Anyone else doing it? I had to feed a raised bed that i wasn't able to cultivate properly before sowing. So far, using a 10:1 water to pee ratio twice a week has kept my plants from showing nitrogen deficiency. The soil has very little nitrogen so i figure its working!
While you might be putting trace amounts of nutrients in the soil, would you want to eat anything that comes from there? "Tasty maters, mom." "Yeah? Wanna know what I fertilized them with?" Everybody leaves the table... x
I never would have thought of diluted pee helping nitrogen deficiency! I know full strength Border collie pee will kill anything. lol but not really. But anyway, that's cool to know. I use a mushroom compost and notgottenup leaves as a soil amendment, but I like knowing of other natural things to do.
I don't know xexon, how do YOU feel about cow pee? Because that's where manure gets its Nitrogen. Cows poop, and pee on the poop. Then the poop is composted, and suddenly it's ok to grow your carrots in it. If you are buying veggies, you are probably eating converted pee in a large percentage of those veggies. The only way to avoid pee from some animal or another is to avoid all manure. You can do that, if you want, by plowing legumes under. Oh yeah, you can also use chemical fertilizers that destroy the natural soil life and keep your garden plants addicted. Blood meal works too I guess, but you need to work that into the soil. Pee, on the other hands, can be applied directly to the soil. Lynn, you want to make sure it is well diluted, and also make sure it is fresh. Human pee will also kill just about anything because it has so much nitrogen. Urine is sterile, but quickly stops being sterile if you try to store it. For good measure, I like to take a multivitamin.
I've been growing things since before you were born. Fresh pee or poop is too "hot" to be used as a fertilizer. Burn the plants right up. Ever see the bald spots on somebody's lawn where the dog does it's business? Like wine, it needs to be aged so that the component parts break down. I have some Jamaican bat guano thats over 200 years old. Big difference between that and pee thats fresh from the bladder and laden with bacteria, some of which can transmit disease. x
xexon, thus the 10:1 water to pee ratio. If you overdo it you burn them. The compost pile gets it straight on or half and half. Nitrogen is the worst thing to flush down the toilet, and most of it is in our pee. Keeping it out of the waste stream is the best thing you can do for your local waters and everyone downstream. Processing does not remove it from sewage. I got dead dirt to make some nice daikon radishes, broccoli rabe, and squashes, and endless lettuce, with a 1.5 times weekly application. I pack them in extremely tight. Sometimes if I'm watering or if it's starting to rain I make it stronger, like 4:1
rofl!! pee fresh from the bladder is virtually sterile. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008093608.htm
It sure is sterile. And most aerobic bacteria are harmless or helpful. Compost is full of them. I like to use compost tea, which is basically bacterial soup. It's a great tonic for the plants. Watch out though, if you think composting will eliminate dangerous pathogens. Using cat, dog, or human feces composted or not, can get you very sick or very dead. Thanks scatteredleaves, your picture there does the license plate slogan justice. "Beautiful British Columbia". :redface:
In healthy adults it is. (at least for the first 15 minutes or so) But bacteria in the urine has no symptoms. If you're sick with something you wouldn't know. The real cuprits are viruses. They're not living organisms but little bits of genetic material. There are several that can are passed in the urine including the west nile virus and herpes. Since it isn't "alive", it can lay dormant in the soil for along time. Just waiting for that gardener that gets a little dirt on their harvested veggies. Mostly urine is safe. Its been used for thousands of years. But in the modern day, with things like HIV mutating as it goes, pee is not my first option. x
When it comes to West Nile it can be detected in urine but the virus has never been isolated, they have only detected the gene sequence. Also West Nile is blood borne, it's not contracted through ingestion. When it comes to HIV, once the urine dry's the virus dies, If it remains moist the virus will die in about 2-3 weeks. But none of this matter if you are a healthy person, a 10:1 mix of water and urine will give plants a mild burst of nitrogen.
And as i mentioned, composting is not an effective way to remove pathogens. As for bacterial infection not having symptoms, have you ever had a UTI? Oh, there's symptoms! However you can not get a UTI from contact with urine. I am free of herpes, not that it could survive in my garden. You can't get it from a toilet bowl either, by the way. That's just where people say they got it because they are hiding their sexual activity.
every morning i piss on my finger and lick it if it tastes 2 sweet i know i'm eating to much sugar or if it's 2 bitter i know i'm having to much salt in my diet keeps me healthy
well, that's further than i will go, but there you have it. Have you given yourself west nile, by the way?
The Humanure handbook talks about composting human urine and feces. After proper composting I would have no problem using my own urine and feces in my garden. http://www.amazon.ca/Humanure-Handb...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225484709&sr=1-1
I would stay away from the feces part when it comes to food crops. That's a lot harder to get right, and the results of a mistake would be disastrous. Urine is very safe.
Maryjohn, While at first I was skeptical of using human feces with proper composting I see no difference than using cow, sheep, goat or chicken feces. The high temperatures of proper composting kill the harmful bacteria. I realize in places human feces has been improperly used to fertilize crops with disastrous consequences but that was putting fresh human feces directly on field crops. Im not trying to make everyone poop in a bucket of sawdust to fertilize their backyard just throwing out a contrasting viewpoint. -JT
while you are technically correct, it is very difficult to get the composting thing right. it is both an art and a science. It's not so easy to get it right, especially the first time, and definitely 100% of the time. if you are talking about blueberries, raspberries, or some kind of "way off the ground" crop, go for it, but make sure it is buried DEEP. But don't risk your health over your feces. they don't have that much nitrogen, and urine is the big bad guy when it comes to excessive nutrification of your water table. If you can just keep your urine out of the local sewage system, you are doing a very good thing for your local fish and fauna. someone pointed out to me that salt buildup could be a problem. I'd like to know if pelletized gypsum is a good solution. Does anyone have a good answer?
Urine is already being looked at as a fertilizer. http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=7185072 I use it diluted on pothos once in a great while and they are doing fine.