"P" is for plants...anyone using urine on the garden?

[Beekissed]

I've used it in the past with great results and was wondering if any of our members regularly uses urine on the garden as fertilizer?

 

[258 Pots]

My wife has finally stopped complaining when I fertilize... Many plants have root systems that can uptake straight ammonia... before its gets made into nitrate and nitrites...

 

[so lucky]

So do you just put it on the ground, or on the plant itself? I'm just thinking of how dog urine makes brown spots in the lawn...Dog urine may be more concentrated?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Maybe some people will give some details on technique, but it's generally a dosage thing. Either limited amounts or keep a certain distance. Certain plants are more susceptible to high nitrogen than others too. I've burned tomatoes and squash getting fresh chicken manure too close. There are always techniques and details to these things. Your compost pile may be a real good compromise. Many compost piles need nitrogen.

Sometimes you will hear that urine will keep certain animals away. I have a certain private spot I can take care of business when working outside and I don't want to go inside with my dirty clothes and especially dirty work boots. A couple of years ago a groundhog dug a hole right next to that area. It was not a den to raise babies, just a hidey-hole it could run to if caught outside when danger approached. They'll dig a lot of those. That urine did not bother it at all.

I have used coyote urine for groundhogs with extremely limited success. You have to really lay it on thick for them to notice and even then the effect is usually for short duration. But human urine for groundhogs. Don't believe it.

 

[Beekissed]

So do you just put it on the ground, or on the plant itself? I'm just thinking of how dog urine makes brown spots in the lawn...Dog urine may be more concentrated?

Dog urine is usually being done on the same spots over and over and over and over, so you'll see some damage to the grass there. This is a tad different because one is controlling the strength, the placement and the frequency of the urine. There have been whole books written, devoted to using urine as fertilizer. I love the fact that God designed us to have the perfect fertilizer coming out of our bodies each day and that's so like Him to package things up so neatly!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer/

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/feeding-plants-with-urine.htm

http://www.theecologist.org/green_g...42/urine_the_ultimate_organic_fertiliser.html

Human urine is one of the fastest-acting, most excellent sources of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and trace elements for plants, delivered in a form that’s perfect for assimilation. Not only that, we all have a constant, year-round supply of it - and it's free!


Fresh human urine is sterile and so free from bacteria. In fact it is so sterile that it can be drunk when fresh; it’s only when it is older than 24 hours that the urea turns into ammonia, which is what causes the 'wee' smell. At this stage it will be too strong for use on plants, but poured neat on to the compost heap it makes a fabulous compost accelerator/activator, with the extra benefit of adding more nutrients.


Dilute one part urine to 10-15 parts water for application on plants in the growth stage. Dilute in 30-50 parts water for use on pot plants, which are much more sensitive to fertilisers of any kind. Trees, shrubs and lawns are fine with undiluted urine, but for obvious reasons apply it underneath fruiting bushes, as opposed to directly on to foliage and fruit. Some fertilisers, such as seaweed, are specifically used as foliar feeds [applied direct to leaves], but urine is always best applied directly to a plant's root system.


Antibiotics, vitamin supplements and other medications will end up in your urine, but in such minute quantities as to be negligible, especially when diluted in water.

Urine is 95 per cent water, 2.5 per cent of which is urea, and a further 2.5 per cent of which is a mixture of minerals, salts, hormones and enzymes. It is a blood byproduct but despite containing some bodily waste is non-toxic.


In 1975, Dr A. H. Free published his book Urinalysis in Clinical Laboratory Practice, presenting a few of the critical nutrients found in urine, including urea nitrogen, urea, creatinin nitrogen, creatinin, uric acid nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, amino nitrogen, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, inorganic sulphate and inorganic phosphate.


During a pee, a healthy adult will release 11g nitrogen/urea, 1g phosphorus/super-phosphate and 2.5g potassium. Patrick Makhosi, a soil scientist with Uganda's Kawanda Agricultural Research Organisation, confirms the efficacy of human urine as a fertiliser. He says that applying urine to growing vegetables once every week for at least two months will more than double the yield.


I've actually tried urine for the garden and did experiments on it to see if it make a difference at all. I applied it full strength to corn at the appropriate times when it needs more nitrogen and that patch of corn finished out a foot taller than the other patch and also had more and bigger ears per stalk. Same with rhubarb...one plant flourished and produced extremely well, while the other did fair but no great shakes.

After seeing those results, I used it here and there in the garden to see the difference between plants that got it and those that did not and there was a marked difference.

Just did a foliar spray of urine this morning on the plants that need a nutrient boost right now due to setting bloom or at a certain height(corn). Also applied some to the hot peppers and smaller tomatoes that are not doing so well...can't really hurt them at this point.

Now, I'll answer the questions folks usually ask:

1. No, I'm not worried about pee being on or used as food for my veggies. It's all utilized as nutrition and it's not nasty to me, nor is it unsanitary...it's MY pee, so I already have any organic germs it may possess. As for side dressing with it, the rains wash it into the soil and off the vegetables, so there's no time I'll be eating my own pee....I wash all veggies from the garden before consumption as well.

2. No, I don't take any meds of any kind that could harm others who consume the veggies. My pee is free of contaminants and chemicals other than my own.

3. No, it doesn't make the garden stink, nor does it "burn" the plants or attract flies or unwanted pests. It's absorbed into the soil, either full strength or diluted, and doesn't linger on the surface to attract flies, nor do I use it so much that it would make the garden stink with ammonia smell and I'm judicious with application so I don't give the plants a nitrogen burn.

I love it that it's free, that's it's healthy and has been used since the beginning of time, that it's of the right nature that it can be utilized by the plants right away which is unlike commercially made fertilizers, and that I can make more any time I want.

 

[Nyboy]

And you can write your name in snow with it!! Sorry Bee High jack

 

[Beekissed]

I forgot to mention that!!! Though that's less of an option for us ladies, we could improvise and pour the letters from our containers. Not as fun, but still....

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just don't use yellow snow to make snow cream.

 

[VA_LongBean]

I started late this Spring. I usually dilute a small amount of urine in a 1 gallon container full of water. So far no signs of plant stress, but I don't know if it is helping much either.

 

[baymule]

Now if I could train my horses to pee in a bucket......