Will phosphorus be the next big shortage?

[watervole]

I was browsing a copy of the Times on the way back from Conrunner on Monday, and found this article on the rising demand for the world's limited supply of phosphorus.

In essence, it's essential for agriculture, and wasteful usage and limited supplies are pushing prices up dramatically.  In a few decades, we may be looking at 'peak phosphorus'.

One of the possible solutions involves recycling the phosphorus that we throw away every day - urine.

I recently read Liquid Gold, an entertaining (It's full of anecdotes on how urine has been used throughout history) and informative book on how to use urine in your garden.  Urine is sterile (as long as it isn't contaminated by faeces) and contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in almost the exact ratio needed by plants.  Dilute between three and eight times with water (the more woody material/mulch/compost you have in the soil, the stronger you can make the mixture) and you can feed your plants up to three times a week.

I tried this a couple of weeks ago on my courgette plants - the leaves were turning yellow and the plants were putting on very little growth.

Result?  Green leaves within a week and healthy new growth. 

Tried again with the sorry-looking French beans - they're now, finally, making decent growth up their poles.

I'm now encouraging the family to fill empty plastic milk bottles as fast as they can - there's a load more plants that I want to try this on!

Comments

[julesjones]

Also a good compost activator.

The gents have an advantage in this, of course, as they have a built-in hosepipe and can direct extremely fresh and clean supplies exactly where required. Alas, this may not be feasible in allotments frequented by the easily shocked.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

Phosphorus *is* the next big shortage. We've been having trouble getting supplies for several months at work now (animal feed company) and what we have been able to get has been extortionately priced. It's partly because so much has been used up to fertilise ground in the USA for biofuel growing!

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere recently (New Scientist, I think) that helium is getting seriously low.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I'll be glad when helium gets too expensive to use it for balloons. Might save a few turtles somewhere.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

There's far too much phosphate than is good for us in processed foods, and in coke and other cola drinks. It is used as a preservative.

I would hope that less inorganic phosphate is used as agricultural fertiliser in future. Urine is much better, although its major component is nitrogen. It is a truth unversally acknowledged that plants have lots of carbon but are in nitrogen defacit, while animals are the other way around.

Give your plants a lot of wee, but probably best to dilute it or add it through the medium of the compost heap. Raw wee can be a bit scalding to the plants if over used.

That's the circle of life in a nutshell. The wheels on the world go round and round.

[robthefish.livejournal.com]

Radio 4 were talking about the 'industrial use' of honey bees for pollination today and how it may be related to 'colony collapse disorder' - so I predict that the next big shortage will be... food.

[merrymaia.livejournal.com]

My mother just posted about this in her livejournal:

http://decemberleaf.livejournal.com/84768.html