Using PEE as liquid fertilizer....

[Beekissed]

I've read about it before and was intrigued, feeling this was the height of SS gardening~recycling ones own wastes instead of importing farm waste.

Here is a newsy little article on it:

Would you be interested in a free source of fertilizer for your garden? You would? Then stop flushing it away!

Every time you flush your urine down the toilet, you're wasting precious water resources. You'll also be causing pollution -- the high levels of nitrogen in urine cause problems when they're released into rivers and streams, but removing nitrogen from water is an energy--intensive and expensive process.

Urine is a valuable source of plant nutrients - mainly nitrogen with small amounts of phosphorus and potassium and other minerals. It has a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 0.8 to 1, which makes it an excellent compost activator if your compost heap is filled with carbon rich materials.

You can even use urine as a liquid feed for your plants. It's too strong to use neat, dilute it with at least 5 parts water, and water the soil around your plants, not the leaves. Urine is acidic, and salty, so don't add too much to any one part of the garden- spread it around!

The plants that will appreciate a dose of nitrogen most are the hungry ones, which grow quickly. In the kitchen garden, try it on leafy vegetables and corn. Avoid using it on tomatoes and other fruiting vegetables when they're flowering or growing fruit. Too much nitrogen encourages leafy growth, not bountiful crops.

Use your urine fresh. Once it starts to smell, it's converting nitrogen into ammonia. Not only it is smelly, but the nitrogen content is literally escaping!

There is no need to worry about spreading disease -- urine is generally clean, and you can't give yourself a disease you don't already have. If you're particularly worried about infections, then compost your urine and add its fertility to your garden that way. Don't add urine to worm compost bins, though, the worms won't like it!

If you're worried about what the neighbors will think, then don't tell them! But using urine as a free source of fertilizer in your garden isn't as old-fashioned as you might think. In fact it's downright space age! NASA have used urine as a source of plant nutrients in their hydroponics systems.

1. Keep it separate. The golden rule with urine use is to keep it separate from other bodily wastes. Urine is clean and needs to be kept that way. Pee in a bottle, or invest in a urine-separating toilet.

2. Use it fresh. We all know that stale urine smells. That's ammonia, and it's made from nitrogen. The smellier your collected urine, the less nutritious it will be for your plants, as well as being unpleasant to apply.

3. Always dilute. Urine is too strong to be used neat on plants. Dilute at least 5:1, and it can be diluted up to 10:1 for use on tender plants and seedlings.


4. Water at the roots. It's good practice when watering not too splash the leaves, but to water at the roots. This saves on evaporation, and dry leaves are much more resistant to disease.Spread it around. Urine can be salty, and using too much of it in one place can harm plants. Use it throughout your garden so no one area suffers from an overdose, and don't use it every time you water a plant.


5. Feed hungry plants. The plants that will benefit most from urine fertilizer are the ones with the highest nitrogen requirements. Try it on leafy vegetables like cabbages and cauliflowers, corn, or anything that needs a quick pick-me-up.


6. Other uses. Neat urine is too strong to be used directly on plants, but it can be used as a weedkiller; a few applications, especially if used on hot days, should finish off your weeds. It can also be used neat as a winter spray for fruit trees, to discourage fungal diseases.


7. Activate! A final use for urine in the garden is as a compost activator. The nitrogen in urine will speed up the composting process and kick start a slumbering heap.

Link to a similar article:

http://weblogs.newsday.com/features...g/2009/02/fertilizing_vegetables_with_hu.html



Now, I know many of you will be throwing in a couple of and on this one, but I've read up on this a bit and it sounds pretty neat. I also know that a few of you safety gals will be throwin' down on the "I wouldn't use it on anything I would be eating" comments, but the link explains a little of that away.

I would like to use it in my garden sprayer and just side dress some corn when its smaller and when it tassles out, just to see if I can make a difference. I really like treating my garden like a laboratory sometimes....

I will tell you this, I got interested in this when I noticed how green and lush were the areas of the lawn on which the dogs had peed. The first year it kind of yellowed the grass, the following year~deep green and lush!

So, I did a little Googling and found a few things I wanted to share with you all. If this gross-sounding thing can even help one person afford to fertilize their garden with premium fertilize, then its worth it. Sort of like the ear wax remedy for cold sores....someone tried it and it worked. I bet they will be thankful each time they can avoid that painful, ugly blemish!

So~pee on, folks, and tell me how it goes! I will be giving a full report on my own....er.....um...efforts.

 

[elwood]

hmm makes sense to me and there is plenty of it around
Dont know if I will tell the wife though

 

[patandchickens]

I've never known anyone personally who pees into a jar to take it out to the compost pile (although from reading, obviously there are a considerable number of people doing that); but I didn't think it was especially unusual for the menfolk in the house to be encouraged to take their outdoor whizzes in the direction of the compost pile or fallowed garden. It is a lot easier for men to do this than ladies

I'm not sold on using it, even diluted, directly on plants, just because there are other more balanced things you can use for that (manure tea, etc), but sure, why not if a person wants to

Pat

 

[justusnak]

:/ I dont think I will.....but good luck for those of you who do! I have plenty crapola around here to use. LOL

 

[PamsPride]

Don't think I will be doing this....it would just be one more thing on my to do list and that just isn't happening.
I think the easiest way to collect your urine would be in one of those medical hats that you sit in the toilet then just dump it into a bottle. I had to do this several times when I was pregnant...not terrible hard to do but a bit of a pain. I got almost a gallon in a 24 hour period everytime.

 

[mrs.puff]

Well, as everybody might guess, we "nature pee" at my place, and whereever we go, there's not a bunch of grass or anything growing. So definitely you would have to dilute. You could use it full strength as a weed killer though! Ha.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Just remember though, that whatever medications you take--some will be coming out of you--so you might want to think about that before peeing on your compost pile. Just a thought...

 

[Beekissed]

I knew the ick factor would deter you guys! I will definitely be trying this, just to see if it works. There may come a time when gas gets a little scarce and we are truly going to have to grow things without being able to haul manure or buy some compost. If push comes to shove, I would like to know if this really is an option....so I will be the one to take the plunger....er..plunge!

All in the name of SS research, of course!

 

[Dace]

The golden rule with urine .....

 

[CARS]

Where ever my dog (female) pees the grass is dead.

I, however, have no issues with me peeing in the compost.

Don't think I am going to get the family to store their pee in bottles though.

Why not take it to the next step? Pump your own septic and compost it!