How to Make Bone Meal Fertilizer with Bones

Sharing is caring!

Learn how to make your own bone meal fertilizer for the garden using leftover bones from homemade bone broth. Such a great, simple, and resourceful way to reduce waste and feed your vegetable garden for free!

My friends call me resourceful. My husband calls me a nut job.

I’m the kind of person who hates throwing anything away if it’s still good. Because most things can be reused or upcycled! This is especially true when it comes to food. With grocery prices these days, the last thing I want to do is waste anything.

That’s why I save all the bones from our meals and make a batch of bone broth every week.

Bone broth is such a wonderful way to take what would otherwise be kitchen scraps and turn them into a nourishing, collagen-rich broth that’s perfect for soups, stews, and all kinds of recipes. If you’re curious, you can learn more about the benefits of bone broth and find a simple Instant Pot bone broth recipe in this post.

But lately, tossing out the bones after making bone broth has been bothering me.. Maybe I am a nut job after all. So I started wondering… could I turn those used bones into bone meal fertilizer?

Turns out, you totally can!

With gardening season just around the corner, let’s learn the perfect way to turn food scraps into plant food. It’s simple, free, and a great way to nourish your garden while reducing waste.

One $13 Turkey, Many Uses: Feeding My Family and Fertilizing the Garden

I love cooking from scratch and growing my own food—especially when it’s done in a frugal, resourceful way. There’s something incredibly satisfying about using every part of what you grow or cook, turning scraps into nourishment and waste into abundance.

If you’re curious about starting your own garden and learning how to grow your food on a budget, check out this post.

For example, this turkey I cooked for Easter cost me just CAD $13. It fed my family of four four times, gave me nearly 4 liters of collagen-rich bone broth, and yielded 150 grams of bone meal, which is enough to fertilize the soil to grow around 10 pounds of carrots. I even saved the residual meat and cartilages off the bones for a special treat for my backyard chickens.

If all of this sounds good to you, keep reading and learn how to make (and use) bone meal fertilizer from your bone broth bones.

What is bone meal fertilizer?

As the name suggests, bone meal is made from finely ground bones. It’s a natural fertilizer that’s particularly high in phosphorus, calcium, and nitrogen. Bone meal fertilizer can be bought at pretty much any garden center or online (check this organic bone meal fertilizer from Amazon) or, of course, you can make your own!

What Plants Benefit from Bone Meal?

You can add bone meal fertilizer to your garden to improve the quality and structure of your soil, which will benefits any crop. However, bone meal fertilizer is particularly beneficial for:

• Root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, beets, and potatoes: the phosphorus in bone meal encourages strong root development
• Fruit-bearing plants such as tomatoes, squash and peppers: the phosphorus in bone meal leads to higher flower, fruit, and seed production, therefore increasing fruit yield. The calcium in bone also helps preventing blossom end rot in tomatoes and peppers
• Flowering plants like roses, zinnias, and marigolds: the phosphorus in bone meal encourages the plant to bloom more and more beautiful flowers
• Cabbages: fertilizing cabbages with bone meal helps getting tight, well-formed cabbage heads

When and How Should I Apply Bone Meal?

Bone meal is a slow-release fertilizer, which means it breaks down over time, gently feeding your garden without the risk of burning your plants like some synthetic fertilizers can.

It’s best to apply bone meal at the beginning of the growing season. Use about 2-3 tablespoons of bone meal fertilizer per square foot of soil. As you prepare you soil for planting, sprinkle the bone meal over the soil, then turn the soil well to evenly mix the bone meal into the ground. This method works best for root vegetables.

Alternatively, for bigger plants like tomatoes, peppers, and squash, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of bone meal to each planting hole.

For long growing seasons, you can reapply bone meal every ~4 months.

How to Make Bone Meal Fertilizer at Home from Bone Broth Bones

1. Choose the Right Kind of Bones

You can use any kinds of bones and cartilages to make bone broth. However, in order to be able to grind the bones into meal bone, choose poultry (chicken, turkey) bones, or very small bones from beef, pork or other bigger animals. I don’t recommend using large, thick bones such as marrow bones if you intend to make bone meal as they would be too hard to grind at home.

2. Make Bone Broth

You can follow my recipes here to make bone broth in the Instant Pot. In short, place your bones in the Instant Pot, cover with water and a splash of apple cider vinegar (optional), and pressure cook for about 4-5 hours. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, simmer your broth on low heat on the stove for about 16-24 hours.

3. Clean the bones

Once your bone broth is ready, strain it over a colander. Store the bone broth in glass jars and refrigerate.

Let the strained out bones and residual meats/cartilages cool off just enough that you can handle them safely. Remove all the meat, fat, and cartilage from the bones. Then rinse the bones out until they are clean.

If you have animals (like chickens or dogs) you can feed them the leftover meats and cartilages. Otherwise, toss them.

4. Dry the bones

Spread the cleaned bones out on a baking sheet.

Bake in the oven at 250°F for 2-3 hours, or until the bones are dry and brittle.
Alternatively, place the bones out in the sun for a few days to dry out.

5. Grind the bones into bone meal

Once the bones are dry, grind them up. You can use a food processor or blender, or you can also use a mortar and pestle or place them into a bag or towel and roll them over energetically with a rolling pin or beat them with a mallet until they break apart.

To grind them in a food processor, my advice is to break the bones up into small pieces first. If you’re using poultry bones, you can easily do this with your hands, or you can use a hammer. When breaking up the bones, make sure they are completely dry inside. If not, place them back into the oven for another 30 minutes to 1 hour.

I also advice to use an old food processor you don’t care much about and pulse the bones for a few seconds at the time first, then grind at full power until they turn into powder.

Once grinded, your meal bone is ready to be used as a fertilizer in your garden! Read the first part of this post to know how to use it. You can store your homemade bone meal in a closed jar in a dark cool place for up to one year.

Notes

If you want to make a bigger batch of bone meal at once, you can save your bones from several batches of bone broth. Just place the cleaned bones (after step 3) in a large bag in the freezer. Collect the bones until you have enough, then dry them and grind them.

Other Affordable Ways to Fertilize your Garden

Bone meal is an excellent natural fertilizer that enriches your soil with phosphorus and calcium, two essential minerals that support strong root development, vibrant blooms, and healthy fruiting.

Beyond bone meal, there are plenty of simple, sustainable ways to nourish your garden using what you already have on hand. Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen and can help improve soil texture. Crushed eggshells add calcium and can deter pests like slugs.

You can also make your own compost using kitchen scraps such as fruit peels, vegetable trimmings, and even paper towels. For those near the coast, gathering seaweed or kelp from a clean beach offers a mineral-rich boost that plants love.

These time-honored, DIY methods not only reduce waste but help create a thriving, nutrient-rich garden the natural way. Read other affordable ways to plan your garden and grown your own food in this post.

Drop me a comment down below an let me know if you tried to make your own bone meal fertilizer. I’d love to hear other resourceful things you like to do for your home and garden!

Related Posts

Simple Instant Pot Bone Broth

How to Start a Vegetable Garden on a Budget

How to Grow and Use Chamomile

DIY Rose Water Recipe

What is Simple Living? (And 10 Tips to Simplify your Life)

Pin it for Later

How to Make Bone Meal Fertilizer with Bones

Learn how to make your own bone meal fertilizer for the garden using leftover bones from homemade bone broth. Such a great, simple, and resourceful way to reduce waste and feed your vegetable garden for free!

5 from 3 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Equipment

• 1 Food processor or mortar

Ingredients

  

• Bones see notes
• Water

Instructions

 

• Make bone broth: place your bones in the Instant Pot, cover with water and a splash of apple cider vinegar (optional), and pressure cook for about 4-5 hours. If you don't have an Instant Pot, simmer your broth on low heat on the stove for about 16-24 hours.
• Clean the bones: once your bone broth is ready, strain it over a colander. Store the bone broth in glass jars and refrigerate. Let the strained out bones and residual meats/cartilages cool off just enough that you can handle them safely. Remove all the meat, fat, and cartilage from the bones. Then rinse the bones out until they are clean.
• Dry the bones: spread the cleaned bones out on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 250°F for 2-3 hours, or until the bones are dry and brittle. Alternatively, place the bones out in the sun for a few days to dry out.
• Grind the bones into bone meal: once the bones are dry, grind them up. You can use a food processor or blender, or you can also use a mortar and pestle or place them into a bag or towel and roll them over energetically with a rolling pin or beat them with a mallet until they break apart.

  To grind them in a food processor, break the bones up into small pieces first. If you're using poultry bones, you can easily do this with your hands, or you can use a hammer. When breaking up the bones, make sure they are completely dry inside. If not, place them back into the oven for another 30 minutes to 1 hour. Place the bones pieces in the food processor, pulse a few times, and then grind them at full power until they turn into powder.
• Once grinded, your meal bone is ready to be used as a fertilizer in your garden! You can store your homemade bone meal in a closed jar in a dark cool place for up to one year.

Notes

You can use any kinds of bones and cartilages to make bone broth. However, in order to be able to grind the bones into meal bone, choose poultry (chicken, turkey) bones, or very small bones from beef, pork or other bigger animals. I don’t recommend using large, thick bones such as marrow bones if you intend to make bone meal as they would be too hard to grind at home.

If you want to make a bigger batch of bone meal at once, you can save your bones from several batches of bone broth. Just place the cleaned bones (after step 2) in a large bag in the freezer. Collect the bones until you have enough, then dry them and grind them.