My First Bone Meal

So I'm visiting a homestead this summer, and the lady there would like me to make a bone/egg shell crushing tool. We've sent plans back and forth, but it's basically a 3lb sledge hammer head with a handle stuck on to one end rather than the hole where the handle usually goes. This allows you to put both hands on the handle and really smush those bones or egg shells.

While thinking about making the tool, I thought it'd be fun to make some bone meal. My parents actually just bought some from the garden centre so we don't need any, but I still wanted to see how it was done. So I took some ribs and some chicken breast we cooked recently and took all the meat off. Then into the instant pot on the soup setting with water and some vinegar for 2 hours. After that I was draining the broth like the instructions said, but my mom said that was kind of a waste to refill with fresh water and do it all over again. So I poured the broth back in the instant pot, and set it for another 2 hours. Once it was done the bones were soft enough to crush and cut with an axe head. I blended some up too. However, even to my weak little human nose they smelled very much like a turkey dinner. I thought how nice it would smell outdoors in the soil, even as powder, and I realized why the draining and refilling of the water was necessary. My thinking is that if a powder in your garden smells like a turkey dinner, you are likely going to attract animals who like that smell.

So back into the pot again, this time with fresh water. After that cycle, the bones didn't smell near as much.

This morning I finished it off. I blended up the now very mushy bones, then put them in the oven at 170F on convect bake to get some airflow. Then I looked outside and saw how sunny and breezy it is and decided to put them out there instead. Now just a couple more hours and we'll have some bone meal ready to go!

Oh and I also made some great soup from the broth. Both me and the garden are happy with this experiment.

Here is what I followed:

https://saltinmycoffee.com/how-to-make-bone-meal/

Cam,

Years ago I used to use bone meal regularly for my tomatoes, having learned my lesson about phosphorus deficiency in soil when my tomatoes grew (barely grew that is) with purple leaves.  Bone meal used to be cheap and even had a small N component, I assume from residual blood from the marrow.

But eventually the bone meal got expensive and I learned other ways to improve the nutrient levels of my garden.  Your technique is certainly a clever one and I admire that ingenuity.  I would love to hear how this bone meal works on plants you grow in your garden.

Nice job,

Eric

I was watching a video the other day, about setting up a "natural aquarium" (low tech, etc), and they made a thick layer of soil, mixed with bone and blood meal.

I just bury bones in the garden (from bone broth) and I buried one in the terrarium recently (or not so recently - six months ago). When I found it while redecorating the terrarium, there was a huge colony of springtails all over it. It was clean and not smelly at all. I buried it again.

Eric Hanson wrote:Cam,

Years ago I used to use bone meal regularly for my tomatoes, having learned my lesson about phosphorus deficiency in soil when my tomatoes grew (barely grew that is) with purple leaves.  Bone meal used to be cheap and even had a small N component, I assume from residual blood from the marrow.

But eventually the bone meal got expensive and I learned other ways to improve the nutrient levels of my garden.  Your technique is certainly a clever one and I admire that ingenuity.  I would love to hear how this bone meal works on plants you grow in your garden.

Nice job,

Eric

I won't take credit for the ingenuity, who ever runs the salt in my coffee blog came up with this method. It's a good one for sure, especially if you have a pressure cooker. If done properly it takes 4 hours in the cooker, several minutes to blend or chop then either 4 hours in the oven (or dehydrator if you own one) or outside in the sun. I didn't blend mine quite enough as there are still a few chunks, but I'm sure they'll decompose just fine.

I am excited to see how it affects the soil and plant life!

I was watching a video the other day, about setting up a "natural aquarium" (low tech, etc), and they made a thick layer of soil, mixed with bone and blood meal.

I just bury bones in the garden (from bone broth) and I buried one in the terrarium recently (or not so recently - six months ago). When I found it while redecorating the terrarium, there was a huge colony of springtails all over it. It was clean and not smelly at all. I buried it again.

That sounds pretty neat to me. We had thought of burying the bones whole, but worried about the smell as we have a little dog. Maybe it's worth experiementing putting a boiled bone somewhere in the yard (non-garden area) to see if she digs it up. It's neat to think of a bunch of plants growing out of old bones.

I do find dug up bones too... my dog likes to bury things in the garden, usually the food that he steals ;) but I think he doesn't dig up the bones. Maybe wild animals do, the moles or something. I just bury them again and when I do some gardening work that my dog might want to "improve", I keep him in the house so he doesn't see me working. You can also cover the bones with some strong smelling herbs or sawdust, that will mask them. And then soil on top of it, of course.

I just realized that my post sounds more gross than I intended ;)
Fortunately my garden doesn't look like some upturned graveyard, but there was a horn that was supposed to be my dog's snack and he didn't want to eat it, so he kept burying it and digging up and throwing around. I now make raised beds of compost piles instead of moving the compost anywhere, so less unprocessed contents can show up...

Cam,

Maybe you can’t take credit for ingenuity but you do deserve credit for *DOING*.  Sometimes doing is more important than ingenuity.

Eric

Flora Eerschay wrote:I just realized that my post sounds more gross than I intended ;)
Fortunately my garden doesn't look like some upturned graveyard, but there was a horn that was supposed to be my dog's snack and he didn't want to eat it, so he kept burying it and digging up and throwing around. I now make raised beds of compost piles instead of moving the compost anywhere, so less unprocessed contents can show up...

I think the Graveyard Garden is some good alliteration, and a possible (creepy) name for your garden lol. Especially come halloween!

Eric Hanson wrote:Cam,

Maybe you can’t take credit for ingenuity but you do deserve credit for *DOING*.  Sometimes doing is more important than ingenuity.

Eric

Thanks Eric I do take pride in being a do-er. I do a lot of reading and whatnot too, but doing is where a lot of the useful learning is done through trial and error.

Thank you!   I will DEFINITELY try this!
Several years ago, I set out to make my own bone meal on a whim.  I didn't read about it, i just made it up as I went along. Needless to say this  technique will work better since it didn't involve trying to run the bones over with a car.

Susan Mené wrote:Thank you!   I will DEFINITELY try this!
Several years ago, I set out to make my own bone meal on a whim.  I didn't read about it, i just made it up as I went along. Needless to say this  technique will work better since it didn't involve trying to run the bones over with a car.

Hey, whatever works! I just finished bleeding the hydraulic brakes on my bike and I used an angle grinder cutoff wheel to keep the pads open, a soup ladle to pour the oil in, and wood shims to hold the cut off wheel inside the brake....again, whatever works!