Minecraft Wiki
Minecraft Wiki
Advertisement

Bone meal is a material that can be used as a fertilizer for most plants and fungi, as well as a crafting ingredient for dyes.

Obtaining[]

Crafting[]

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Bone

3
Bone Block

9

Mob loot[]

Fish[]

All fish mob variants (cod, salmon, tropical fish, and pufferfish) have a 5% chance to drop 1 bone meal upon death.‌[Java Edition only] In Bedrock Edition, they drop bones instead.

Composters[]

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

Trading[]

Wandering traders sell 3 bone meal for an emerald.‌[Bedrock Edition only]

Usage[]

Crafting ingredient[]

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe Description
Bone Block Bone Meal

Gray Dye Ink Sac or
Black Dye +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
Light Blue Dye Lapis Lazuli or
Blue Dye +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
Lime Dye Green Dye +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
Magenta Dye Lapis Lazuli or
Blue Dye +
Red Dye +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
Pink Dye Red Dye +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Balloon Latex +
Bone Meal +
Helium +
Lead

[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Bed Any Bed +
Bone Meal


[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Concrete Powder Bone Meal +
Sand +
Gravel
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Dye Bone Meal

White Firework Star Gunpowder +
Bone Meal +
Head or
Gold Nugget or
Feather or
Fire Charge +
Glowstone Dust +
Diamond


[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
Up to eight dyes can be added.
One head, gold nugget, feather, or fire charge can be added.
Both the diamond and the glowstone dust can be added with any of the other ingredients.
White Firework Star White Firework Star +
Bone Meal


[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
Adds a "fade to color" effect to the firework star, overwriting any existing fades.
Up to eight dyes can be added.
White Glow Stick Polyethylene +
Hydrogen Peroxide +
Bone Meal +
Luminol

[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Shulker Box Any Shulker Box +
Bone Meal


[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Stained Glass Glass +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Stained Glass Pane Glass Pane +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Terracotta Terracotta +
Bone Meal
[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
White Wool Any Wool +
Bone Meal


[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]

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

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe
White Banner pattern Bone Meal +
Banner


White Banner image Bone Meal +
Banner +
Vines or
Bricks or
Creeper Head or
Wither Skeleton Skull or
Oxeye Daisy or
Enchanted Golden Apple
Enchanted Golden Apple

Loom ingredient[]

Name Ingredients Loom recipe Description
White Banner pattern White Banner +
Bone Meal

Field masoned banner and bordure indented banner don't require banner patterns.‌[Java Edition only]

Bone Meal can be used as a dye.‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Note: The loom is using the Java Edition interface.

White Banner image White Banner +
Bone Meal +
Banner Pattern

Exceptions:
  1. Field masoned and bordure indented banner patterns.‌[Bedrock Edition only]

Bone Meal can be used as a dye.‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Note: The loom is using the Java Edition interface.

Dye[]

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

Fertilizer[]

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

Plant Action
Wheat
Carrots
Potatoes
The plant matures 2–5 growth stages.
Beetroots The plant has a 75% chance of growing to the next growth stage.
Bamboo Grows the bamboo by 1-2 stems.
Melon Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
The planted stem matures 2–5 growth stages. Bone meal affects only the stem's growth; it does not cause melons or pumpkins to sprout from a mature stem.
Saplings
Azalea
Flowering Azalea
Mangrove Propagule (not hanging)
The sapling has a 45% chance of growing to the next growth stage, if possible. Saplings have two growth stages (with no visible difference between them) before growing into trees as the third stage. A tree cannot grow unless the sapling is planted in proper ground and sufficient space is available. Using bone meal on such an obstructed sapling with no chance of growing wastes the bone meal.
Sunflowers
Lilacs
Rose Bushes
Peonies
The corresponding item form drops, without destroying the original plant.
Grass
Ferns
Seagrass
A one-block-high tall grass, fern, or seagrass (that is on grass block, dirt, coarse dirt, rooted dirt, farmland, podzol, mycelium, moss block, mud, or muddy mangrove roots (only exception is seagrass, will need to on a full surface)) grows into a two-block-high tall grass, fern or seagrass.
Mushrooms Has a 40% chance of growing into a huge mushroom if on grass block, dirt, coarse dirt, rooted dirt, farmland, podzol, mycelium, moss block, mud, or muddy mangrove roots.
Cocoa The cocoa plant matures 1 growth stage.
Sweet Berry Bush Grows every stage.
Sea Pickle If the sea pickle is on a coral block and in water at least 2 blocks deep, the sea pickle colony grows, and additional sea pickles generate nearby.
Sugar Cane[BE only] The sugar cane grows to maximum height (three blocks tall).
Kelp The kelp plant grows by 1 block per bone meal used, up to its maximum height.
Flower (excluding wither roses)‌[BE only] One-block-high flowers make more flowers of the same type grow in the surrounding area.
Fungus Grows into huge fungi, but only if on the respective nylium.
Weeping Vines Grows the weeping vines a few blocks downward.
Twisting Vines Grows the twisting vines a few blocks upward.
Cave Vines Produces glow berries if the vine did not have any glow berries on it already.
Glow Lichen The glow lichen spreads to a random adjacent block.
Moss Block The moss block causes nearby stone, cave vines, and dirt to become moss blocks.
Big Dripleaf
Small Dripleaf
A big dripleaf grows one block higher, and a small dripleaf becomes a big dripleaf.
Rooted Dirt Causes hanging roots to grow underneath the rooted dirt if there is space.
Mangrove Leaves Creates a hanging mangrove propagule under the mangrove leaves.
Mangrove Propagule (hanging) The mangrove propagule matures 1 growth age.
Pink Petals Produces another pink petal in the block. If there are already four pink petals in the block, it will drop a pink petal as an item.
Torchflower Crop
Pitcher Crop
Grows every stage.

Bone meal does not affect:

Wasting bone meal[]

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

Creating new plants[]

If bone meal is used on a grass block; tall grass, grass, flowers, and pink petals form on the targeted block and on random adjacent grass blocks in an 15×5×15‌[JE only]/7×5×7‌[BE only] area centered on the targeted block. The flowers/pink petals that appear depend on the biome, meaning that in order to obtain specific flowers, the player must travel to biomes where the flowers are found naturally. See Flower § Flower biomes for more information.

Using bone meal on a 2-block flower (rose bushes, sunflowers, lilacs or peonies) will 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 non-transparent block that is underwater generates seagrass on that block and surrounding blocks. Sometimes, if in a warm ocean biome, coral and coral fans may have a chance to generate as well, and in Bedrock Edition, coral (not coral fan) can be generated in any biome. In order for this to work, 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+ block (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 roots and both types of fungi to appear on the nylium block and other nylium nearby, with the type of fungi matching the type of nylium being more common. In addition, using bone meal on the side of 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.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Bone Meal crinklesBlocksWhen bone meal is successfully useditem.bone_meal.usesubtitles.item.bone_meal.use1.01.016

Bedrock Edition:

SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
BlocksWhen bone meal is successfully useditem.bone_meal.use1.00.9-1.1

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierFormTranslation key
Bone Mealbone_mealItemitem.minecraft.bone_meal

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierAlias ID Numeric ID FormTranslation key
Bone Mealbone_mealdye / 15411Itemitem.dye.white.name

History[]

Java Edition Beta
1.2Bone Meal JE1 BE1 Added bone meal.
Bone meal can now only be applied to saplings and wheat.
1.6.6Bone meal can now be applied on grass blocks.
1.8Pre-releaseBone meal can now be used on mushrooms to make huge mushrooms, and the block the mushroom is on changes to dirt.
Pre-release 2 ;)Bone meal can now be applied on pumpkin and melon seeds.
Java Edition
1.3.112w19aBone meal can now be applied on cocoa beans.
1.3Bone Meal JE2 BE2 The texture of bone meal has been changed.
1.4.212w34aBone meal can now be used to dye leather armor and tamed wolf's collar.
1.4.612w49aBone meal can now be crafted with gunpowder to create a firework star.
1.513w04aBone meal has been significantly nerfed.

Wheat, melon and pumpkin seeds, potatoes and carrots: one bone meal is now consumed for all seven stages of growth (melon and pumpkin seeds do not spawn right away).
Saplings: one bone meal is now consumed for each of the two growth stages, then it grows into a tree.
Cocoas: one bone meal is now consumed for each of the three stages of growth.

Green particles are now displayed when bone meal is used.
Bone meal can now be used from dispensers.
13w05aThe balancing of bone meal has been adjusted. Growing a plant to its last state now takes on average 2-5 uses of bone meal (results vary from plant to plant).[6]
1.6.113w19aBone meal can now be used to craft white stained clay.
1.7.213w36aThe flowers generated when using bone meal on grass blocks is now biome dependent.
13w41aBone meal can now be used to craft white stained glass.
1.814w30aAdded banners, which can be dyed with bone meal.
1.1016w20aBone meal can now be used to craft bone blocks.
1.1116w39bBone meal can now be used to dye shulker boxes.
1.1217w06aBone meal can now be used to craft white concrete powder.
1.1317w47aThe different data values for the dye ID have been split up into their own IDs.
Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 351.
18w07aBone meal can now be used underwater to create seagrass.
18w14bBone meal can now be used for spreading sea pickles.
1.13.118w31aBone meal used in water of warm ocean biomes now has a chance of growing coral.
Cod, salmon, tropical fish, and pufferfish now have a chance of dropping bone meal upon death.
18w32aBone meal used in water of warm ocean biomes now has a chance of growing coral fans.
1.1418w43aBone meal can now used to craft white dye.
Bone meal can no longer be used as a dye.
All of the dye-related functions and crafting recipes of bone meal (except bone blocks) have been transferred to white dye.
Bone Meal JE3 BE3 The texture of bone meal has been changed.
Bone meal can now be used on bamboo and bamboo shoot.
19w03aBone meal can now be obtained from composters.
1.1620w06aBone meal can now be used to grow fungi into huge fungi.
Bone meal can now be used to spread nylium onto netherrack.
20w09aUsing bone meal to grow fungi now works only on the respective nylium.
20w11aBone meal can now grow kelp, weeping vines, and twisting vines.
20w12aBone meal can now be used to grow roots, fungi, and nether sprouts on nylium.
20w13aFarmers can now use bone meal to grow crops.
1.1721w03aBone meal can now be used to spread glow lichens.
21w05aBone meal can now be used on moss blocks, small dripleaf, big dripleaf, and cave vines.
21w11aBone meal can now be used on rooted dirt.
21w15aBone meal now makes a sound when used.
21w16aMoss patches obtained from fertilizing moss blocks contain less vegetation and are now smaller and more irregular in shape.
Bone meal can now be used on azalea and flowering azalea.
1.1922w11aBone meal can now be used on mangrove propagules and mangrove leaves.
1.20
(Experimental)
23w07aBone meal can now be used on pink petals and torchflower crops.
Using bone meal on cherry groves now have a chance to generate pink petals.
1.2023w12aBone meal can now be used on pitcher crops.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.3.0Bone Meal JE1 BE1 Added bone meal. It is currently unobtainable and serves no purpose.
v0.3.3Bone meal can now be crafted from bones.
Bone meal can now be applied to grass blocks and saplings.
v0.4.0Added the first crops, which bone meal can be applied to.
v0.8.0build 1Bone Meal JE2 BE2 The texture of bone meal has been changed.
Bone meal no longer instantly grows crops to full size.
Bone meal can now be used to craft white wool.
build 5Pumpkin and melon stems now grow by only one stage when bone meal is used.
Some flowers now spawn certain other flowers when bone meal is used on them.
Bone meal can now grow ferns and tall grass in survival and creative.
Bone meal can now grow sugar canes to maximum height.
v0.9.0build 11Bone meal can now be used to dye tamed wolf collars.
v0.14.0build 1Bone meal can now be used from dispensers.
Bone meal can now be used to dye water in cauldrons.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0alpha 0.17.0.1Bone meal can now be used to dye shulkers.
1.1.0alpha 1.1.0.0Bone meal can now be used to craft white concrete powder, white beds and white shulker boxes.
1.1.3alpha 1.1.3.0Bone meal can now be used to craft bone blocks.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0beta 1.2.0.2Bone meal can now be used to craft white stained glass.
Bone meal can now be used to craft firework stars.
Bone meal can now be used to create banner patterns.
1.4.0beta 1.2.14.2Bone meal can now be used underwater for growing seagrass and coral.
beta 1.2.20.1Bone meal can now be used for spreading sea pickles.
Bone meal can now be used to craft white balloons and white glow sticks.
1.8.0beta 1.8.0.8Bone meal can now be used to grow bamboo.
beta 1.8.0.10Bone meal can now be used to craft white dye.
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Bone meal are now sold by wandering traders.
Bone Meal JE3 BE3 The texture of bone meal has been changed.
1.11.0beta 1.11.0.1Bone meal can now be obtained from composters.
1.16.0beta 1.16.0.51Bone meal can now grow fungi into huge fungi.
Bone meal can now be used to turn netherrack into nylium.
Bone meal can now be used to grow roots, fungi, and nether sprouts on nylium.
1.16.100beta 1.16.100.56The ID of bone meal has been changed from dye/15 to bone_meal.
1.16.210beta 1.16.210.51Bone meal used in water now has a chance of growing coral fans.
1.16.220beta 1.16.220.52Bone meal can now be used on moss blocks, small dripleaf, big dripleaf, cave vines and rooted dirt.
1.17.0beta 1.16.230.50Bone meal can now be used to spread glow lichens.
beta 1.16.230.54Bone meal can be used to grow azaleas into azalea trees.
beta 1.17.0.50Bone meal now makes a sound when used.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.00 Patch 11.0.1Bone Meal JE1 BE1 Added bone meal.
TU19CU7 1.12 Bone meal no longer instantly grows crops to full size.
1.90 Bone Meal JE3 BE3 The texture of bone meal has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Bone Meal JE2 BE2 Added bone meal.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Bone Meal" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues 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[]

See also[]

References[]

Advertisement