How to get bone meal using a composter in Minecraft

Bone meal is Minecraft's miracle growth formula, speeding the growth time of things like tree saplings, wheat, carrots and potatoes, and it can also be used to craft various dyes.

While bone meal is typically derived from bones and bone blocks, it can also be earned via composters, which can break down food and plant matter into extra bone meal.

Composters can be crafted but are also found as a job block in villages for farmer villagers. Though the composter is a fairly straightforward block regarding how it operates, there are certain things to keep in mind when using one to maximize its effectiveness.

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Minecraft: How composters work

A filled composter can have its recycled matter formed into bone meal (Image via Mojang)

In Minecraft, composters work in layers. Each item added to a composter has a certain percentage chance to increase the layer level by one. Once the composter has reached its seventh level, it will be possible to harvest bone meal from within.

Here's a list that categorizes recyclable materials based on their chances of increasing the compost level:

30%

• Beetroot seeds
• Dried kelp
• Grass
• Glow berries
• Hanging roots
• Kelp
• Leaves
• Melon seeds
• Moss carpet
• Pumpkin seeds
• Saplings
• Seagrass
• Small dripleaf
• Sweet berries
• Wheat seeds

50%

• Cactus blocks
• Dried kelp blocks
• Flowering Azalea leaves
• Glow lichen
• Melon slices
• Nether sprouts
• Sugar cane
• Tall grass
• Vines
• Weeping vines
• Twisting vines

65%

• Apples
• Azalea blocks
• Beetroots
• Big dripleaf blocks
• Carrots
• Cocoa beans
• Ferns
• Flowers
• Lily pads
• Melon blocks
• Moss blocks
• Mushrooms
• Mushroom stem blocks
• Nether wart
• Potatoes
• Pumpkin blocks
• Sea pickles
• Shroomlight blocks
• Spore blossoms
• Wheat
• Fungus
• Roots

85%

• Baked potatoes
• Bread
• Cookies
• Flowering Azalea blocks
• Hay bale blocks
• Mushroom blocks
• Nether Wart blocks
• Warped war blocks

100%

• Cake
• Pumpkin pie

In order to harvest as much bone meal as possible from composters, Minecraft players will want to focus on using the higher-percentage foodstuffs and plant matter to increase the composter's level.

Because of this, some players opt to keep a composter close to their farms similar to how farmer villagers operate. That way, players can harvest their crops, feed a certain amount into the composter, and receive bone meal to speed up their crop production or use in other capacities.

Keeping composters close to farms is a great way to generate bone meal when there aren't enough bones to grind down in the crafting menu.

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