What is Bone Meal?

If you are just getting started with organic gardening you may have heard people talk about bone meal. What is bone meal? What do you use it for?

Much like its name suggests, bone meal is made from bone. Essentially, the bones of animals from the meat processing industry are sterilized and are then ground down into bone meal.

In organic gardening, bone meal is then used as a slow release fertilizer in order to provide phosphorus to the soil.

The most common types of plants that bone meal is typically used on in gardening include bulbs, root vegetables like onions and carrots, legumes such as peas and beans, tomato plants, fruit plants and flowers with tuberous roots such as dahlias.

For flowering plants, having enough phosphorus available in the soil can help them to bloom longer and can also result in the production of more flowers on each plant.

It is also often used to encourage healthy root growth after transplant. If you sprinkling finely ground bone meal when transplanting vegetables or flowers or planting bulbs it will help to encourage root growth which in turn can lead to healthier, faster growing plants.

Bone meal is also a good organic fertilizer for lawns and is a safe choice if you have pets or children - or if you just don't like the idea of using chemical fertilizers. Try sprinkling bone meal on your lawn in the autumn to help encourage a healthy root system on your turf. Adding bone meal to your lawn can also help it to start growing earlier in the spring.

Bone meal can be either coarsely or finely ground, each of which has its uses. Fine ground bone meal is believed to act more quickly than coarse ground so you can add it to the soil closer to the time of planting. Coarse ground, on the other hand, is slower to work but lasts longer, providing plants with nutrients for a greater period of time.

Try raking coarse ground bone meal into the soil any time before you plant in the spring. The phosphorus will slowly be released into the soil, providing your plants, vegetables and flowers with the nutrients they need to grow strong and healthy.

You should be able to find bone meal for sale at just about any nursery or garden center.