Has anyone tried recycling their urine for plant use?

[Kaleva]

Was reading about it today and while for many there may be an "ick" factor, apparently a number do swear by it.

Below are links to a couple of articles and a youtube video:

How to Garden with Urine

Urine: the ultimate 'organic' fertiliser?

Youtube

&feature=fvwrel Organic fertilizer - URINE AS PLANT FOOD TO MAKE PLANTS BLOOM FREE FERTILIZER!!!
]

This is something I think I'll try. I live here by myself so me walking around with jugs of urine isn't going to offend anyone else.

[Curmudgeoness]

1. Yep, there is an ick factor there.

I have not tried it, and probably won't here in the city, but it would be an excellent fertilizer. I remember my mother talking about her childhood and an old black woman who lived beside them in squatter shacks in the 30's who had a wonderful garden. She had a chamber pot that she emptied into the garden every morning.

I think it is a good idea for anyone who doesn't have a problem with it.

[Denninmi]

2. Um, well, yeah, um, ICK!

Sorry, nope. There are a lot of ways to get N into a garden. This isn't going to be one of them for me, thanks.

Bad enough last time I was in the hospital they made me collect it all so they could watch my fluid intake/output balance. That about made me throw up.

Nope, not gonna happen.

[beac]

3. No,but I did make mr beac pee into bottles for a few days in

an attempt to repel ground hogs. The result was sprinkled at the edges of the house not in the garden, so no results to report on that. I can tell you it did NOT deter the whistle pigs one little bit.

[Kaleva]

4. Well. used it today for the first time

Last edited Wed Aug 29, 2012, 06:06 PM - Edit history (1)

For my house plants, I mixed 24 parts fresh water to 1 part urine. 3 cups of water and I ball parked the 1/8 cup measurement for the urine. If my ex ever found out I had used my measuring cups to measure out piss, I'd never hear the end of it. For the zucchini plants outside, I used about 1 gallon urine added to 4 gallons of grey water. (Edit: I had the original quantity for the zucchini plants wrong as I first poured a full gallon container of urine into a 5 gallon pail and then topped it off with water. So that would make it 4 parts water to 1 part urine).

[Kaleva]

5. Seems to be working so far.

I produce about a gallon of urine a day and I use it everyday.

I really screwed up last week when I used laundry water that had regular detergent in it to water plants outside with. That really knocked the zucchini plants I have for a loop and I thought I killed them all. But a few days ago I watered them again with a mixture of 1 gallon of urine mixed with 4 gallons of water and some of the plants are perking back up with very dark green leaves.

I watered my indoor plants with a mix of 24 parts water and 1 part urine and I haven't noticed any difference with them yet.

For my lawn where the grass is thin and brownish, I'm using a 50/50 mix of urine and greywater from my shower and I have noticed that the patches of lawn where I have applied the urine are becoming greener.

[Kolesar]

6. When you buy manure, it is ammonia in urine that provides the nitrogen

Urine for big savings if you do it at home.

[htuttle]

7. I piss on my compost piles in the Fall

Well, I collect it indoors first, since I live in the city.

It seems to be especially helpful in composting 'dry/brown' compost over the winter, like dead leaves, small twigs, newspaper, etc. I 'applied it' to the leaf and straw sheet compost beds I laid in last fall, and had a lot of new soil this spring and summer. I assume that it helped get things going.

Apparently, you shouldn't apply it directly to growing plants, as it might burn them. Although the health concerns aren't that great, since urine is fairly clean, bacteriologically speaking, if the urine-donor is taking certain type of pharmaceuticals, traces of them might end up in the top soil (and eventually your food).

At least that's what I read. I only know that it rots my leaf piles faster.

[Kaleva]

8. That's what I plan to do this fall and over the winter.

I'm going to have alot of brown stuff as there are many maple trees on the block I live in and I constructed a compost bin last week and already have it started with mulched leaves, cut up cardboard and paper and green scraps from the kitchen.

With the leaves that will be coming, I'll chop them up fine with my mulching mower and work some of it into my garden beds that I'm preparing for next years. The rest will go into the compost bin. Even with the leaves chopped up, I expect my 4' wide by 3' deep and 3' high compost bin to be full and thus won't have enough 'greens' to make it work properly so I'll be adding my urine throughout the fall and winter.

[Kaleva]

9. Been using it on my compost pile for some time now

Most everyday I've been dumping my urine on the compost pile and turning the pile over about once a week. I turned it over this morning and there's very little smell and the pile is decomposing quite well. i could really feel the heat emitting from the pile as I turned it over.

[malokvale77]

10. Urine heats up the compost.

The kidneys sterilize it. It's a good thing.

[Kaleva]

11. I read that the it's the nitrogen in the urine that does it.

for a compost pile to decompose well, it needs a certain part of "brown" matter and a certain amount of "green" matter and it needs to be kept moist. The urine provides the water to keep the pile damp while the nitrogen provides the "green" matter; both of which the organisms in the compost pile need in order to do their work.

[malokvale77]

12. Correct...

The brown matter would be something like: fall leaves, twigs, etc. (carbon). The green matter would be something like: grass clippings, vegetable trimmings, etc. (nitrogen). Then you need something to heat it up (microbial action). This could be any thing from blood meal to manure to urine ( I've even used "Drain Care&quot . Keep it moist like a wrung out sponge and aerate. Yes, the urine provides moisture, also.

I've composted for most of my life (I'm old) and this has never failed me.

[Shagbark Hickory]

13. I've seen what it can do (dogs)

There are better ways.

[roody]

14. It is good stuff diluted.

[kurtzapril4]

15. Urea is an ingredient in most fertilisers.

[ConcernedCanuk]

16. yup - and researched it also

.
.
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20% seem to be the rule - so 1 cup urine, 4 cups water

of course, one may want to stay below the 20% rule if using it indoors

I believe that my use of my urine helped to create these huge tomatoe plants



Had to open up the roof(glass panes) to let the other 2 feet grow up!

I didn't use the 20% rule in the greenhouse though,

I worked in it daily, and being a beer drinker - ya can figure it out methinks . . .

I spent not one dollar for fertilizer or other nutrients . .

More of this at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x10250


I originally posted this in Fall of 2008

[Dont call me Shirley]

17. Would not try this method while taking pharmaceuticals.

[jtuck004]

18. Yes. Diluted, and into compost. But it is primarily a source of cheap nitrogen,

and I get those from comfrey, lawn clippings, dandelions, etc. When I do add supplemental, I use hydrolized fish or alpaca manures.

Then again, it's fun just to experiment, and for a crop needing nitrogen, it will work.

[sendero]

19. We have used it in the past...

.... to add nitrogen. We called it "peecycle". Basically we applied urine diluted 10 to one with water (to be clear, 10 parts water, one part urine) on to the soil of our vegetable garden. It was very effective, but we only did it one season to try it out.

The urine needs to be pretty fresh (no more than 24 hours old) and applied carefully. There are folks who believe that the urine will deter some pests like rabbits and deer.