How To Get Pumpkins in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Pumpkins are a vegetable in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that can be traded for Halloween items. They can also be used for cooking recipes as of Patch 2.0.0. The starts can be grown year-round but finding the pumpkin starts isn’t as easy. They must be purchased from Nook’s Cranny or Leif as the plant starts. Your pumpkin yield depends on how often you water the plants as they grow. Here’s how you get pumpkins in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and how you can maximize your yield.

Obtaining Pumpkin Starts To Grow Pumpkins

The four varieties of pumpkins. — Image Source: Nintendo via The Nerd Stash

Pumpkin starts are sold by Leif whenever he visits your island or at Harvey’s co-op. He won’t always stock pumpkin starts and you might have to check back another day or on his next visit. However, Leif always has a chance of stocking pumpkin starts throughout the year. Alternatively, you can buy pumpkin starts from Nook’s Cranny and they are sold every day. This only happens during the month of October regardless of hemisphere which means it’s a narrow window.

There are four pumpkin colors: white, orange, yellow, and green. The pumpkin color is decided randomly after planting; you don’t get to control what colors you get. If you are wondering how to get green pumpkins because you haven’t found any, just keep planting more pumpkin starts. Orange is the only color you need to craft certain ornaments but the other colors help with customization.

Pumpkins reach maturity after four days but your yield is determined by how often you water them. You get one pumpkin for leaving the plant alone for four days. Water the pumpkin plant at least once over the four days to get two pumpkins. Water the plants every day for three or four days to get the full yield of three pumpkins.

Here’s a quick recap to get pumpkins in Animal Crossing: New Horizons:

Pumpkins can be bought from Leif year-round or at Nook’s Cranny in October.
If you want a certain pumpkin color, plant as many starts as you can to eventually get the color.
If you water your pumpkins every day for three or four days, you get more pumpkins than if you didn’t water at all.