How to Make a Composter in Minecraft

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Craft a composter with 7 wooden slabs of any type arranged in a U shape: fill the bottom row and both sides, leaving the top middle empty. It turns food and plant items into bone meal and is the farmer villager's job site block.

What you need

7 wooden slabs of any type (from 6 planks)
Plant and food items to compost
Hopper + chest (optional, for automation)

Step by step

Craft wooden slabs: 3 planks of any type in a row make 6 slabs, so one row plus a bit covers the 7 you need.
Open the crafting table.
Fill the entire bottom row with 3 slabs.
Place 2 slabs on the left side and 2 on the right side of the grid, leaving the top middle empty. The U shape is complete.
Take the composter.
Use it by right-clicking with plant and food items: seeds, crops, flowers, leaves and most plants. Each item has a chance to add a compost layer.
When 7 layers fill the composter, right-click again to collect 1 bone meal. Hoppers can automate feeding and collecting.

Java vs Bedrock

The composter works the same in Java and Bedrock and was added in 1.14. Higher-value items like cake and pumpkin pie fill layers more reliably than seeds. An unemployed villager claiming a composter becomes a farmer, the profession behind the best crop and golden carrot trades in the game.

Versions: javabedrock

Frequently asked questions

What can you put in a composter?

Most plant and food items: seeds, saplings, leaves, crops, flowers, mushrooms, fruits and baked goods. Each item has its own fill chance, from 30% for seeds up to 100% for cake and pumpkin pie.

How do you automate a composter?

Place a hopper on top to feed items in and a hopper underneath pulling into a chest to collect the bone meal. Surplus crop farms connected this way become passive bone meal factories.

What villager uses a composter?

The farmer. An unemployed villager claiming a composter becomes a farmer, buying crops and selling bread, golden carrots, glistering melon slices and suspicious stew at master level.