Bone Meal

Bone meal is an item that can cause many plants and plantlike blocks to instantly grow when used on them by hand or via a dispenser. It can also be used as a crafting ingredient for dyes and bone blocks.

Obtaining

Mob loot

Crafting

Generated loot

Composting

When a composter is completely filled, a single bone meal drops the next time the composter is used.

To fill the composter, almost any plant-like item can be used, including vines, leaves, and mushrooms.

Usage

Fertilizer

Bone meal can be used on the following plants to have a chance to increase their growth stage or spread them:

Bone meal does not affect:

• Cactus
• Vines
• Nether wart
• Sugar cane‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Chorus plants, or other plants not listed above.

Wasting bone meal

Bone meal can be used on the following objects in the following situations, consuming it without any real effect:

• On seagrass that does not have water above it.
• On a dark oak sapling or a pale oak sapling that is not in a group of four.^[1]
• On a mushroom that is not on a block that allows it to grow into a huge mushroom.^[2]
• On a sea pickle that is already in a group of four and has no valid locations to expand to.^[3]
• On a sea pickle that is not on a coral block.
• On a bamboo (not bamboo shoot) that is blocked in the way.^[4]
• On a Nether fungus that is not on its respective nylium.
• Any plants whose growth is blocked by the build limit.

Creating new plants

Using bone meal on a grass block causes foliage to sprout on and around the targeted block. Grass blocks within a 15×15×15‌^{[JE only]} or 7×5×7‌^{[BE only]} area of the target block randomly choose which type of foliage to grow, if any (provided there is adequate space for the plant to grow). The types of foliage that can be created in this way are short grass, fern‌^{[BE only]}, tall grass, flowers, and pink petals, with the latter two being dependent on external factors like the biome and coordinates. See Flower § Flower biomes and Flower § Post-generation for more information.

Using bone meal on a 2-block flower (rose bushes, sunflowers, lilacs or peonies) cause one of the same type of flower to drop, without breaking the original. This is the only way to reproduce these flowers, since they cannot generate from using bone meal on grass blocks.

Using bone meal on a full square solid surface that is adjacent to a water source can generate seagrass on that block and surrounding blocks. In Java Edition, coral and coral fans may have a chance to generate in warm ocean biomes; in Bedrock Edition, coral and coral fans can be generated in any biome. In Bedrock Edition, in order to successfully use bone meal underwater, there must be 2 water blocks above the block the bone meal is being used on, and the lower one must be non-flowing water.

Using bone meal on a sea pickle on a coral block creates sea pickles. This generates sea pickles up to 3 blocks (of coral) away, so a 7×7 square (49 blocks) of coral may be necessary, to return the most sea pickles per given bone meal attempt (more attempts grows them more numerously, exactly - including the range of it growing, like grass with heights on grass blocks - as coral and coral fans, though those others being non-solid blocks).

Using bone meal on netherrack adjacent to nylium converts the netherrack into nylium of the same type. If both crimson and warped nylium are adjacent to the netherrack that was applied with bone meal, there is a 50% chance that either type of nylium is created.

Using bone meal on nylium causes the corresponding nether roots and both types of Nether fungi to appear on the nylium block and other nylium, netherrack, dirt or grass blocks nearby (in a 5×5 total area), with the type of fungi matching the type of nylium being more common. In addition, using bone meal on warped nylium creates nether sprouts and twisting vines.

Farmer villagers

Villagers with the farmer profession can collect bone meal from a full composter, with which they can make their crops grow faster.

Crafting ingredient

In Bedrock Edition, bone meal can be also used in banner patterns:

Loom ingredient

Dye

In Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education, bone meal can be:

• Applied to sheep to dye their wool, which can then be sheared for 1–3 blocks of white wool.
• Applied to tamed wolves to dye their collars.
• Applied to tamed cats to dye their collars.
• Used to dye or stain leather armor, beds, glass, terracotta, shulker boxes, candles, and harnesses.
• Combined with gunpowder to make a firework star.
• Combined with a firework star to create a fade-to-color effect.
• Used to add patterns to banners.
• Used to dye shulkers in Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education.
• Used to dye water contained in cauldrons in Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education.
• Combined with sand and gravel to craft concrete powder.
• Combined with compounds to craft balloons or glow sticks in Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education.
• Used to change the color of text on signs or hanging signs.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

Data history

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Bone Meal" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• Bone meal can be used on the sides or bottom of a grass block, as well as on a grass block with plants already on top of it.
• Regardless of if it succeeds in fertilizing, bone meal makes green sparkles. However, like smoke from a torch, the sparkles appear only if the player has particles set All or Decreased.
• In real life, bone meal is used as a fertilizer to provide nitrogen and phosphorus to plants.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  Bone meal used on grass blocks

In other media

• 
  Bone meal as seen in Minecraft Earth

See also

• Farming

References