Tutorial:Pumpkin/Melon Farm

Pumpkin or Melon farms are one of the best money making methods currently available in the early-game. If built correctly, it can produce about 12.8K pumpkins per layer worth each (+double pumpkins for higher farming levels). Harvesting takes anywhere from 8 to 30 minutes depending on player speed. The time taken to regrow depends on hydration; for hydrated 97-99% growth takes 30–40 minutes and dehydrated 96-99% growth takes 1-1.5 hours. Alternating melon/pumpkins farms can reach 99% in less than 20 mins.

Pumpkins are better to farm, Melons sell to NPC for ~half as much, take up ~4x as much inventory space and give less exp per. However, with the Bazaar melons sell for ~50% more per growth than Pumpkins.

Pumpkin farms are usually built by players as a means to get a higher farming skill.

=Construction=

Build your farms from one side to the other 3 lanes at a time to prevent burnout and allow you to farm incomplete farms without mobs spawning.

Hydrated
1. Start by building down to where the farm will be. e.x. 80, 40, 80

2. Fill in a dirt rectangle 9x160. e.x. From (80, 40, 80) to (71, 40, -80)

3. Place slabs above where seeds will go and around the edge. e.x. Lanes of slabs over X=80, 77, 76, 73, 72 and Z=80, -80



4. Place Sea lanterns or glowstone to ensure there is at least 8 light from blocks everywhere. e.x. (77, 42, 75), (76, 42, 75) and repeating every 9 blocks: (77, 42, 66), (76, 42, 66) etc.

5. Till the land under the slabs and place seeds. e.x. Till and plant seeds in lanes X=80, 77, 76, 73, 72

6. Replace dirt with water every 8 blocks. e.x. (77, 40, 75), (76, 40, 66), (76, 42, 57) etc.

7. Repeat until the whole layer is done then repeat for more layers

Other patterns
A less effective but less complex pattern can be followed also. One such other pattern would be using full lanes for water instead. Fill the inside with 1 row of water then 8 rows of dirt then 1 water, 8 dirt, etc. using this pattern. This pattern is only 9% fewer pumpkins or 1.1k fewer pumpkins per layer.

If you built multiple layers of this farm, it would look like this from the side.

A much faster-growing variant is also possible by alternating melon and pumpkin seeds so that no row of pumpkin is next to another row of pumpkin, which speeds up the growing time by 100% (20 mins to regrow). The only downside being juggling two different items, and losing 4 inventory slots, can be mitigated by doing all pumpkins rows then storing pumpkins in Ender Chest then doing all melon rows.

Materials
Per layer you will use aprox.
 * 25,031 dirt (if you were to buy it from the Builder you would pay )
 * 12,800 slabs (if you are making these out of wood, it will take 25 stacks of logs)
 * 12,515 seeds
 * 720 sea lantern or glowstone

Dry Farm
Dry farms are not recommended but can be used if the island is always occupied but only farmed 1-2 times per day.

To build just build as above but skip step 6. Dry farms can also be converted later on.

Tips

 * Stone platform item can be helpful at the start if you don't want to place 60-100 blocks to reach the desired build height
 * Use Teleport Pads to go to and from the farm quickly.
 * Craft crops into their enchanted version as you collect them.
 * A Personal Compactor will make this process a lot less tedious.
 * Pumpkins will not grow without at least 8 light
 * Get the Telekinesis enchantment on your axe so you don't lose any drops.
 * If you are farming melons, use the Silk Touch enchantment to reduce inventory space waste.
 * Use Magical Water Bucket to speed up the water filling process.
 * Buy the dirt from Builder NPC.
 * Use Speedster Armor, Fairy Armor, Young Dragon Armor, or Farmer Boots to get speed. 260-280% is the best as any faster and you'll miss pumpkins.
 * Build your farm above Y=40 or use a nether Biome stick or get a Repelling Candle to prevent slimes spawning.
 * Use Potions that increase your speed and haste if you don't reach the recommended speed.
 * If you're farming pumpkins mainly for XP, use a Rabbit Pet and Farming EXP boost potions.
 * If you're farming pumpkins for the drops, use an Elephant Pet.
 * The Builder's Wand is a way to quickly build farms, as the builder's wand extends all connected blocks, meaning it can extend 1 row for 1 click.
 * Additionally, the InfiniDirt Wand™ can be placed inside, which will automatically buy the dirt required for half the price the Builder offers.