Talk: Bone Meal

Old comments[]

Just what is the crafting recipe for making colored wool into white wool? Superfield 00:08, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

There isn't one, you use it on sheep first (By right clicking) then you'll get white wool. I recommend when ever your dyeing sheep, Dye them first before collecting the wool off them, this way you get ~2 blocks per dye, instead of one per dye. Shaar

So there's no way to turn colored wool into white wool after it's been collected? Well, that sucks. Here's hoping that you can change that in a future version. Superfield

Surely there's a mod out there that'll let you craft white wool and bone meal...? XxDangerxX

First time I used bone meal on a sapling, I suffocated. MoonHitler 18:14, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

New 1.6.6 feature for bone meal[]

What is it? It's not clear by the article, and should perhaps be made so. --Atr 13:16, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

It's in there. However, I want to note he only made it so that you can use it on GRASS, not DIRT. Using it on dirt does not make grass grow. However, using it on grass makes flowers and tall grass grow. Acoyph

OK, I see it now. I haven't had chance to test it out, but the reference makes it sound like it can be applied to dirt.

P.S. I've signed your comment for you, remember to do so in future so we can see who's commenting! --Atr 13:23, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, this is my first wiki account and I made it literally minutes ago. I saw someone put it could be used on dirt, so I tried it in several scenarios... Doesn't seem to work at all for me. Just the tall grass. Acoyph

That was me, and truth be told, I haven't tested it - I just went with the twitter comment. My bad, I'll delete the Dirt comment (and not walk on the (tall) grass) --Gemberkoekje 14:16, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

It doesn't seem to be working on the SMP server I play on. Is this bug happening to anyone else? --Zemedelphos 02:45, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Broken in 1.8.1?[]

It seems in 1.8.1 that bonemeal no longer works as a dye. Neither crafting, nor right-clicking a wool block, nor right-clicking a sheep, has any effect. 24.131.107.139 20:09, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Trivia[]

"Some new players mistake bone meal for a paper ball."

Is that line really necessary for the trivia? Should I got to Netherrakk and under trivia say "Mistaken for NetherRock"? 74.43.50.206

Snapshot 13w04a & Mushrooms?[]

Anyone know how the bone meal nerf with snapshot 13w04a affects the growth of giant mushrooms? 66.66.160.204 03:12, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

• In my tests 1 bone meal on 1 mushroom made a mushroom tree for both brown and red (on dirt in a large dim area or on Mycelium) Buzzaro 00:37, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Excessive nerf...[]

I can understand nerfing it for saplings (new intermediate growth stage, i guess), but seven bone meals needed to grow a single crop plant? Good grief! --Mental Mouse 03:46, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Good grief you say? I say it's "Evil grief"! If you ask me (and nobody has but that's never stopped my 2 cents before) it's backwards. Where is the best place to go to convince them to change it around? Trees should take around 6 meals, and wheat should only take 1 meal. I've played a number of fun worlds where seed and a bone kept me from starving to death. Buzzaro 00:24, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

IIUC, the forums are the only official avenue for suggestions; at least some items (notably the Ender Chest) came from there. --Mental Mouse 02:35, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

I just weighed in on the forums (which are mostly furious already), but apparently even Dinnerbone admits on Twitter that it's "not yet balanced". And he's getting pushback there too. --Mental Mouse 03:29, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

It has now been rebalanced with intermediate bonemeal requirements. --Mental Mouse 17:00, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Speaking of that, it would appear someone has added the nerf as if it was already true. I have negated this, as I find the wiki should always inform about the current version.--85.27.161.163 20:39, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

BUD Switches and new animation[]

I've been trying to get a redstone rigged tree farm up and running, and thus was working on using a BUD switch activated dispenser to fertilize a freshly planted sapling. However, with the new fancy animation for bonemeal being used, the BUD switch was tripping every time bonemeal was used. It still worked, mainly because what was supposed to be a T-BUD was resetting itself, but it seems clear to me that the bonemeal being used on the sapling was causing a block update. Or I'm doing something wrong - I'll admit, I'm playing with redstone mechanisms that are much more complex than I'm used to. And if I'm right, should this be added somewhere on the wiki?

Bonemealing Grass in Deserts[]

It seems like when you try to use bonemeal on grass blocks in a desert biome it doesn't produce any tall grass or flowers. This is more pertinent for old maps running on newer world gen, where biomes become out of synch with their terrain. Can someone confirm that bonemeal cannot be used on grass in deserts? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by The new easy (talk • contribs) at 17:54, 27 October 2013‎ (UTC). Please sign your posts with ~~~~

Nope. It works. Tested in 1.7.2. PTR_91 (Talk) 02:29, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

Flowers[]

The article doesn't mention that clicking a flower with bone meal will make more flowers grow. I tried it (in pocket edition) and it works. It has a similar effect to clicking on grass, but only flowers and not grass will appear. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 98.220.130.63 (talk) at 1:58, 01 February 2015 (UTC). Please sign your posts with ~~~~

Were they single tall flowers or double tall flowers? If single tall, then it deserves a mention as a pocket edition exclusive feature. –KnightMiner ^(t·c) 02:57, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

It only works on single tall flowers, and the only flowers that appear on the surrounding grass blocks are dandylions and poppies. in other words, using bone meal in Pocket Edition on any single tall flower will generate poppies and dandylions nearby. 98.220.130.63 21:15, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Well then, there is no reason it should not be on the article. I know personally it does not work in the PC edition, so feel free to add the information noting it is PE exclusive. –KnightMiner ^(t·c) 22:51, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

I found a mention of it on the pocket edition history page. It turns out it was added in version 0.8.0. I'll add this to the article.98.220.130.63 23:43, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Percentages incorrect?[]

I previously did some testing with Bedrock Edition in 1.14 and discovered that bone meal is produced at a higher percentage rate than 65% for 1-tall flowers. I've retested this in Java and Bedrock 1.16 and this is still the case. I've also tested it for the output from bone mealing crimson nylium (fungi and nether roots) on Bedrock and the same is true. From 3 single chests of flowers or nether plants (5,184 items), I get 8 stacks of bone meal +/-2. That implies that the composter level is raised 69% of the time, not 65%. My maths: 5184 * 0.69 / 7 = ~511 = ~8 stacks. This has been consistent across multiple tests (more than 20 on Bedrock, 3 on Java) and has been true in all versions since at least 1.14. Where does the 65% come from? Can someone validate my tests and maths independently. I haven't tested for the other percentages, only 65%. 88.97.11.88 10:42, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Bonemeal to grass block application shape change?[]

The Article states "Taxicab 7" for distance which should look like a diamond but it looks more like a rounded square now. I unloaded 2 dispensers into the grass for this shape, with a piston pounding away the growth above the dispenser to further more growth rapidly. The green sparkle effect has a radius of 4 blocks square, and the application effect has a radius of 7 rounded square (6-7 cardinal, 4-5 on the corners.--PlNG (talk) 19:47, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

I just tested in Bedrock Edition, and the pattern is a perfect 8x8 square. It seems, oddly, to be centered on the southeast corner of the targeted block (usually things like that are centered on the northwest corner).

It's an easy test to do manually. In creative mode, hover over a block, apply bone meal to it, break the grass on that block so you can apply bone meal again, and repeat. After doing this 50 times or so (it takes only about a minute or two), the area around the target block gets populated with grass and flowers, until it's obviously a square.

I changed the article accordingly, with a 'verify' tag noting that this needs to be tested in Java Edition. Amatulic (talk) 18:56, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

I just tested Java 1.18.2 with over 300 bone meal via dispenser and confirmed it's at least a 13x3x13 volume centered on the mealed block and appears to be biased toward the centers and not uniform. I got one single grass at X-7, Z+3, though which is outside that volume. 76.146.129.159 21:15, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

You must test it on 1.19.2. TheGreatSpring (talk | contribs) 21:17, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

Did 512 bone meal, twice, on 1.19.2. On flat ground, the growth area was 14x14 centered on the SE corner. When all potential growth ground was 1 level higher I only got a 13x13 purely centered area. 76.146.129.159 00:25, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Checked the code of JE, the full growth area is 15x15. And I can't reproduce 8x8 square in BE in 1.19.50, instead, I got a 7x7 square. --Chixvv (talk) 09:23, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Crafting Usage section incorrectly listing some items as Bedrock/Education only[]

The notes for several of the items in the Crafting Usage section are incorrectly saying they're for bedrock/education edition only.