PUMPKIN SEEDS

Nobody with a job works this counter. Pumpkin Seeds belongs to the Wandering Trader alone, at 1 emerald each, and unlike the plain wheat seed next to it on his cart, this one has an escape hatch: a crafting table turns a spare pumpkin straight into seeds, no trader required.

That makes the trade a fallback rather than a first choice for most people, because by the time you want pumpkin seeds you usually already have a pumpkin, either grown, found on a plains generation feature, or looted out of a chest. Cut it up at a crafting table and the seeds come free. The trader only matters before that first pumpkin exists.

Once planted, a pumpkin vine keeps producing without eating its own stem, the same trick melons use, so a single row of seeds turns into a self-refilling patch of jack o'lanterns, golem heads and pie filling with almost no upkeep after the first planting.

The Wandering Trader sells Pumpkin Seeds for 1 emerald each, and that offer only runs one way; he has no interest in buying them back once you own some.

No working villager profession lists pumpkin seeds anywhere in its trade table, so a trader visit is the only emerald route in. The crafting bench sits outside the trading system entirely, which is why it does not show up on this page even though it is usually the faster route.

He asks 1 emerald each, and 42 of the other 75 come cheaper. Price is the easy part: he draws his stock from a shared pool, so catching one that happens to be carrying pumpkin seeds is the real constraint.

The Wandering Trader asks 1 emerald for pumpkin seeds. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

an oak boat against 24 flint for the same 1 emerald, 24 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Leatherworker at 37.5 real seconds of shelf, gathering not counted.

The Wandering Trader is not tied to any village. He arrives near wherever you happen to be playing, a pair of leashed llamas in tow, stays around for a while, and then leaves whether or not a trade happened. There is no workstation to place for him and no job block to break, so none of the tricks that work on a village's own villagers apply.

He never buys pumpkin seeds off you. Only six specific goods go into his own pockets, and seeds are not among them, so this is strictly emeralds out, seeds in.

What he happens to be carrying is set the moment he spawns, drawn from a much larger list than he can show at once, so pumpkin seeds may simply not be on today's cart. A name tag solves the timing problem: a named trader will not despawn, so tagging one turns a passing merchant into a shop that waits for you rather than the other way around.

Check your inventory before you check for a trader. If a pumpkin is already sitting in a chest, four crafted seeds cost nothing and take one click; the trader is only the better option when you have emeralds spare and no pumpkin yet to cut up.

A full stack costs about 64 emeralds at 1 emerald each, which is fine for seeding several rows at once but not something to buy one at a time out of habit.

The same cart usually carries other planting stock worth grabbing in the same stop: melon seeds, vine, brown mushroom, red mushroom, lily pad and sand.

Put a pumpkin on the crafting grid and it gives four seeds, so the first pumpkin you find pays for a whole row of them. That is worth knowing before buying seeds: one pumpkin in a chest somewhere is the same thing.

The stem grows a pumpkin next to itself and keeps going. Harvest with an axe, leave the stem, and it grows another, which makes the patch permanent once it is planted.

Pumpkins themselves are worth more than the food value suggests: carved into a lantern, worn on the head to stop endermen looking at you, or turned into pie with an egg and some sugar.