Urine: the ultimate 'organic' fertiliser?

"certainly I would not blink at going outside and I have done that at night to mark my territory for the coyotes and neighbours dogs in no uncertain terms"

You know CC, I found that the deer did not come into our yard all summer, despite hearing from everyone else how their gardens had been desimated by deer.
I WAS using the urine for the spinach and basil, and towards the end of summer quit and now that I look back, :scratch: that is when the deer showed up.....

CapeCoddess wrote:

plantoid wrote:http://www.permies.com/t/3965/homestead/women-peeing-outdoors#33734

In case some of you feel a wee bit uncomfortable at the subject being covered on this thread and not wanting to be letting out your personal secrets perhaps the above link may help you get over things and give some of you a better understanding of things.

Great thread, Plantoid. Thanks. I particularly found this line interesting for anyone with pest issues:
"certainly I would not blink at going outside and I have done that at night to mark my territory for the coyotes and neighbours dogs in no uncertain terms"

Wonder if it would work with rabbits & cats? Worth a try.

CC

A good aim is needed methinks ...

Thomas wrote:My compost pile has been very slow to decompose. So after seeing this thread, I have been "collecting" and have added my collections to the pile. I am interested to see if it speeds things along.

Keep the heap damp and covered so it sweats & gets the necessary decomposition bacterial action & fungi going .. This will help speed up the decomposition .
Uncover and fork over to re oxygenate the heap to give new oxygen the bacteria and fungi , re damp / wet slightly with diluted urine at 20 to 1 plus a spray hose or spray water can as you rebuild the heap and re cover. Repeat in a week or so's time and if needed repeat again over several weeks for a well composted finished heap that you can use right away .

GWN wrote:You know CC, I found that the deer did not come into our yard all summer, despite hearing from everyone else how their gardens had been desimated by deer.
I WAS using the urine for the spinach and basil, and towards the end of summer quit and now that I look back, :scratch: that is when the deer showed up.....

That's VERY interesting! Thanks for letting us know. It was diluted, right? Wonder if it works on slugs? GWN, did you have slugs?

I wonder if pouring straight urine around the outside edges of the boxes would be the way to go for some serious pest repellent. If it works we'd need to change this thread topic to » "Urine: the ultimate 'organic' fertilizer & pest repellent?"

CC

You KNOW CC, perhaps we need to do a study, perhaps a month on and a month off.... I do not have many slugs here, I DID in Oregon. The ones here are very small and very destructive, because they are hard to find, I did not find that the urine kept them away.
Along these lines I have read where cougar pee, will keep away deer, but how do you get a cougar to pee around your yard.

I planted my seeds in spent MM and now have seedlings everywhere, with most of the true leaves starting to form now. I was wondering, if they seem to slow down at some point due to lack of nutrients in the soil, do you think that very diluted urine would be a good feeding? Has anyone tried this?

CC

Last year I used very dilute urine on my spinach and basil plants and it worked wonders as they are really heavy nitrogen users.

Thanks, J. Did you use it on indoor seedlings? That's what I want to do...watering from the bottom...no pun intended.

CC

no I used it on my plants in the SFG

Fascinating thread This could also be a life saver in a disaster situation to keep plants alive.

Mother earth news had an article last year that was actually a study that someone had done comparing 3 liquid fertilizers and human urine won.
I was sold

As I watch my new leafy compost pile melting and sticking up through all the snow that's been thrown at it over the past few weeks, I'm sold, too!

CC

GWN wrote:Mother earth news had an article last year that was actually a study that someone had done comparing 3 liquid fertilizers and human urine won.
I was sold

I tried to find the article but the whole 4 pages is only available to subscribers, it only showed page 4 where it said, "Diluted 1:20 urine with water, this would make about 7 gallons of high-nitrogen liquid fertilizer, so a family of four could produce enough high-nitrogen fertilizer for an average garden and lawn."

Making your Own Liquid Fertilizers

I tried to find the article but the whole 4 pages is only available to subscribers, it only showed page 4 where it said, "Diluted 1:20 urine with water, this would make about 7 gallons of high-nitrogen liquid fertilizer, so a family of four could produce enough high-nitrogen fertilizer for an average garden and lawn

That is too bad, I will have to try to find the magazine to see if there are any other tidbits

For an example of 1:20, I just measure an ounce per gallon milk container,(128 oz) and add it to compost, it goes a long way over 5 compost heaps.

llama momma wrote:For an example of 1:20, I just measure an ounce per gallon milk container,(128 oz) and add it to compost, it goes a long way over 5 compost heaps.

I hesitate to speak up because I was way off last time I tried to answer a math problem but 1 ounce in 128 oz would be 1:127. 6 oz in 128 oz would be about 1:21.

Of course it doesn't make that much difference when adding to compost but it would when making a liquid fertilizer that was mentioned above.

You're correct. Thank you.

Yes Linda is correct, he article was speaking of the 1:20 urine to H2O solution as a direct fertilizer to be used on the garden and lawn. For compost activation, use the urine straight. Be wary it does not begin to smell as a latrine.

camprn wrote: Be wary it does not begin to smell as a latrine.

Can you clarify please?

I "apply" urine undiluted to my comfrey. I don't think the stuff can get to much nitrogen.


Max

Urine dilution is totally variable. It totally depends on ones hydration. Early morning urine is concentrated. After drinking lots of water, urine is dilute, so how dilute you make the fertilizer is variable. I think they just mean to add some water to the urine.
So to get down to exactly how much to dilute it is sort of......unimportant.
As far as latrine smell, I think it is important that the area being fertilized has some other source of moisture. Even over a long dry summer, having dogs, a yard can get to smelling if there is no water added to wash it down somewhat.

Made you look twice didn't I? Well, in my extensive readings of what seems like hundreds of posts (mainly about coconut peat and about compost components), I came across a post that said diluted human urine could be used in compost. I saw so many posts, that I can not remember who recommended this, but I believe it was a moderator discussing options for gardeners in third world countries. Later, I did a search within the forum for "diluted human urine." And I came across three threads.

I doubt I will admit to anyone but close family that I am even thinking of using this "medium" to aid in my compost. I'd like to know though, does anyone know how much is "too much?" Quantity was not mentioned in any of the threads I came across.

Also, my property has plenty of pine trees, so pine straw is a natural choice for me when it comes to building up my compost. I was wondering, is there anything I should do with the pine needles before adding to my compost. Is it possible it might harbor some negative creepy crawlies. Are there other issues I should be cautious about?

Thanks so much for your help. I just received my first UPS shipment of two raised 4x4 beds. My family and I are very excited about our very first garden (of any kind).

Windmere,
I think pine needles have a waxy coating that takes a lot longer to compost. If I recall correctly they are also acidic and can cause problems if you have too much of them. You could possibly burn them and add the ash; not sure if they are still acidic at that point but they would already be broken down. Blueberry bushes like acidic soil so you could always plant some of those and put the pine needles to good use.

Windmere wrote:I doubt I will admit to anyone but close family that I am even thinking of using this "medium" to aid in my compost. I'd like to know though, does anyone know how much is "too much?" Quantity was not mentioned in any of the threads I came across.

C:N ratio should be 25-30:1(30:1 being closer to the ideal). If you're anything like me and just throw veg scraps/coffee grinds/tea bags on the compost pile and add some carbon(usually shredded paper, sometimes straw from the chickens), then keeping that ratio will be problematic to say the least. I always go by Mother Nature and just assume it will rot sooner or later. If it smells or is too wet, I just add carbon.

So I'd guess that over time, a compost bin filled with paper/wood chips/etc. that gets urine doses every day will eventually hit that ratio. But, as with anything, there will be a point when you have too much of a good thing. Having sources of carbon handy would make experimentation and retaining a balance easier.

Composting is weird though. It can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be.

C:N ratio list(there are many of them, this is just a sample)
http://www.weblife.org/humanure/chapter3_7.html

Getting in to the details of C:N ratios with equations.
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/calc/cn_ratio.html

Windmere ,
Rely on your nose ..... if you can smell the heap stop putting it on and just use plain water for a few days to keep the heap damp .

Remember turning the heap if is smells will get the bacteria using the oxygen and this will kill the smell after a couple of days. It will also produce heat to speed up the composing action.

For the ingredients to make of an ideal compost heap look in Mel's ANSFG book second edition ( details on my strap lines ) ... basically anything that has ever grown in the ground or out of it can be used and like Camp has said try and get something like the indicated percentages .