I use bone meal at the beginning of the season about the same time I start to put down the pre-emergient for weeds..It takes a long time to break down before the plant can use it so if you wait to late, I think you are wasting your time with it if you are looking for a instant effect. The past few years I have been tilling in aged compost into all my beds and have had the best luck with it over anything else the plants seem to respond really well to the compost in well drained good soil. I would pick compost over bone meal if I had to choose. I did try Osmocote this year in one bed I heard from another grower how well it did for him and it is time released so it may work well for me here but the verdict is still out on it until the spring.
