How to Grow Melons in Minecraft

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Craft melon seeds from a melon slice, plant them on farmland, and wait: the mature stem grows melon blocks on the dirt, grass or similar blocks next to it. A melon drops 3 to 7 slices (average 5), up to 9 with Fortune, or the block itself with Silk Touch.

What you need

Melon slice or melon seeds
Farmland

Step by step

Get melon slices by breaking a melon in the wild. Melons generate in jungles, in savanna villages and in woodland mansion tillage rooms.
Craft one melon slice into melon seeds.
Plant the seeds on farmland. They grow into a stem.
Leave a free block next to the stem. Once it matures, it tries to grow a melon on one of its four adjacent blocks. The block must be empty and the ground below must be dirt, coarse dirt, rooted dirt, grass block, farmland, podzol, mycelium, moss block, pale moss block, mud or muddy mangrove roots.
Break the melon with any tool. An axe is fastest. It drops 3-7 slices, with Fortune adding one possible slice per level up to a max of 9.
Use Silk Touch to keep the melon block, or craft slices back into melons.
Eat a slice for 2 hunger and 1.2 saturation, or sell melons: a journeyman farmer buys 4 melons for 1 emerald.

Java vs Bedrock

Melon slices have a 50% composter chance, and melon blocks 65%, but slices make much more bone meal.

Versions: Melons can grow on dirt and grass instead of just farmland since Java Edition 11w49a.

Frequently asked questions

How many slices does a melon drop?

3 to 7, averaging 5, capped at 9 with Fortune.

Where does a melon grow?

On a free block next to a mature stem, over dirt, grass, farmland, mud, moss and similar blocks.

Can I get melon seeds directly?

They come from melon slices by crafting.