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

[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