Minecraft: How To Build An Automatic Pumpkin & Melon Farm (2024)

One of the most tedious things in Minecraft is needing to manually farm crops. Not only does it take time that could be spent working on other things, but failing to harvest crops as soon as they are grown is incredibly inefficient. Luckily, with the help of observers, it is possible to fully automate many different kinds of farms, and one of the simplest designs is for pumpkins and melons.

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Pumpkins can be used to create pumpkin pie, as well as jack o'lanterns, while melons can be directly eaten, or used to make glistering melonsfor potion brewing. These two items are farmed in the exact same way, and are unique in that they do not need to be replanted after every harvest, making for easy automation. This design for an automatic pumpkin and melon farm will automatically harvest and store all the drops, alleviating all the stress of farming.

How To Build An Automatic Pumpkin And Melon Farm In Minecraft

This design for an automatic pumpkin and melon farm is infinitely tileable. This means that it is just one block wide, and many of them can be built side-by-side, so it doesn't matter the rate at which players are looking to produce melons and pumpkins--this design will work for them.

For each pumpkin/melon stem, players will need all of the following resources:

• Two dirt blocks
• One pumpkin/melon seed
• Two observers
• One sticky piston
• One piston
• Three opaque building blocks
• Two minecart rails
• Water

After the farm is built to include as many pumpkins and melons as players want, they will also need to get a single hopper minecart, as well as some powered rails, levers, a hopper, and a chest for the pumpkins and melons to be deposited in. The number of powered rails and levers will depend on the size of the farm. Players will also need a hoe to till the soil.

To begin, players should decide on where they want their crops to be. Note that the chest where drops are deposited will be two blocks below the height of the stems. Start by placing two dirt blocks next to a water source, and then till the soil that is furthest from the water. Plant the seed, then place an observer over the water that faces the stem. Players will need to wait until the stem is fully grown before it starts producing, but they can speed up the process withbone meal. Players can also choose to encase the water, but it is not necessary.

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Next up, players need to place an upwards-facing sticky piston behind the observer, with an observer two blocks above that. The observer should be facing away from the crop, such that it outputs towards it. Place a solid block over the first observer, and a downwards-facing regular piston above where the pumpkin/melon will be growing.

This is actually all that is necessary for the auto-harvester system. When one grows, the bottom observer will detect it, triggering the sticky piston to reach up and pull the observer down. That observer will detect a change in the air block next to it, outputting through the solid block into the regular piston, which will push the pumpkin/melon. Neither of these blocks can be pushed by pistons, and will break instead.

Players should now tile this design as many times as they choose to fit the size of their farm. They can choose to use all pumpkin seeds, or all melon seeds, or a fair mix of both. It also is not necessary to include a new water source for each new dirt block, but it is required that there is water within four blocks of every piece of tilled soil.

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With the harvesters all made, it's now time for the item pickup mechanism. Players can make use of a really neat mechanic involving hopper minecarts for this. Hopper minecarts are capable of picking up items through blocks that they drive under. This means that players can build a rail loop directly beneath the dirt blocks, and a hopper minecart will drive in circles, picking up items that are on top of the dirt. By adding a hopper somewhere in the loop, it will drop off the items there and deposit them in a chest.

Players should have their rail loop extend one block to the left or right of the dirt area, such that there is room for the players to place the cart and give it a nudge. Players should also ensure that there are enough powered rails to keep the cart going indefinitely. One is enough for an eight-wide farm like this one, but more should be added for larger farms.

Once all of that is done, players just need to place the minecart and get it moving, and their farm will be up and in working order. All pumpkins and melons will be harvested instantly, with their drops depositing into the chest just a few seconds later. Players may also want to encase the dirt to prevent the odd item from flying off the dirt area when they are harvested, but this is optional.

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