Animal Crossing: New Horizons pumpkin guide: How to grow them, and all the pumpkin recipes

Animal Crossing: New Horizons pumpkins are here for the entire month of October, along with a great selection of spooky DIY recipes. As part of the Animal Crossing: New Horizons fall update we're getting a whole bunch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons Halloween goodies, including this entirely new growable item to the game. In honour of the spooky season, you can now buy pumpkin seeds, and grow pumpkins in your very own patch. Something the Animal Crossing community has been hacking since practically day one. Here's everything you need to know about Animal Crossing: New Horizons pumpkins, including the pumpkin DIY recipes.

How to get pumpkins in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

First up you're going to need to buy some pumpkin starts, as they're known in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. From October 1, the Nook nephews will start stocking pumpkin starts in the cabinet in Nook's Cranny, retailing for 280 bells each. You can also buy them from Lief when he's visiting your island for 140 bells each - half the price of the Nook's Cranny offerings.

How to grow pumpkins in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Planting your pumpkin starts is the same as any flower or shrub. You can either stand over an empty ground spot, or dig a hole first with your shovel. Then open your inventory and select pumpkin starts to plant.

You might even want to make a little pumpkin patch area on your island first, marking out the area with the dirt tile from the Island Designer app, and even a little fence. Of course, it's not necessary, but it is adorable.

Once you've planted them, you'll need to water your pumpkins every day over the course of four days for them to reach maturity. If you water them every day, you'll guarantee yourself more pumpkins per start by the end of the four day period.

Here's how it works:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Watering frequency	Pumpkin Harvest
0 times	1
Once	2
Every day	3

After four days you'll be able to harvest your pumpkins, and then the pumpkin starts will start the cycle all over again for multiple pumpkin harvests.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons pumpkins varieties

It's worth noting that there are four different New Horizons pumpkin variations. The four colours available are as follows:

Orange (common)
Yellow (uncommon)
White (uncommon)
Green (rare)

The pumpkin colours are completely random, so there's no way to plant specific crops into order to make another colour - unlike the Animal Crossing: New Horizons flowers. If you don't get the colour you want, you'll need to dig up your crop, and then plant a brand new pumpkin start.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons pumpkin recipes

Although you can use your adorable pumpkins as decorations just as they are, there are a range of new pumpkin DIY recipes to unlock throughout October. Here are all the Animal Crossing: New Horizons pumpkin DIY recipes confirmed so far:

Spooky Arch
Spooky Candy Set
Spooky Chair
Spooky Lantern
Spooky Lantern Set
Spooky Scarecrow
Spooky Standing Lamp
Spooky Table
Spooky Tower

CATEGORIES

Sam Loveridge is the Brand Director and former Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar. She joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.