The humanure thread

saraltx

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Okay, I decided to start this thread to continue the discussion of humanure that began in the toilet paper roll thread. I'm very interested if anyone has made experience with this, and any tips they might have.

I have been interested in the humanure thing for a while and actually kind of started it yesterday as an experiment to see if I want to stick with it. I live in the city, so I'm limited to a small compost bin I made out of one of those black plastic garbage containers. I recently emptied out my old compost in this year's garden. I decided against starting a separate compost pile for humanure, but rather to mix it in with my other compost. I realize I'll have to be sure to get an appropriate mixture of green and brown materials and let it sit for a full year once it is filled up. So at that time, I'll have to make a second compost bin. I'm in Texas, so temperatures do get very high in the black container in summer, which according to my reading so far should help kill any fecal bacteria.

For now, I'm using a basic bucket, and I'm still experimenting with the cover material. Sawdust seems the most common, but I read that other materials including dry leaves will also work. So I raked my yard and have a few containers of leaves to use. I hope to find more bags of leaves on the curb or something.
To avoid having to use too much cover material and getting the compost too wet I'm using a separate bucket for pee. I pour that in a watering can, add water, and pour it directly into the vegetable garden as fertilizer (making sure not to get it on the leaves, but on the soil below.

As I said, I just started this yesterday, and my main concerns right now are 1) making sure the compost won't smell and 2) being really sure it is safe before I use the humanure compost for my vegetable garden - as that is the only place where I have use for compost right now.

Any suggestions or insights?
 

HEChicken

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I'm subscribing to this topic - thanks for starting it. It is also an interest I have. I subscribe to a blog written by an English couple who now live in Spain and they are all about self-sufficiency. Apparently they compost it all in one bucket, using sawdust to cover and said there is very little odor.

I also read Gene Longsdon's book titled "Holy Poop" (the actual title uses another word for "poop" which is not allowed here). The title really got my attention actually, but he is a great writer and made it all sound very common-sense and non-repulsive. The book is about manure of all kinds but included a chapter on humanure.

I have not yet got to the point of composting #2 but started collecting #1 a month or so ago and am using it to compost a bin full of leaves. Other ideas I saw were to line up straw bales, put a little top soil on the top, then pour in several gallons of urine and leave it to compost. The bale can then be used for planting as a unique "raised bed". A second person uses one of those "mixers" on the end of a hose, that mixes the contents with water to water down the fertilizer by a ratio of 1:10 or more. He just puts the urine in there instead of a commercial fertilizer and uses it on his rose bushes.

I think we have, as a civilization become so removed from "reality" that it is considered repulsive because for the last several generations we've flushed it away. Prior to that, everyone had an outhouse and before that chamber pots were used. People back then probably weren't as squeamish as we are today, LOL.
 

Beekissed

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I used our urine on the garden in test patches year before last and there was a definite difference in the growth and color of the plants where the urine was applied. I applied it full strength to corn, rhubarb, potatoes, etc.
 

BarredBuff

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Beekissed said:
I used our urine on the garden in test patches year before last and there was a definite difference in the growth and color of the plants where the urine was applied. I applied it full strength to corn, rhubarb, potatoes, etc.
:sick

SICK but neat all the same. I may have to try that...............
 

saraltx

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I adapted the urine part a bit today. I now collect the urine, but at the same time, I also collect dishwater (I let it run into a bucket that stands in the sink) and mix those two buckets together in the watering can and use that directly for the garden. It gives the dish water another use as well and should further reduce my total water use.
 

FarmerJamie

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Beekissed said:
I used our urine on the garden in test patches year before last and there was a definite difference in the growth and color of the plants where the urine was applied. I applied it full strength to corn, rhubarb, potatoes, etc.
and I get in trouble when I water the garden.... ;)
 

lighthawk

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:yuckyuck
I water the grass near the back deck a lot. Not sure if I could make it all the way out to the garden sometimes. :gig
Seriously I was in the Phillipines for 16 months back in the early seventies and it was common practice to fertilize the garden using human waste. I had dinner many times with local familys that used food from their garden at the dinner table with no ill effects. ( I have a few friends who might argue that point :D )
Americans seem to have a gag response to what many other cultures consider standard operating procedure.
Fertilize away if it don't kill ya it'll make ya stronger. JMHO
 

FarmerJamie

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lighthawk said:
:yuckyuck
I water the grass near the back deck a lot. Not sure if I could make it all the way out to the garden sometimes. :gig
Seriously I was in the Phillipines for 16 months back in the early seventies and it was common practice to fertilize the garden using human waste. I had dinner many times with local familys that used food from their garden at the dinner table with no ill effects. ( I have a few friends who might argue that point :D )
Americans seem to have a gag response to what many other cultures consider standard operating procedure.
Fertilize away if it don't kill ya it'll make ya stronger. JMHO
One of my neighborhood buddy's grandma lived across the street from him. Grew the most humugous blackberries I've ever seen. She'd dump the chamber pot at their base every morning.
 

Beekissed

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It has always struck me as funny that folks will place pig, cattle, horse, rabbit and chicken manure, often saturated with urine, on their soils but won't put their own urine there. I'd much rather think on my own urine being on the soils as I would an animal's.

Why is it the most hygenically inclined mammal is the one that is the most repugnant about utilizing their own wastes? At least I am full aware of exactly what is in my own urine.

Here are some interesting links on the subject:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Human-Urine-As-A-Liquid-Fertilizer&id=392596

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008093608.htm

http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-use-urine-as-a-fertilizer

I'll tell you this....I've never had such lush, dark green plants as I did when I used our urine for side dressing. The corn was at least a foot taller than the rows next to the test rows and darker green in color, produced bigger and fuller ears as well.

It is the ultimate in recycling and self-sustained gardening.
 

big brown horse

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I don't think I would use straight hu-manure on my edibles. Pee is fine straight up or diluted, but the rest needs to be composted first, imho.

Bubblingbrooks has a nice thread about composting humanure, it even shows a way to build a nice looking humanure collecting toilet. Let me see if I can find it and attach it here.
 
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