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An uncovered bucket of bone meal - abt 5 gallons - got forgotten for weeks out in the rain. It's now (January) a flooded mess with an unbelievably bad smell. I've moved it under cover, still outdoors(!). It will take months to get reasonably dry: If it ever does, will it be usable; and meantime is there a practical way to use it wet, during winter? Most of my beds are already mulched with straw. Does the smell mean I should dump it (where, haha?)

I’m thinking bury or, even better, trench compost it if ground isn’t frozen.

Alternatively, if you have a deep bulb planter or auger drill it, or post hole digger — pull out a plug of soil, put a spoonful~trowelfull in, and then fill back with soil again.

Another way, if you can wait until spring to make use of it. might be to mix this up with a bale of dry sawdust and maybe some lime. (Untreated pellet stove wood pellets or horse stall wood shaving pellets would work as well) The sawdust should moderate the wetness and hopefully in combination with the lime, will neutralize the odor. Keep under reasonable cover to maintain the moisture level to “composting” hydration level (wrung out sponge).

Applestar, you're suggesting the 'rotten' bone meal is still quite safe to use as a fertilizer? I'd like that .

I don’t see why not. “rotten” just means it’s in a state of decomposition.

I suppose if you doubts, don’t apply near root crops that will be harvested soon. If you want to be extra-cautious, use near fruit trees rather than herbaceous crops, or even just stick to ornamentals.

However, you can increase the ratio of good microbes by adding food-safe probiotics and pre-biotics— like homemade pickle juice with no preservatives, baking or brewing yeast, whey from cultured or expired dairy, natto and other cultured soy and rice koji products, and various forms of sugars to feed them…. and good compost or vermicast, commercially available horticultural and agricultural mycos and humus, etc.

If there is unfrozen bare ground available (& hopefully it isn't too wet & heavy), I think that I would simply dig out some soil, say 20 gallons.

Then, refill the hole 1 shovel of bone meal, 4 shovels of soil, 1 bone meal/4 soil, 1 .../... 4 ...

In the Spring, use that soil/bone meal for layering "compostables." It should make good compost after a couple of months mixed with the Greens & Browns.

Steve

My main concern is the horrible stink of the stuff. I suppose it's due to anaerobic decomposition but I don't know whether it indicates potential problems in using it.

I have had bone meal go bad. It get moldy. I know what not to do. I tried burying it in the soil. But when it get buried in a mass, it is too rich and nothing grows on it. Diluting it is a good option with sawdust or something else. The other problem I had was mongoose would dig it up to eat it.

No mongooses/geese here thank goodness! I'd be scared of any animal that would eat this stuff. Good tip about the potential for over-fertilizing with it; thanks. Meantime our weather - and its forecast - have turned so cold that the whole bucket will be frozen solid for at least a week.