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.
Minecraft: How composters work
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.
Read more: 5 best places to find Emeralds in Minecraft