How To Make Liquid Bone Meal Fertilizer At Home

Bone meal can be used to make fertilizer because of its high phosphorus content. Bone meal fertilizers can be purchased at your local gardening center, but it is much cheaper if you create your own bone meal fertilizer at home. You can save and use your family's leftover bones from dinner, such as chicken bones. You can turn this fertilizer into a liquid, which is much easier to apply in your garden.

Step 1

Wash off your bones, and remove any skin or leftover fat that may be on them.

Step 2

Place your bones on a baking sheet and leave them in the oven for three hours at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This will kill any disease-producing organisms that could be harmful for your plants.

Step 3

Grind up the bones to a powder. This can be done with a hand grinder or a coffee grinder.

Step 4

Place half a cup of bone meal powder in a pot.

Step 5

Add one qt. of water and half a cup of baking soda. Mix the ingredients together.

Step 6

Bring the ingredients to a boil while stirring. Then remove it from the heat and allow it to cool completely.

Step 7

Pour the mixture over the soil in your garden.

Collect or purchase the bones you intend to use for your bone meal. Remove as much meat, gristle and other material from the bones as you can. Wearing safety glasses, pound the bones with a metal mallet to break them into smaller pieces. While this will not make bone pieces small enough for use as bone meal, grinding the small pieces of bone will be much easier than attempting to grind whole bones. Test your soil to determine its current nutrient composition so you'll know how much bone meal and water you should combine to make your liquid fertilizer. Mix the bone meal with water in a pot over medium heat. Test the nutrient content of your soil a few days after each application of fertilizer to monitor its changes over time.