how to use a composter in minecraft

A composter is a block that converts some biological material into bone meal. It also serves as a farmer villager's job site block.

1 Obtaining
- 1.1 Crafting
- 1.2 Natural generation
2 Usage
- 2.1 Composting
- 2.2 Hoppers
- 2.3 Changing villager profession
- 2.4 Redstone component
- 2.5 Fuel
- 2.6 Note Blocks
3 Sounds
- 3.1 Generic
- 3.2 Unique
4 Data values
- 4.1 ID
- 4.2 Metadata
- 4.3 Block states
5 History
6 Issues
7 Trivia
8 Gallery

Obtaining [ ]

Composters can be broken with any tool, though an axe is the fastest. The composter does not retain the compost inside; instead, it drops empty.

Block	Composter
Hardness	0.6
Tool
Breaking time^[A]
Default	0.9
Wooden	0.45
Stone	0.25
Iron	0.15
Diamond	0.15
Netherite	0.1
Golden	0.1

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Crafting [ ]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any wood Slab

Natural generation [ ]

Composters generate in village farms.

Usage [ ]

Composters can be used to recycle food and plant items (excluding bamboo, poisonous potatoes, dead bushes, meat, and fish) into bone meal. To do so, the player must use any of a selection of items on the composter. When an adjacent comparator is facing away from the composter, a comparator signal strength of up to 8 is emitted depending on the fullness of the block. Composters appear to have an empty interior. As such, entities can enter and exit a composter through the top, but not the sides or bottom. The composter has a "floor", whose height depends on the fullness. When the composter is completely empty, this floor is slightly above the block below, and when it is completely full, there is a slight dip on top. When the composter's fullness increases, any entities inside are pushed up accordingly‌.‌^{[ Bedrock Edition only ]}

Composting [ ]

The composter can be filled with compost, which is done by adding compostable items to it. When successfully adding an item, a green particle appears. The table below lists supported items, which have different levels of compost-ability. The higher the percentage of an item, the more likely it is for it to add another layer of compost. Each layer of compost has a podzol-like appearance. When the composter reaches the 7th layer of compost, the compost changes appearance indicating that bone meal can be collected by using the composter a final time.

The following table shows the items that can be used in a composter, the percent chance for an item to add a level of compost, and the average number of items needed to fill a composter. Smaller pieces (individual pieces of wheat, melon slices, etc.) produce more compost than the blocks or other items that can be made from them. The exception is cookies, because each recipe produces 8 cookies, and together those give more than 3 times the compost.

30%	50%	65%	85%	100%
Beetroot Seeds Dried Kelp Glow Berries Grass Grass Block ‌^{[ BE only ]} ^{[ verify ]} Hanging Roots Kelp Leaves Melon Seeds Moss Carpet Pumpkin Seeds Saplings Seagrass Small Dripleaf Sweet Berries Wheat Seeds	Cactus Dried Kelp Block Flowering Azalea Leaves Glow Lichen Melon Slice Nether Sprouts Sugar Cane Tall Grass Vines Weeping Vines Twisting Vines	Apple Azalea Beetroot Big Dripleaf Carrot Cocoa Beans Ferns Flowers Lily Pad Melon Moss Block Mushrooms Mushroom Stem Nether Wart Potato Pumpkins Sea Pickle Shroomlight Spore Blossom Wheat Fungus Roots	Baked Potato Bread Cookie Flowering Azalea Hay Bale Mushroom Blocks Nether Wart Block Warped Wart Block	Cake Pumpkin Pie
Average number of items required to fill a composter (bone meals per stack)
~23.33 (~2.74)	14 (~4.57)	~10.77 (~5.94)	~8.24 (~7.77)	7 (~9.14)

Hoppers [ ]

Composters can interact with hoppers. A hopper directly below a composter pulls bone meal from it. A hopper or dropper facing downward directly above a composter pushes items into it. See Hopper § Redstone component for more details.

Hoppers cannot interact with the sides of a composter.

Changing villager profession [ ]

If a village has a composter that has not been claimed by a villager, any resident villager who has not already chosen a job site block has a chance to change their profession to farmer.

Redstone component [ ]

A composter can act as a power source for a redstone comparator. With a composter behind it (either directly, or separated by an unpowered solid block), a comparator outputs a signal strength between 0 and 8, proportional to how full the composter is: 0 for empty, 1 for ¹⁄₇ full, 2 for ²⁄₇ full, 3 for ³⁄₇ full, 4 for ⁴⁄₇ full, 5 for ⁵⁄₇ full, 6 for ⁶⁄₇ full, 7 for completely full but the bone meal is not ready to collect, and 8 for completely full and the bone meal is ready to collect. However, if there is a block between the composter and comparator, the comparator does not immediately update.

Fuel [ ]

A composter can be used as fuel in a furnace to smelt 1.5 items.

Note Blocks [ ]

Composters can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass" sound.

Sounds [ ]

Generic [ ]

Java Edition:

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	`block.wood.break`	`subtitles.block.generic.break`	1.0	0.8	16
None ^{[sound 1]}	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	`block.wood.fall`	None ^{[sound 1]}	0.5	0.75	16
Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	`block.wood.hit`	`subtitles.block.generic.hit`	0.25	0.5	16
Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	`block.wood.place`	`subtitles.block.generic.place`	1.0	0.8	16
Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	`block.wood.step`	`subtitles.block.generic.footsteps`	0.15	1.0	16

↑ ^a ^b MC-177082

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
?	Blocks	Once the block has broken	`dig.wood`	1.0	0.8
?	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	`fall.wood`	0.4	1.0
?	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	`hit.wood`	0.23	0.5
?	Blocks	Jumping from the block	`jump.wood`	0.12	1.0
?	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	`land.wood`	0.18	1.0
?	Blocks	Walking on the block	`step.wood`	0.3	1.0
?	Blocks	When the block is placed	`use.wood`	1.0	0.8

Unique [ ]

Java Edition:

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Composter empties	?	Plays when emptying a composter	`block.composter.empty`	?	1	?	16
Composter filled	?	Plays when adding to a composter	`block.composter.fill`	?	0.3	0.8	16
Composter filled	?	Plays when successfully adding to a composter	`block.composter.fill_success`	?	1	?	16
Composter composts	?	Plays when composting completes	`block.composter.ready`	?	1	?	16

Data values [ ]

ID [ ]

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Form	Translation key
Composter	`composter`	Block & Item	`block.minecraft.composter`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Resource location	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Composter	`composter`	`468`	Block & Item	`tile.composter.name`

Metadata [ ]

In Bedrock Edition, composters use the following data values:

	DV	Description
	0	Empty composter
	1	Composter with 1 successful compost
	2	Composter with 2 successful composts
	3	Composter with 3 successful composts
	4	Composter with 4 successful composts
	5	Composter with 5 successful composts
	6	Composter with 6 successful composts
	7	Composter with 7 successful composts
	8	Composter ready to provide bone meal

Block states [ ]

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
level‌^{[ JE only ]} composter_fill_level‌^{[ BE only ]}	`0`	`0` `1` `2` `3` `4` `5` `6` `7` `8`	When at level 8, bone meal is able to be collected from the composter.

History [ ]

Java Edition

1.14

19w03a

Added composters.

The crafting recipe of composters is 4 fences and 3 planks.

Recipe

19w03b

All mushroom blocks can now be used in composters.

19w04a

Composters now spawn in village farms.

19w05a

The chances of composters have been changed from 10/20/50/80/100% to 30/50/65/85/100%.

19w11a

Composters now serve as farmer villagers' job site block.

1.15

19w45a

The crafting recipe of composters has been changed to match Bedrock Edition.

Recipe

1.16

20w15a

Weeping vines, twisting vines, roots, nether sprouts, fungi, nether wart, nether wart blocks, and warped wart blocks can now be composted.

pre3

Shroomlight can now be composted.

1.17

21w05a

Azalea, dripleaves, hanging roots, glow berries, moss blocks, moss carpets and spore blossoms can now be composted.

21w11a

Glow lichen can now be composted.

Bedrock Edition

1.10.0

beta 1.10.0.3

Added composters. They do not appear to be fully implemented. Each metadata increase elevates the compost level by 2 pixels. Compost levels come to the middle of the stripes on the side, rather than in between transitions of the stripes. In addition, metadata value 4 is coplanar with the rim, and 5-7 extend past it.^[1]

Composters are currently available only through Experimental Gameplay.

The crafting recipe of composters is 7 wooden slabs.

Recipe

1.11.0

beta 1.11.0.1

Functionality has been added to composters.

beta 1.11.0.3

Composters now support hopper placement.

Composter states now work more like they do in Java Edition.

1.16.0

beta 1.16.0.57

Weeping vines, twisting vines, roots, nether sprouts, fungi, nether wart, nether wart blocks, and warped wart blocks can now be composted.

1.16.100

beta 1.16.100.55

Shroomlight can now be composted.

1.16.220

beta 1.16.220.52

Azalea, dripleaves, glow berries, moss blocks, moss carpet and spore blossoms can now be composted.

1.17.0

beta 1.16.230.50

Hanging roots and glow lichen can now be composted.

beta 1.16.230.54

Small dripleaf can now be composted.

PlayStation 4 Edition

1.91

^{[ verify ]} Added composters.

Issues [ ]

Issues relating to "Composter" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia [ ]

The compost texture is based on the podzol texture.
If planting crops specifically for composting, potatoes produce somewhat more than beets, carrots, or wheat. However, melons offer nearly the same yield per field space, and do not require replanting after harvest.

Gallery [ ]

A composter generated in a village
A full and partially filled composter in a farm

↑ https://youtu.be/bysqF2JuaoA