Wee as a fertilizer

[Andy Hamilton]

I have just read that you can use your own wee as a fertilizer, watered down!

Has anyone tried this if so is it effective?

I have heard that it is good on Lemon trees, but is it good for anything else?

[eeksypeeksy]

Here is a report (pdf file, 2.25 MB) that you might want to read: "Guidelines on the Use of Urine and Faeces in Crop Production"

Also, this web page: "Urine can be used as fertiliser"

[eeksypeeksy]

That first link, by the way, has a photo of a nicely dressed man strolling about his vegetable garden with a watering can (purposely yellow?) full of urine, and another photo of some largish farm machinery spreading urine on a field prior to sowing barley. There are no photos of people flinging their dung about the garden because it requires a little treatment before it can be applied to the tomatoes.

According to them:

Recommendations for agricultural use of excreta are based on knowledge of the nutrient content of the excreta, the amounts excreted, the composition and plant availability of the fertilizer and the treatment of the excreta, which influences their properties. Relationships and data that can form a basis for adapting the guidelines to local conditions are presented in the text. Urine and faeces are complete fertilizers of high quality with low levels of contaminants such as heavy metals. Urine is rich in nitrogen, while faeces are rich in phosphorous, potassium and organic matter. The amount of nutrients excreted depends on the amounts in the food consumed, and equations are presented for calculation of nitrogen and phosphorus in excreta based on easily available statistics on the supply of food protein.

Excreta should be handled and treated according to the hygiene guidelines (Schönning & Stenström, 2004) before use in cultivation...

[Johnnie Appleseed]

Being on WWOOF in Slovakia, I stayed on a small farm of a czech self- sufficient couple. The man often just used the hay bed near the house, where his pumpkins grew, for "number one".
I think about constructing a kind of stairs next to a compost frame, to climb up there and "humify" it from above, when I have put there but low- nitrogen- plant matter without manure or anything. This might activate and grade up the whole thing.
So maybe one should even construct a "number one" compost system in addition to the "number two" compost toilet. Good circulation. I think reed wastewater clearing systems are a good invention, too. But I figure they get along with just dishwashing and showering water, so you can use the rest for fertlizing your cultures!

[Ranter]

I went to an organic food festival at the weekend. A book stall there had an entire tome on the use of urine in growing plants. Sadly I can't remember the exact title or the author (I'm blaming the illness, which causes poor memory, but it could just be my age), but wanted to let you know there definately is a book out there, on just this subject.

[eeksypeeksy]

I went to an organic food festival at the weekend. A book stall there had an entire tome on the use of urine in growing plants.

Maybe Liquid Gold?

[Magpie]

I think you'd want to be careful what you "water", as I have heard of it being used as a weedkiller, too. Definately water it down.

[Ranter]

eeksypeeksy, you're dead right! This is the book I I looked at. Thank you for assisting my addled brain.

[Wombat]

Good link Eeksypeeksy!

I have applied it directly to our citrus trees for years with good results!

Nev

[STHLMgreen]

I've seen guys use more than just urine on their fields in Greece, and though it sicks me out, I must say the wine from that particular island was excellent.

[Wombat]

Ew,

Saw the same thing in China!

Nev

[multiveg]

Compost activator. Bob Flowerdew recycles lager on his compost heaps!

Liquid Gold book is great! Not sure about the wedding rituals though

[ohareward]

Has anybody seen the movie 'The Worlds Fastest Indian'. Burt Munro, a Kiwi who broke the world speed record for under 1000cc motor cycles at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967. Well in the movie he urinated on his lemon tree, and it seemed to grow alright. Also I lived in HongKong for awhile and the vege farmers had their veges up on raised banks with water in the trough between rows and they would mix their #1 & #2s into the water and then scoop the mixture up over the vegetables. And they were very lush.

[Jack]

Gidday

Now I remember this subject coming up on an Yanky forum and it was shock horror you can't do that think about all the germs or something. They didn't even like the thought of using any animal waste products without some sort of treating. But I have always used it whenever I get a chance with very good results and no adverse reactions what-so-ever.

Urine is very high in nitrogen in the form of amonium but it also has a lot of other nutrients, like there are some things an animal has to have regular intake because the body does not store and those are normally passed out in the urine.

As with anything, too much of a good thing can cause a lot of harm. Here a story from my youth.

When I was about 17, I joind a shearing gang and we were shearing in the biggest shearing shed in the southern hemisphere at the time, called Siberia. Down here shearers always start at 5.am and work a 9 hours till 5pm. That's including an hour for breakfast, lunch and two other half hour breaks. The shearers and shedhands live on site in purpose built quaters and at this place it was a row of bunk rooms with a verandah which linked it to the dining room and cookhouse and beyond that the ablution block.

We would get up just after 4 am in the dark and as the about 20 men got out of bed at that time of the day guess what most did first thing. Why walk all the way to the ablution block when you could just stand on the end of the verandah and do it. Well when we first arrived, the grass at that end was a very lush and green but after about 6 or 8 weeks of that early morning watering there was a huge dead area showing just what range strong young men have.

[Millymollymandy]

I'm not surprised! One dog pee kills a large area of grass.