
5
Carve or craft it
Use shears on a placed pumpkin to make a Carved Pumpkin plus four seeds, or craft pumpkin pie with one pumpkin, one egg, and one sugar.
Since Java 1.14, only the Carved Pumpkin can be worn as a helmet or used to spawn iron and snow golems. The plain Pumpkin must be carved with shears first.
Used in crafts
Frequently asked questions
Can you craft a pumpkin?
No. Pumpkins are not craftable — they generate naturally in patches on grass or grow from pumpkin seeds planted on farmland.
How do you make a carved pumpkin?
Use shears on a placed pumpkin. This turns it into a Carved Pumpkin and drops four pumpkin seeds.
Can you wear a pumpkin as a helmet?
Only a Carved Pumpkin can be worn. Wearing it lets you look at Endermen without angering them, but it blurs your view.
Is a pumpkin renewable?
Yes. The stem stays after you harvest the pumpkin and grows a new one, so a single planted stem produces pumpkins endlessly.
What can you make with a pumpkin?
Pumpkins make pumpkin pie (with egg and sugar), jack-o-lanterns (with a torch), seeds, and — once carved — iron and snow golems.
Minecraft and all related materials are trademarks and copyrights of Mojang Studios © 2009–2026. This site is not an official Minecraft product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mojang Studios or Microsoft Corporation.