The composter turns farm waste into bone meal. Seeds you do not need, extra saplings, leaves, rotten crops and even cake all go in, and bone meal comes out, which you can use to grow crops and trees instantly or turn into white dye. It is also the workstation that turns a villager into a farmer. This guide explains how to make a composter in Minecraft, how composting works, which items fill it fastest, how to automate it with hoppers, and the best ways to use the bone meal.
Quick answer: composter recipe
| Slab | Empty | Slab |
| Slab | Empty | Slab |
| Slab | Slab | Slab |
7 wooden slabs in a U shape make 1 composter. Any wooden slab works, including bamboo, crimson and warped slabs, and you can mix types. The recipe is the same on Java, Bedrock and consoles.
How to make wooden slabs
Place 3 planks in a row on a crafting table to get 6 slabs. Two crafts give 12 slabs, enough for one composter with 5 to spare. A stonecutter cannot make wooden slabs, so use the crafting table.
How composting works
- Place the composter.
- Hold a compostable item and use it on the composter. Each item has a chance to raise the compost level by one layer.
- After 7 layers, the composter shows white particles and becomes full.
- A moment later it becomes ready, showing bone meal on top.
- Use it again with any item or an empty hand to collect 1 bone meal. The composter empties.
Every item you put in is used up, even if the level does not rise. Items with a higher chance fill the composter faster.
Best items to compost
| Chance per item | Items |
|---|---|
| 30 percent | Seeds, leaves, saplings, grass, kelp, sweet berries, glow berries, moss carpet, hanging roots, small dripleaf |
| 50 percent | Cactus, sugar cane, melon slices, vines, tall grass, nether sprouts, twisting and weeping vines, dried kelp blocks |
| 65 percent | Wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, apples, pumpkins, melons, flowers, mushrooms, lily pads, ferns, cocoa beans, moss blocks |
| 85 percent | Bread, baked potatoes, cookies, hay bales, flowering azaleas, mushroom blocks, nether wart blocks, warped wart blocks |
| 100 percent | Cake and pumpkin pie |
On average, it takes about 23 seeds, 14 cactus or 11 wheat to make one bone meal. Hay bales and bread are very efficient, but it is better to use them as food or for breeding animals. The best inputs are things you have too much of: spare seeds, saplings, kelp and leaves.
How to automate a composter with hoppers
- A hopper above or beside the composter puts items into it automatically.
- A hopper below collects the bone meal when it is ready.
- Connect the bottom hopper to a chest so bone meal piles up.
Put the composter at the end of an automatic farm, such as a kelp farm, sugar cane farm or tree farm, and route the surplus into it. A kelp farm with a composter is one of the classic ways to produce endless bone meal. See how to make a hopper.
Composter and redstone
A comparator next to a composter outputs a signal from 0 to 8 depending on how full it is. Players use this to detect when bone meal is ready or to build sorting systems. The composter is also a solid block for placing other blocks against, which is useful in farm builds.
The composter as a villager workstation
Place a composter near an unemployed villager and it becomes a farmer. Farmers harvest and replant crops in village farms, share food with other villagers, and trade crops for emeralds. They also put crops into composters. Farmers are one of the best early traders because they buy wheat, potatoes, carrots, pumpkins and melons. See how to breed villagers.
What to do with bone meal
- Grow crops: use bone meal on wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroot and other crops to grow them instantly or in a few uses.
- Grow trees: use it on saplings to grow trees quickly, including 2 by 2 jungle and dark oak trees.
- Grow flowers and grass: use it on grass blocks to spread grass and flowers.
- Make white dye: 1 bone meal crafts into 1 white dye. See how to make white dye.
- Grow moss and other plants: it spreads moss, grows sea pickles, glow lichen and many other plants.
Bone meal is also crafted from bones, so a skeleton farm is another big source. See how to grow bamboo and how to grow mushrooms for other farm ideas.
Composters in Java vs Bedrock
The recipe, the seven levels and the bone meal output are the same. Compost chances for a few items differ between editions, and Bedrock lets you compost some items Java does not and the other way round, but the main crops, seeds and plants work in both. Hopper automation and comparator signals work in both editions.
Common problems
- Items disappear but the level does not rise: that is normal; each item only has a chance to add a layer.
- The item will not go in: not every item is compostable. Meat, fish, tools and stone do not work.
- Bone meal does not come out: wait a moment after it fills, then use it again or put a hopper below.
Composter farm ideas
The best composter setups turn something you already produce into bone meal without any effort. A row of composters under a tree farm collects saplings and leaves that would otherwise despawn. A kelp farm with observers and pistons sends kelp straight into composters through a hopper line, giving bone meal around the clock. In a village, a few composters near the fields let farmer villagers drop their surplus crops into them, and you collect the bone meal from hoppers below. For a small base, a single composter next to your crop farm is enough: drop in spare seeds and the odd rotten potato every time you harvest, and you will always have bone meal for the next planting. Bone meal then speeds up the farm itself, so the composter pays for itself many times over.
FAQ
How do you make a composter in Minecraft?
Place 7 wooden slabs in a U shape on a crafting table.
What does a composter do?
It turns plant items into bone meal and is the workstation for farmer villagers.
How many items does it take to fill a composter?
It depends on the item. On average about 23 seeds, 14 cactus or 11 wheat make one bone meal.
What is the best thing to put in a composter?
Surplus plant items like seeds, saplings, kelp and cactus. Cake and pumpkin pie always add a layer.
Can you automate a composter?
Yes. Hoppers above or beside it insert items, and a hopper below collects the bone meal.
Checked by the Game Respawned editorial team against the current Java and Bedrock versions. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.