For example "Ark for PS4" or "Update my Server"
CONTENT ON THIS SITE
GPORTAL
Home / Wiki / Minecraft / Minecraft Bone Meal
Minecraft
Genre: Open-World-Survival
Studio: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang
Rent a server
Rent a server
Genre: Open-World-Survival
Studio: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang

Minecraft Bone Meal

What is bone meal in Minecraft? It is an item that can be used in farming and crafting, standing out as particularly useful. Derived from bones, Minecraft bone meal serves multiple purposes in the game, from rapidly growing plants and crops to producing dyes and more. Whether you’re a seasoned player or new to the world of Minecraft, understanding how to effectively use Minecraft bone meal can significantly improve your gameplay, helping you achieve your farming, building and crafting goals more efficiently.

Overview Minecraft Bone Meal:

  • fertilizer & crafting material
  • made from bones
  • used with banner patterns
  • uses differ between editions

How to Get Bone Meal in Minecraft

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to get Minecraft bone meal into your inventory. You can either craft it or collect it. But how to craft bone meal in Minecraft? To craft Minecraft bone meal, you simply need to place bones in any slot of a crafting table, which yields 3x Minecraft bone meal per bone.

Minecraft Bone Meal Recipe:

1x bone → 3x bone meal

Additionally, Minecraft bone meal can be ‘crafted’ from a bone meal block, a compressed storage form of bones, which when decompressed yields 9x Minecraft bone meal. Since you never lose any Minecraft bone meal between conversions, a bone meal block is extremely useful for managing inventory space.

Collecting Minecraft Bone Meal

However, before you can convert bones or a bone meal block into Minecraft bone meal, you first need to find them. A useful source for bones or bone meal are fish. Depending on the Edition you play, looting a fish can give you a bone or Minecraft bone meal. In this sense, fishing fulfills a double role, giving you both Minecraft bone meal and ingredients to cook.

Another source are the wandering traders found roaming different biomes. In the Bedrock Edition, they sell 3x Minecraft bone meal in exchange for an emerald. Finally, composters can also create bone meal, provided they are filled completely. Farmer villagers can also use this mechanic, at least in the Bedrock Edition. Here, they actively fill the composter with seeds and distribute Minecraft bone meal fertilizer if they have any.

As bones and a bone meal block are very easy to craft into Minecraft bone meal, hunting skeletons, opening chests and looting fossils found in swamp and desert biomes can prove useful when collecting Minecraft bone meal. The fossils are especially desirable, as they are made of many bone blocks, each of which holds 9x bone meal items.

Minecraft Bone Meal Uses 

Once you have acquired the bone meal, the question ‘What to do with bone meal in Minecraft’ may come up. There are several Minecraft bone meal uses we have collected here.

Accelerating Plant Growth

The primary use of Minecraft bone meal is to expedite the growth of plants. When applied to certain plants, it encourages faster growth, advancing them to their next growth stage. It is particularly handy for you in need of quick food sources or when trying to establish a new farm.

Minecraft bone meal effects all saplings, wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroots and other crops, except for the following:

  • cactus
  • chorus plants
  • Nether wart
  • sugar cane (Java Edition)
  • vines

Keep in mind that plants need to have their normal growing conditions fulfilled. For example, when using Minecraft bone meal fertilizer on bamboo, that bamboo plant must be able to grow upwards. If there is a block in its way, you essentially waste your Minecraft bone meal.

Breeding Flowers & Grass

Minecraft bone meal is also used to generate and propagate flowers and tall grass. When used on a grass block, it causes flowers and tall grass to sprout in the surrounding area, which can be harvested for dyes or decorative purposes. This feature is invaluable if you’re looking to customize your builds with natural elements.

Specifically, Minecraft bone meal can be used to create or recreate the following plants:

  • fungi (when used on a nylium block)
  • lilacs
  • nylium (when used on a nylium-adjacent netherrack block)
  • peonies
  • rose bushes
  • seagrass (underwater only)
  • sea pickles (requires a sea pickle on a coral block)
  • sunflowers

Just as with the plant growth acceleration above, these plants still require certain conditions to grow. If you use your Minecraft bone meal fertilizer on a sea pickle that is not on a coral block, the Minecraft bone meal is used up without effect.

Dye Production with Minecraft Bone Meal

In addition to its agricultural benefits, Minecraft bone meal serves to create white dye, which is crucial for crafting other dyes or for dyeing wool, glass or other materials. You can also use it when crafting banners, changing the pattern’s color. Specifically in the Minecraft Bedrock and Education Edition, Minecraft bone meal itself serves as white dye. In other editions than Java, Minecraft bone meal can be used as a substitute for white dye in the following dye recipes:

  • gray dye
  • light blue dye
  • lime dye
  • magenta dye
  • pink dye

The Java Edition only allows you to craft white dye from bone meal in a 1:1 conversion.

Other uses for bone meal in Minecraft include fireworks, stained glass and terracotta. This makes Minecraft bone meal a staple in any Minecraft player’s toolkit, particularly for those engaged in creative building projects or who need specific color variations for their creations.

Strategic Tips for Using Minecraft Bone Meal

While Minecraft bone meal is abundant, it’s important to use it wisely to maximize its potential. You should prioritize its use on crops that yield high food returns, such as potatoes or carrots, or on saplings in areas where wood is scarce. Moreover, using Minecraft bone meal on cocoa beans can be highly efficient for producing large quantities of cookies or brown dye.

Keep in mind that when combined with a dispenser, bone meal can be used to automatically fertilize your crops. By using a redstone circuit and a daylight sensor, you can ensure that your crops are always growing at maximum capacity. Combine the construct with a hopper and a comparator to automatically insert dead plant material and extract the Minecraft bone meal.

Variations in Minecraft Bone Meal Use Across Minecraft Editions

The functionality of Minecraft bone meal varies slightly across different Minecraft editions, which can impact how you approach its use in each version. In the Java Edition, Minecraft bone meal is known for its somewhat unpredictable effects on plants, with a random chance of advancing growth, making its usage more of a gamble. Conversely, in the Bedrock and Education Editions, Minecraft bone meal’s effects are more predictable, often guaranteeing growth advancement with fewer applications per plant.

This makes it a more reliable tool in these editions for quick farming or gardening tasks. Additionally, the Education Edition incorporates unique educational features that can demonstrate the effects of fertilizers in agriculture, using Minecraft bone meal as an example. This not only enhances gameplay but also serves an educational purpose, teaching you about plant biology and sustainable farming practices. These subtle differences can influence your strategies and resource management depending on the edition you’re playing.

Conclusion: Minecraft Bone Meal

Minecraft bone meal is not just a tool but a fundamental resource that enhances and enriches the gameplay experience. Whether you’re looking to boost your farming outputs, beautify your living spaces with plants and flowers or delve into the world of color customization, Minecraft bone meal is an indispensable part of the Minecraft universe. Its ease of acquisition and wide range of applications make it a must-have item in every player’s inventory. If you’re now brimming with excitement to use Minecraft bone meal to its fullest capacity, try a Minecraft server from G-Portal. 

MORE ABOUT MINECRAFT

similar articles

Minecraft

Minecraft Dungeons, Dragons and Space Shuttles

Minecraft

Minecraft Valhelsia 3

Minecraft

The Minecraft Barrel