Urine as fertilizer

[watervole]

I've been wondering about this for many years, ever since visiting the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales where they had collection bottles in the gent's loos.

I've just found a report of a study done in Finland that says it works every bit as well as conventional fertilizers and that urine is virtually sterile and thus there is no health risk.

This link also makes interesting reading (it appears to be about growing canabis, but the comments would apply to any plants).  It basically says that you can use urine directly to water plants, but it is best to dilute it by a factor of 10 or 20 to avoid scorching the roots.

I may well try this on the allotment.

And a post of mine from just over a year ago which refers to the fact that vegans who eat plants fertilised with human faeces do not suffer from vitamin B12 deficiency (gut bacteria produce it too far down the gut for us to absorb it when it's in the body).  I'm not sure I'll try that one right now, but maybe someday.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Putting urine on a compost heap is a good idea, as the compost is often carbon-rich but nitrogen-poor. Urine is sterile when in the bladder, but tends to collect bacteria on the way out, if you get my drift, but most of those bacteria probably don't survive away from the moist warm surfaces of the body. Faeces is a different issue. They are full of E.coli and could pose problems when added to food plants. I suppose people used human faeces in former times but then, many of them had parasites, and a lot died young.

Some sewage farms do dry down the processed and sterilised sewage and sell the residue as fertiliser. I remember hearing about "Yorkshire Gold" a few years ago, which was exactly that. People who bought it complained that tomato plants grew everywhere the Yorkshire Gold had been. Hardy little buggers, tomato seeds. Pasteurising doesn't seem to touch them.

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

Hardy little buggers, tomato seeds. Pasteurising doesn't seem to touch them.

Never mind pasteurisation, tomato seeds have grown after the tomatoes were canned! I have no idea what the viability rate was, but it shows up in wartime memoirs - particularly Burma railway. also European pow camps. Tomato source; Red Cross parcels.

[purple-peril.livejournal.com]

I suspect you already know that you can't use human faeces as-is, right? Too many nasty bugs. You'd need to rot it down for a long while (from six months but about 5 years seems to be optimum says Google). Get a composting loo!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking about a composting loo. Have you seen any designs that are practical for indoor use in a small room?

[dumain.com (from livejournal.com)]

Never quite as odor free as the vendors would have you believe...

[purple-peril.livejournal.com]

Apparently most local authorities won't let you have one if sewerage is available.
Have a google.

[(Anonymous)]

Only if you're daft enough to ask them.

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

Check out
http://practicalaction.org/ for a lot of ecofriendly/appropriate tech information. It's an interesting site, data available as PDF's but they ask questions about who's wanting the information and who it will benefit- for each download! If you can stand just reading/copy and paste the text version you can bypass this bit. I suspect the data is over simplified and difficulties glossed over (checked out a couple I know something about and they definitely were!)
Also for composting toilets see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the links, so I may be duplicating. Urea is 46% nitrogen, so high in fact that you can 'burn' the crop if you are not careful.

Best way of improving the soil is to buy a bale (hand carry size not big round or Heston!)of straw dig a hole to sit it in and create a latrine over the top, use that for a period (from aweek to a month or so then leave for a further period before mixing into your compost.

Alternatively pour collected urine over bale, allow to soak for a period them mix into compost heap. You need the straw to absorb and give structure otherwise you risk turning the compost heap into a soggy mess.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

From time to time Gardener's Question Time recommends urine as fertiliser (particularly for rhubarb apparently) It makes for surreal radio...

Composting earth closets are becoming fairly popular in eco-sites - try googling for them.

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

A gentleman of my acquaintance used to (and for all I know still does) add urine directly to the compost heap, if you see what I mean, when outside having a smoke. Bit more difficult for females!

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

Urine has long been known to be sterile when first out of the body. Medics in Vietnam were taught that in the event of treating an evisceration, one should cover everything as much as possible and urinate on it to keep it moist with as little contamination as possible.

You learn really strange things when you're a paramedic.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Getting her indoors to widdle on the prize marrows always seemed to feature in a certain brand of Northern farce.

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

Urine does seem to be a good fertilizer, but the problem is that it also contains whatever medicines we swallow or their breakdown products. So if you're on the pill, then waveney will be ingesting female hormones as well along with the tomatoes.

Medication in urine

[(Anonymous)]

Do the tomatoes absorb the hormones?

Re: Medication in urine

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

I've no idea, I suppose it depends on the complexity of the molecules. I do remember reading about a project where urine was collected separately (in Sweden, I believe) and that there were some concerns about this for exactly that reason. But I read the article just before posting the answer and as you can tell from the date, that's more than a year ago, so the specifics are a bit hazy by now.

Re: Medication in urine

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Read http://www.ramiran.net/doc04/Proceedings%2004/Richert_Stintzing.pdf

It's Swedish, but I don' know if it's the study you had in mind.

They seem to conclude that the risk is low becasue of degradation of hormones in soil and the root barrier reducing the uptake of complex molecules. However, there hasn't been a lot of research done in this area.

Re: Medication in urine

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

It may be, but I probably read something about it in the New Scientist. And as I said, it's been more than a year and since we don't collect urine separately here, I didn't think it important enough to remember.

roots?

[grizlbr.livejournal.com]

Ions in solution cross the cell membranes NPK. So in the plant where is a transport mechanism for complex molecules? I spray my tomatoes with calcium due to missing in soil not much in the atmosphere will enter through leaves or roots.

[epistrophia.livejournal.com]

If you "Listen Again" to Gardeners' Question Time from Sunday (don't know if that's the repeat or the original airing, actually, but it's the only one I ever hear) they had a question on just this subject, which led to quite a bit of discussion. I can't remember any details, because I was doing other things at the time, but it might be useful to you.

Fertilizer

[grizlbr.livejournal.com]

I am on septic so I can bottle urine to use in front yard or let it drain in back. Using yellow containers to recycle and reduce water use.

Re: Fertilizer

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to reduce the load on teh septic tank and fertilise the yard at the same time.