Unending Source of Free Fertilizer

If you are like me you’ve probably been oblivious to this unending supple of free fertilizer. But it’s not a new concept. In fact it’s garnered a lot of research. And you’ve been flushing this gold mine down the drain just like I have.

So there’s the hint and no it’s not poop we’re reviewing here. It’s human urine, perhaps one of the best sources for enriching the soil for your plants.

Nutrients in Urine

Our kidneys recycle nutrients that our bodies aren’t using at the moment into the urine. Amazingly that includes nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in amounts close to the ratio recommended in commercial fertilizers – about 11 – 1 – 2.5. The Swedish studies by Sundberg in 1995 and Drangert in 1997 discovered that one adult produces enough urine to fertilize 50-100 % of the crops necessary to feed one adult.

So essentially you can produce enough nutrients to feed yourself if you grow your own food. Now that’s a balanced ecosystem.

Saves Money, Time, Labor and Transportation costs

In the past we have spent a significant amount of time and energy finding a source of manure for our composts piles. Then there’s the labor in loading it into the trailer and unloading it when we get home and then shoveling it onto the compost pile.

Add to that the cost of fuel for the truck and the wear and tear on the vehicle and trailer.

It’s a lot easier to pour some diluted pee on the garden plot every day.

And it’s a lot healthier for the soil than chemical, non-organic fertilizers.

Before you run out and start peeing on your garden, read about the health factors below and the proper way to dilute and spread this urine fertilizer on the soil.

The Logistics of Collecting Human Urine

For your own garden just pee in a bucket. You can purchase air tight lids that screw onto a 5 gallon bucket to minimize odors. Then set it out in the garage until you’re ready to dilute the urine and apply to the soil.

Some folks advocate for large scale collection of human urine to use as fertilizer in large scale farming. Now collection becomes a bit more complicated and expensive for projects like that. New separating toilets would have to be installed as well as duplicate sets of pipes to separate the urine from the feces.

But for our own individual uses of urine fertilizer, it’s easy and inexpensive to pee in a bucket.

What about the Health Factors

Urine itself is almost sterile. For individual use it’s considered safe to use your own urine in your garden especially if you follow the application guidelines below. You won’t be giving any organisms back to yourself that you don’t already have. But be sure to research this information yourself before you start using human urine in your vegetable and fruit gardens. The World Health Guidelines are here:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/urineguidelines.pdf

As an added precaution, wait one month after the last application of human urine before harvesting edible crops.

Obviously there’s less risk in applying human urine to ornamental plants and lawns since you will not be eating their produce.

Urine can be sanitized when larger groups of people contribute to the collection of urine by:

1. Keeping large containers of urine in a greenhouse for 30 days at or above 68 degrees F.

2. Use solar pasteurizer http://modernfarmer.com/2014/01/human-pee-proven-fertilizer-future/

The “ick” Factor

Naturally our first reaction to using human urine as fertilizer is “ick”. But consider this. Don’t we make compost from animal manure and then put it on our gardens. Now animal manure is a lot ickier than human pee and manure contains a lot of animal pee too.

Also, consider the symbiotic relationship of humans and plants especially in the carbon dioxide – oxygen sharing cycle. We produce a waste product called carbon dioxide that becomes a nutrient for plants. They utilize carbon dioxide in their growing process and release a plant waste product called oxygen.

Plants and animals wouldn’t survive without this life-giving gaseous exchange.

And so why not exchange the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (NPK) in the same way. Our bodies transform the NPK in urine into a form that the plants can easily assimilate. Plants have much more difficulty utilizing commercial chemical fertilizers.

The Smell Factor

Urine sitting in a bucket can be odiferous. So put a lid on it! And disperse it daily unless you are holding it for 30 days to sanitize it. And how much worse does animal manure smell? And manure attracts flies like crazy. Urine does not attract flies if you keep a lid on it.

I haven’t noticed an odor from the diluted urine after it’s applied to the soil.

Before You Start Pouring Urine on Your Garden…

Be sure to read the next articles about…

Proper Application of Human Urine as Fertilizer for Gardens

More than One Way to Utilize Human Urine as Fertilizer

References:

Scientific American 7-23-2010
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer/

Modern Farmer
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/01/human-pee-proven-fertilizer-future/

Vegan Culture Network
http://www.goveganic.net/article217.html

http://www.ecosanres.org/pdf_files/ESR-factsheet-06.pdf

http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/gardening/605742/urine_the_ultimate_organic_fertiliser.html

http://akvopedia.org/wiki/Application_of_Urine

Blessings,

Dr. Jo