Bone Meal is a product created when a bone is crushed into powder in the crafting grid. It has several uses.
Obtaining[]
Bone meal can be crafted in two ways:
- One bone creates three bonemeal.
- One bone block creates nine bonemeal.
All four fish mob variants (cod, salmon, tropical fish, and puffer fish) have a 5% chance to drop 1 bone meal upon death - this is exclusive to Java Edition.
Wandering Traders will sell bonemeal in exchange for emeralds.
1 Bone Meal will drop from a composter when completely filled.
Uses[]
Bone meal can be used as a fertilizer for several types of plants and foods such as potatoes, carrots, wheat, and bamboo.
In Bedrock, Education, and Legacy Console editions, it can be used as a dye. The dye functionality was removed in Java Edition 1.14 and is now used to craft White Dye.
It can be used as a loom ingredient in creating banners.
Mechanics[]
As a fertilizer, bone meal works on wheat seeds, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, saplings, mushrooms (creating a Giant Mushroom), tall grass, and sweet berry bushes. When used on one of these plants, there is the potential to instantly grow said plant to maturity. It may also take more than one handful of bonemeal to fully grow the plant. As of update 1.8, Bonemeal does not fully grow wheat. Using it on normal grass causes flowers and tall grass to appear on top of grass blocks in the vicinity. Cacti, certain saplings, and sugar cane will also grow when bonemeal is used on them. Using bonemeal on a pumpkin or melon stem will cause the said stem to grow by 1 tier, soon becoming fully grown. However, the plant will not produce its respective vegetables immediately.
Crafting[]
| Bone Meal x3 (Shapeless recipe) | ||
|---|---|---|
| None | None | None |
| None | Bone | None |
| None | None | None |
| Bone Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bone Meal | Bone Meal | Bone Meal |
| Bone Meal | Bone Meal | Bone Meal |
| Bone Meal | Bone Meal | Bone Meal |
