When applying it to the soil, it can help to slightly bury the urine in the soil or under mulch. 
Reducing the salt in your diet can be helpful to your own health and improve the salt ratio in your urine. I now have a small backyard garden that needs help . In Japan and China, human feces was used as a traditional fertilizer up until World War II in Japan and until the 1960s in China, though using human manure is not recommended, thankfully, ugh. My older boy needs to be reminded to face away from the street and my toddler is a practicing nudest. By continuing to use the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Love it! Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are present in substantial amounts in our urine. Kate approves, although shes reluctant to contribute until the weather gets better. Certain medications may be detected in trace amounts in urine. Pretty much, as long as we dont add excessive amounts. Signs of excess nitrogen include curled leaves, and these plants may also attract aphids to the tender fast-growing leaves. Recipe 5: Greywater with a hint of yellow Greywater is the waste water from showering, doing dishes, etc, and urine can be added to a greywater system. Meghan is co-founder of the Veganic Agriculture Network of North America www.goveganic.net. For more information, please see our. Choose plants that need lots of nitrogen, such as corn and squash, tomatoes and cucumbers during their fruit-bearing stage, and older plants that need a boost. It will give them a new purpose and perspective on peeing outside. Liquid feeds (including urine, compost teas, chemical fertilizers) bypass this natural system and feed the plants directly, much like a human receiving a liquid diet through an intravenous tube rather than eating lunch. Adding additional liquid such as urine should therefore be avoided because more water is being added to benefit from just a few grams of urea (food) which in comparison to the kitchen/garden waste being added will have very minimal value to the bacteria. I always say that getting caught urinating on compost is Decent Exposure. Individual use Urine is considered quite safe for individual use. Its not often they are granted permission to pee outdoors since we live in a fairly populated area.
Remember that, generally, you want a 2:1 ratio of brown-to-green material. Its matted and full of nutrients. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.
Be sure to add plenty of carbon-rich materials, like dry leaves, sawdust, straw and cardboard. Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardeners Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition by Jeff Lowenfels In the rare cases when it isnt sterile, urine is generally still fine for personal use, or can be stored for several months to minimise pathogen risk (see resources). Carol Steinfield, EcoWaters Project, 96 pages. 
I save the leaves from dozens of trees each fall and pile them into a bin. While pee is almost always sterile, faeces contain dangerous pathogens. Together with Bill and Melinda Gates, I like an egg and a hen in lay. A single adult male could provide enough pee to fertilize 6,300 tomato plants per year, yielding 2.4 tons of tomatoes. Not everyone is happy about the bucket. Jason Goodwin undertakes a family cycle ride along the Danube. I want all the muck and all the magic. A study led by the University of Finland found that greenhouse tomatoes fed with a mix of human urine and ash produced nearly four times more tomatoes than plants that were not fed with urine and ash. PopScience says urine is a high-quality plant food rich with nitrogen, potassium and phosphate, much like any all-around organic fertilizer is. 
Urea is mostly nitrogen.. Composting bacteria digest the sugars and carbohydrates leaving carbon dioxide and water. (In a good way. Ive read about urine collection and the breakdown of ammonia to nitrates for gardening & fertilizer, but have never made the connection to just pee in the compost. How can I compost without attracting rats? Ill be honest, my boys were happy to oblige. So if you are a commercial farmer, please contact the relevant local services to learn whether urine is an acceptable soil amendment in your region. Put all your eggs into one basket, Andrew Carnegie advised, and watch that basket!. Most researchers agree that the amounts are so minimal as to be inconsequential, but Id err on the side of caution and collect pee from those you know and love. Yes, pretty much. Instructions for installing such a system can be purchased from the EcoWaters Project, see www.ecowaters.org/products.html#Plans. Come each fall again I have the best, richest compost you can imagine all for free. Urine is sterile. Make sure that you get a 100% stream of pure urine.
This method is also not recommended, although small amounts of straw can go into the HOTBIN, too much can cause problems. If I can homestead where I live, what's stopping you? Im not sure whether I can convince them to pee in the compost pile on the other side of the garden or not, but Ill think about it! Im in a fever for compost, too. There really isnt much problem if you use it immediately, especially if you dilute it. If you choose to store the urine (i.e. Using human urine isnt a plant-based technique, so in its purest form it cant be considered plant-based growing. There are even people who drink their own urine on a regular basis. If you do second stage composting (removing the worms and further composting) you could pee on that pile with benefits. Yes, it is! Your email address will not be published. Peeing on your compost is good for both the compost you are creating, and the environment itself. Peeing directly in the garden is different. Weve used diluted urine in container gardens on a balcony for quite some time, and the neighbors havent even noticed. Certain medications can be found in trace amounts in the urine. Meghans article was originally written for the website of the Veganic Agriculture network of North America, see www.goveganic.net, www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/urineguidelines.pdf. This is one reason why it needs to be properly diluted. Im thinking Id abstain from adding undiluted urine to your worm bin. I see a hen divided into sections marked Eggs, Alarm Clock, Responsibility, Compost. Email us Send us an email any time!We'll respond as quickly as possible. In the spring I planted tomatoes. Peeing between two layers of mulch will lessen nitrogen losses from conversion to ammonia gas. I approach with my fork and wheelbarrow, my eyes fixed on the bedding spread under their perch. Urine is about 98% water and the rest is mainly a chemical called urea. This water then has to be removed to create crumbly rich compost and there are two places the water can go it can drain into the soil or evaporate into the air. How cool is that?! I thought they were a really cool idea, but babys bum was too sensitive for them. Despite urine having an ick factor in many modern cultures, its been used throughout history for a variety of purposes, including cleaning wounds, making bread, and in the process of dying clothing and womens hair. Make sure to include enough of carbon-rich items such as dry leaves, sawdust, straw, and cardboard in your compost pile. Carbon-rich materials can include leaves, straw, or just good quality earthy soil. Note: faeces can be made safe for gardening through a specific composting process described in the Humanure Handbook (for a free copy see humanurehandbook.com) though should otherwise be completely avoided in gardening. Why do you think they call it aq-pee-ponics? Here at the Veganic Agriculture Network, we keep our large countryside garden completely plant-based, to produce veganic food without the addition of any animal products (human or non-human). Keep in mind: Urine is high in salt. Because it contains a lot of nitrogen, urine counts as a green in the compost. The Resilient Farm and Homestead:An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach by Ben Falk. Please read the safety guidelines too. Nepalese farmers have been taking a leak on their crops for centuries. Presumably the pee-soaked straw will be added in layers to the Hall's existing compost heaps. I am a non-traditional homesteader. A side-by-side comparison of basil plants. Certainly cheaper than store bought fertilizers and compost activators. And if so how should you do it? If peeing on crops can replace the need for fertilizer, peeing on compost could do the same. I legitimately thought I had a levitating guinea. Peter Harper and Louise Halestrap, Centre for Alternative Technology, 160 pages. no, it isnt good to pee on your worm bed. Im so glad Ive given your urine proper direction LOL! If we can homestead where we live, whats stopping you? To learn more about the history and culture of urine, see Liquid Gold and Life of Pee. Youre going to get a lot of green growth, Roy said. Their color is richer and the plant has grown faster than the one on the left. Or, we can fertilize perennial plants like bushes and trees with urine, and later use the plants leaves in our compost pile or as a mulch, a very safe and socially-acceptable way to cycle the nutrients back to our gardens. Folk wisdom seems to suggest that when a girl takes her eggs to market and starts dreaming like Melinda, shell drop the basket and break the eggs, but an earlier philanthropist had a solution for that. And its great hearing from you stranger , Youre so blessed! If you plan to pee on your compost, add even more brown matter. In her authoritative History of Kitchen Gardens, Susan Campbell describes how gardeners boys in the heyday of the potager were instructed, in return for their modest pennies in wages, to spend their own in the compost heap. All this time Ive been peeing in the yard, I now have a mission and purpose for my urine! Urine can be especially beneficial for fertilizing in city environments where other local forms of fertility may be scarce due to lack of green spaces. Its okay thoughbecause every drop helps. While there are good reasons to be cautious around feces, urine is generally sterile and fine to use for a variety of purposes. After a good crop I dug out the hole and what I found astounded me, it was the most amazing compost Id ever seen it was beautiful. Join the peecycling revolution and add urine to your compost bin. Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living by Rachel Kaplan and Ruby Blume Like all liquid nutrient sources, this shouldnt become the primary form of fertility for our gardens. Im thinking my urine would not be acceptable as I take several medications to deal with medical issues, but I might be able to convince my very healthy nephews. Fresh chicken manure, as any gardener knows, contains nitrogen, which plants use to photosynthesise and to build cells; potassium, which aids growth and the development of flavour; and phosphorus, the root-builder. It is best to dilute it at a 1:6 or 1:8 ratio. What we cant grow or produce ourselves we barter for.
Figured out who was killing my chickens and how he. There have been plenty of folks snickering about this front-page story from the Chapel Hill News: CARRBORO Roy Mars was peeing in his compost last weekend it adds nitrogen when he looked up and saw something streak across the sky.. Urine has been long-established as a free compost "activator" (aka "liquid gold"), because it's full of nitrogen, but there are other benefits too. Like anything in the fertilizer aisle, the key is not using too much. If this thought makes you uncomfortable, consider applying urine to plants that dont produce a crop. Also every time I do not have to flush a toilet. Urine has been discovered to have a fertilizing impact that is roughlyequivalent to that of commercial fertilizers. A homesteader's life. For home gardens it should be fine, especially if you keep it low-key, but what about commercial farms? Really? That being said, because of the benefits to your compost, I would recommend that you add it to your composter instead of directly to the soil. Uric acid speeds up the compost process and gets you to the end product faster. Life of Pee: The Story of How Urine Got Everywhere. Although Im not going to eat it myself, at least not directly, I have developed an incredible greed for it, fuelled by compost mania. Recipe 3: Compost pee Urine can be composted. The greywater provides some carbon and significantly dilutes the urine. I am not a doctor, lawyer, veterinarian or Martha Stewart. I dont think I did compost them when I tried them, but Id probably be willing to give it a try (you know, if I still had a baby in diaper). Our urine is probably sterile, and even if its not, we cant catch anything from our own urine that we dont already have. While not a plant-based technique per se, using their own urine is a way that vegan-organic gardeners can cycle back nutrients from the foods they consume, while also diverting their urine from the water system where it may act as a pollutant. Its easy and it saves water and fertilizer.
The regulations vary from country to country, and using human urine could also affect the certification status of a farm. Yet, despite the incredible results of recent studies, Americans are peeing away enough nitrogen to feed 12 million acres of corn per year. Yeehah saves on the water bill and the carbon footprint.
Jason Goodwin was feeling decidedly nostalgic for village life until he had a run-in with one of its discontents. Good reason to throw a kegger party, everyone line up to pee in the compost! Lifting the Lid: An Ecological Approach to Toilet Systems. Signs of nitrogen deficiency include yellow or pale green leaves, and some plants have key signs, like pointed cucumbers. Curious Questions: Which came first the flower pot or the garden centre? Using human urine can help us work toward a closed-loop fertility system. These days, what gets me excited about going out to the hen house is not so much the eggs as the straw. How To Compost: Everything You Need To Know To Start Composting, And Nothing You Don't. After applying the pee, water the plant. Bard me with brisket, stay me with steak and, in the dark watches of the night, whisper to me in the language of stroganoff, the dialects of bourguignon! 2022 www.beaconjournal.com. Recipe 4: Straw bale bathroom You can urinate directly on a bale of straw until the straw decomposes, and this compost can later be added to your garden. During this time I frequently urinated into the hole. When added to the compost bin, undiluted human urine reduces the time it takes for carbons to break down and increases the nutrient values in the completed compost. The summer before last I dug and hole in the garden and spent all winter filling it with household kitchen waste, newspapers, cardboard and layers of soil (to keep the smell down). The husband and the daughter were a harder sell. The mulch will stop the plants from receiving an overly-concentrated blast of urine, as well as helping to break down the nitrogen into a source the plants can use. And keep moving. What is amazing is that researchers calculate that each individual produces enough urine to fertilize enough vegetable plants for one person. Urine does sometimes smell. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Staff at Wimpole Hall using their new 'pee bale' to aid composting. You may have heard that peeing on your compost is good. The ideal mix for fast compost is 50 percent brown to 50 percent green. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits! (A gallon vinegar bottle is almost as good) Store it under the bathroom toilet tank. Its very high in nitrogen, so it counts as a green in the compost, and shouldnt be added to a compost bin that is already high in nitrogen-rich materials like food scraps. I save my urine in the garage all winter and add it to the pile in spring. Straw will also not replace the job of shredded paper and/or bulking agent. Ever see a yellow patch on a lawn because a dog keeps peeing in the same spot? So while vegan-organic growing excludes the addition of waste products from animals that have been bred and raised, humans can be seen as free-living animals who voluntarily contribute their waste. I have 2 acre garden in the United States that employs the homeless and helps them re-establish their lives. When I am not tearing cardboard boxes into strips or tossing tea leaves into the kitchen compost, I happily read about compost for hours at a stretch. I feel guilty when I forget to use the bottle and revert to my old ways. In cold composting, you are accepting that the water will either drain into the ground or evaporate and hence you are only adding the nitrogen rich food (2% = a few grams) to the compost pile/bin. Succession Planting: Growing More In the Same Space. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Simple genius of Gods creation , isnt it ? By Meghan Kelly. How Often Do You Empty A Composting Toilet? It's the latest measure adopted at the National Trust property Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire to both save water and ensure efficient composting. I already pee in the back yard frequently. According to an articleby National Geographic, scientists believe they can turn human urine into liquid gold for gardens. Its the right height to use if you set it on the toilet bowl lid. A blind taste test was performed (after a good cleaning) and the beets described as very flavorful. While it is a great compost activator, peeing in the actual garden is still being explored at least by my son, who fried a few boxwoods with his continual visits a few years back. Recent field studies support the benefits of peeing on crops. Your email address will not be published. I suggest reading The Humanure Handbook. SSWM (Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management) www.sswm.info, World Health Organisation 42-page pfd www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/urineguidelines.pdf. As a pregnant woman, I am happy to make contributions to the garden 20+ times a day. My name is Jessica Knowles. The youth would be horrified, but Sir Albert would approve. What do you do to kickstart your compost heap? Or, when cycling our urine for environmental reasons, theres no need to add it to our food crops: it can just as easily be applied to non-edible plants, like trees, wildflowers, lawns and landscaping projects. If the odor offends in the bathroom, add a bit of vinegar. Peeing on your compost is not only good for the soil and good for the environment, but it can actually increase crop yields and replace fertilizers entirely. On Melindas website, theres a picture of a hen divided into sections labelled Education, Empowerment, Financial Security, Health, Entrepreneurship. Another common method of adding urine into a compost heap is if straw or hay has been urinated on. This article appeared in Growing Green International magazine Num 29 (Summer 2012), p38. Just pee on the mulch. Its like the seasonal craving you develop for red meat, as if the rain and cold and the dark nights bring on a creeping anaemia that can only be banished by blood and iron in the diet. Hes not much of an outdoor personality and value his modesty type 2 energy/blue on the color code thing. Jeffrey Douglas own a landscaping company and has been in the business for over 20 years. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published.
As a basic premise, the urine must be mixed with carbon-rich materials in order for the nitrogen to become accessible to the plants. You can also store urine in a sealed container for several months to minimise any potential pathogens. As far as compost goes, urine serves as the green component in the green-to-brown ratio. When we eat, our kidneys filter out extra nutrients that our bodies cant utilize, and these nutrients are then excreted in urine. Anyone who has been gardening for a while knows that peeing in the compost is the thing to do. If youve got too much nitrogen, youll know because it will smell. Nonetheless, I recommend that you be carefulif you are on multiplemedications. My son refuses to pee outside unless hes bursting and were in the middle of nowhere. They had just come out when my youngest was born. All rights reserved. Urea is a source of food (nitrogen) for the bacteria, it is made up of lots of small molecules in a water solution these properties allow urine be digested very quickly which means fast growth and heat. So, peeing on your compost is a great free and non-toxic approach to restoring critical minerals like nitrogen in your soil. You have to watch the pile. On the upside, adding a little urine can help activate the decomposition of organic matter, so a wee bit of pee here and there is fine. The National Geographic says, Researchers estimate a single person could supply enough urine to fertilize roughly 6,300 tomato plants a year yielding some 2.4 tons of tomatoes., Chris Roy from Orange County Farm Supply in Orange, Calif., said he has heard that peeing on the plumerias leads to fantastic plants. No, this is not a joke, as funny as it may sound. Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants by Carol Steinfeld If you're female, don't find an al fresco urination an attractive option, or don't have space for a straw bale in the garden, a plastic drinks bottle filled in the comfort of the bathroom and decanted onto the heap will serve just as well. Thats gonna be fun , kids . In healthy populations, human urine is almost always sterile. Dont overdo it at the beginning of the season, as excess nitrogen can lead to bushy, leafy plants that bear little fruit. Group use When mixing urine from multiple people, again, its probably sterile, though there is more chance of pathogens, especially from accidental fecal contamination. Here are a few possible ways to use pee in your garden or landscaping. With cold composting this provides the bacteria with a source of food which can be digested quickly producing heat rapidly. Our urine contains significant levels of nitrogen, as well as phosphorous and potassium (typically an N-P-K ratio around 11 1 2.5, similar to commercial fertilizers). Although we are now into the autumn the lawn has never looked so healthy. Fawn, Maybe a mens restroom sign will guide them that way , Love it! However, all vegan-organic gardens naturally contain free-living animals, like microorganisms, earthworms, and birds, who eat organic matter and create micro-manure as part of their normal daily life. Required fields are marked *. The Microsoft billionaires and philanthropists have reached the conclusion that raising chickens provides a route out of poverty for millions of women around the world. Im glad it worked so well for you. Recipe 1: Watered-down pee For soil with good drainage that is crumbly and earthy-smelling. )jas, John Lewis-Stempel: Heres looking at ewe, kid. In some countries urine is accepted in commercial farming, such as Sweden, where its even applied mechanically to large-scale farms. When we eat food, our kidneys filter out excess nutrients that our body is unable to use, and these nutrients are then expelled from the body in our urine. So there. Urine is almost always safe unless you actively have a urinary tract infection. The children are less sure it seems to them a little offensive. Studies conducted in Sweden (Sundberg, 1995; Drangert, 1997) show that an adults urine contains enough nutrients to fertilize 50-100% of the crops needed to feed one adult. I am much older than the people I see here, but I have always been an alternative thinker. Suffice to say I am now filling an even deeper hole in the garden and yes, it getting a healthy dose of urine. Not into the front yard though, or you can wind up in the slammer on indecency charges. If urine and ash or biochar can replace fertilizer entirely, imagine what urine and compost can do. And the Washington Post reported the fantastic results urine had on cabbage crops. What is a non-traditional homesteader? If you include wood ash in your compost, youve replicated most commercial fertilizers without the harmful chemicals. Its the repeat visits, I believe, that did them in, as my calls to move down the hedge row went unheeded. Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants. Recipe 2: Straight up pee For soil with a thick layer of carbon-rich mulch, like wood chips and leaf mulch. The following is intended to be a brief and non-exhaustive overview of health concerns and solutions, though we ask that people do their own research and draw their own conclusions. If you have a garden and a composting system, your golden liquid is basically liquid gold. I lust after compost, thick as cake and dark as chocolate and smelling of the earth. Required fields are marked *. to eliminate potential pathogens) keep it in a closed container to reduce the smell. I'd like to think we are the people who don't fit the mold; figuring out how to live the life they want.
My family puts up with some very odd requests from me, but this one takes the cake. So in general, liquid feeds should only be used as a complement to other forms of fertility, such as compost and mulch. The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities by Peter Ladner Anecdotal reports in the rose-growing community say urine does wonders for these beauties. Thank you for your humorous post . Not all plants respond well to high salt content. Than I watched a video about this old and famous eco biologist ( cant find the link now) where he revealed how our entire planet mass desertification can be stoped and reversed by roaming herds of livestock and predators , free to munch and excrete like thousands years back.
Reducing the salt in your diet can be helpful to your own health and improve the salt ratio in your urine. I now have a small backyard garden that needs help . In Japan and China, human feces was used as a traditional fertilizer up until World War II in Japan and until the 1960s in China, though using human manure is not recommended, thankfully, ugh. My older boy needs to be reminded to face away from the street and my toddler is a practicing nudest. By continuing to use the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Love it! Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are present in substantial amounts in our urine. Kate approves, although shes reluctant to contribute until the weather gets better. Certain medications may be detected in trace amounts in urine. Pretty much, as long as we dont add excessive amounts. Signs of excess nitrogen include curled leaves, and these plants may also attract aphids to the tender fast-growing leaves. Recipe 5: Greywater with a hint of yellow Greywater is the waste water from showering, doing dishes, etc, and urine can be added to a greywater system. Meghan is co-founder of the Veganic Agriculture Network of North America www.goveganic.net. For more information, please see our. Choose plants that need lots of nitrogen, such as corn and squash, tomatoes and cucumbers during their fruit-bearing stage, and older plants that need a boost. It will give them a new purpose and perspective on peeing outside. Liquid feeds (including urine, compost teas, chemical fertilizers) bypass this natural system and feed the plants directly, much like a human receiving a liquid diet through an intravenous tube rather than eating lunch. Adding additional liquid such as urine should therefore be avoided because more water is being added to benefit from just a few grams of urea (food) which in comparison to the kitchen/garden waste being added will have very minimal value to the bacteria. I always say that getting caught urinating on compost is Decent Exposure. Individual use Urine is considered quite safe for individual use. Its not often they are granted permission to pee outdoors since we live in a fairly populated area. Remember that, generally, you want a 2:1 ratio of brown-to-green material. Its matted and full of nutrients. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.
Be sure to add plenty of carbon-rich materials, like dry leaves, sawdust, straw and cardboard. Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardeners Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition by Jeff Lowenfels In the rare cases when it isnt sterile, urine is generally still fine for personal use, or can be stored for several months to minimise pathogen risk (see resources). Carol Steinfield, EcoWaters Project, 96 pages. I save the leaves from dozens of trees each fall and pile them into a bin. While pee is almost always sterile, faeces contain dangerous pathogens. Together with Bill and Melinda Gates, I like an egg and a hen in lay. A single adult male could provide enough pee to fertilize 6,300 tomato plants per year, yielding 2.4 tons of tomatoes. Not everyone is happy about the bucket. Jason Goodwin undertakes a family cycle ride along the Danube. I want all the muck and all the magic. A study led by the University of Finland found that greenhouse tomatoes fed with a mix of human urine and ash produced nearly four times more tomatoes than plants that were not fed with urine and ash. PopScience says urine is a high-quality plant food rich with nitrogen, potassium and phosphate, much like any all-around organic fertilizer is. Urea is mostly nitrogen.. Composting bacteria digest the sugars and carbohydrates leaving carbon dioxide and water. (In a good way. Ive read about urine collection and the breakdown of ammonia to nitrates for gardening & fertilizer, but have never made the connection to just pee in the compost. How can I compost without attracting rats? Ill be honest, my boys were happy to oblige. So if you are a commercial farmer, please contact the relevant local services to learn whether urine is an acceptable soil amendment in your region. Put all your eggs into one basket, Andrew Carnegie advised, and watch that basket!. Most researchers agree that the amounts are so minimal as to be inconsequential, but Id err on the side of caution and collect pee from those you know and love. Yes, pretty much. Instructions for installing such a system can be purchased from the EcoWaters Project, see www.ecowaters.org/products.html#Plans. Come each fall again I have the best, richest compost you can imagine all for free. Urine is sterile. Make sure that you get a 100% stream of pure urine. This method is also not recommended, although small amounts of straw can go into the HOTBIN, too much can cause problems. If I can homestead where I live, what's stopping you? Im not sure whether I can convince them to pee in the compost pile on the other side of the garden or not, but Ill think about it! Im in a fever for compost, too. There really isnt much problem if you use it immediately, especially if you dilute it. If you choose to store the urine (i.e. Using human urine isnt a plant-based technique, so in its purest form it cant be considered plant-based growing. There are even people who drink their own urine on a regular basis. If you do second stage composting (removing the worms and further composting) you could pee on that pile with benefits. Yes, it is! Your email address will not be published. Peeing on your compost is good for both the compost you are creating, and the environment itself. Peeing directly in the garden is different. Weve used diluted urine in container gardens on a balcony for quite some time, and the neighbors havent even noticed. Certain medications can be found in trace amounts in the urine. Meghans article was originally written for the website of the Veganic Agriculture network of North America, see www.goveganic.net, www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/urineguidelines.pdf. This is one reason why it needs to be properly diluted. Im thinking Id abstain from adding undiluted urine to your worm bin. I see a hen divided into sections marked Eggs, Alarm Clock, Responsibility, Compost. Email us Send us an email any time!We'll respond as quickly as possible. In the spring I planted tomatoes. Peeing between two layers of mulch will lessen nitrogen losses from conversion to ammonia gas. I approach with my fork and wheelbarrow, my eyes fixed on the bedding spread under their perch. Urine is about 98% water and the rest is mainly a chemical called urea. This water then has to be removed to create crumbly rich compost and there are two places the water can go it can drain into the soil or evaporate into the air. How cool is that?! I thought they were a really cool idea, but babys bum was too sensitive for them. Despite urine having an ick factor in many modern cultures, its been used throughout history for a variety of purposes, including cleaning wounds, making bread, and in the process of dying clothing and womens hair. Make sure to include enough of carbon-rich items such as dry leaves, sawdust, straw, and cardboard in your compost pile. Carbon-rich materials can include leaves, straw, or just good quality earthy soil. Note: faeces can be made safe for gardening through a specific composting process described in the Humanure Handbook (for a free copy see humanurehandbook.com) though should otherwise be completely avoided in gardening. Why do you think they call it aq-pee-ponics? Here at the Veganic Agriculture Network, we keep our large countryside garden completely plant-based, to produce veganic food without the addition of any animal products (human or non-human). Keep in mind: Urine is high in salt. Because it contains a lot of nitrogen, urine counts as a green in the compost. The Resilient Farm and Homestead:An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach by Ben Falk. Please read the safety guidelines too. Nepalese farmers have been taking a leak on their crops for centuries. Presumably the pee-soaked straw will be added in layers to the Hall's existing compost heaps. I am a non-traditional homesteader. A side-by-side comparison of basil plants. Certainly cheaper than store bought fertilizers and compost activators. And if so how should you do it? If peeing on crops can replace the need for fertilizer, peeing on compost could do the same. I legitimately thought I had a levitating guinea. Peter Harper and Louise Halestrap, Centre for Alternative Technology, 160 pages. no, it isnt good to pee on your worm bed. Im so glad Ive given your urine proper direction LOL! If we can homestead where we live, whats stopping you? To learn more about the history and culture of urine, see Liquid Gold and Life of Pee. Youre going to get a lot of green growth, Roy said. Their color is richer and the plant has grown faster than the one on the left. Or, we can fertilize perennial plants like bushes and trees with urine, and later use the plants leaves in our compost pile or as a mulch, a very safe and socially-acceptable way to cycle the nutrients back to our gardens. Folk wisdom seems to suggest that when a girl takes her eggs to market and starts dreaming like Melinda, shell drop the basket and break the eggs, but an earlier philanthropist had a solution for that. And its great hearing from you stranger , Youre so blessed! If you plan to pee on your compost, add even more brown matter. In her authoritative History of Kitchen Gardens, Susan Campbell describes how gardeners boys in the heyday of the potager were instructed, in return for their modest pennies in wages, to spend their own in the compost heap. All this time Ive been peeing in the yard, I now have a mission and purpose for my urine! Urine can be especially beneficial for fertilizing in city environments where other local forms of fertility may be scarce due to lack of green spaces. Its okay thoughbecause every drop helps. While there are good reasons to be cautious around feces, urine is generally sterile and fine to use for a variety of purposes. After a good crop I dug out the hole and what I found astounded me, it was the most amazing compost Id ever seen it was beautiful. Join the peecycling revolution and add urine to your compost bin. Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living by Rachel Kaplan and Ruby Blume Like all liquid nutrient sources, this shouldnt become the primary form of fertility for our gardens. Im thinking my urine would not be acceptable as I take several medications to deal with medical issues, but I might be able to convince my very healthy nephews. Fresh chicken manure, as any gardener knows, contains nitrogen, which plants use to photosynthesise and to build cells; potassium, which aids growth and the development of flavour; and phosphorus, the root-builder. It is best to dilute it at a 1:6 or 1:8 ratio. What we cant grow or produce ourselves we barter for.
Figured out who was killing my chickens and how he. There have been plenty of folks snickering about this front-page story from the Chapel Hill News: CARRBORO Roy Mars was peeing in his compost last weekend it adds nitrogen when he looked up and saw something streak across the sky.. Urine has been long-established as a free compost "activator" (aka "liquid gold"), because it's full of nitrogen, but there are other benefits too. Like anything in the fertilizer aisle, the key is not using too much. If this thought makes you uncomfortable, consider applying urine to plants that dont produce a crop. Also every time I do not have to flush a toilet. Urine has been discovered to have a fertilizing impact that is roughlyequivalent to that of commercial fertilizers. A homesteader's life. For home gardens it should be fine, especially if you keep it low-key, but what about commercial farms? Really? That being said, because of the benefits to your compost, I would recommend that you add it to your composter instead of directly to the soil. Uric acid speeds up the compost process and gets you to the end product faster. Life of Pee: The Story of How Urine Got Everywhere. Although Im not going to eat it myself, at least not directly, I have developed an incredible greed for it, fuelled by compost mania. Recipe 3: Compost pee Urine can be composted. The greywater provides some carbon and significantly dilutes the urine. I am not a doctor, lawyer, veterinarian or Martha Stewart. I dont think I did compost them when I tried them, but Id probably be willing to give it a try (you know, if I still had a baby in diaper). Our urine is probably sterile, and even if its not, we cant catch anything from our own urine that we dont already have. While not a plant-based technique per se, using their own urine is a way that vegan-organic gardeners can cycle back nutrients from the foods they consume, while also diverting their urine from the water system where it may act as a pollutant. Its easy and it saves water and fertilizer.
The regulations vary from country to country, and using human urine could also affect the certification status of a farm. Yet, despite the incredible results of recent studies, Americans are peeing away enough nitrogen to feed 12 million acres of corn per year. Yeehah saves on the water bill and the carbon footprint.
Jason Goodwin was feeling decidedly nostalgic for village life until he had a run-in with one of its discontents. Good reason to throw a kegger party, everyone line up to pee in the compost! Lifting the Lid: An Ecological Approach to Toilet Systems. Signs of nitrogen deficiency include yellow or pale green leaves, and some plants have key signs, like pointed cucumbers. Curious Questions: Which came first the flower pot or the garden centre? Using human urine can help us work toward a closed-loop fertility system. These days, what gets me excited about going out to the hen house is not so much the eggs as the straw. How To Compost: Everything You Need To Know To Start Composting, And Nothing You Don't. After applying the pee, water the plant. Bard me with brisket, stay me with steak and, in the dark watches of the night, whisper to me in the language of stroganoff, the dialects of bourguignon! 2022 www.beaconjournal.com. Recipe 4: Straw bale bathroom You can urinate directly on a bale of straw until the straw decomposes, and this compost can later be added to your garden. During this time I frequently urinated into the hole. When added to the compost bin, undiluted human urine reduces the time it takes for carbons to break down and increases the nutrient values in the completed compost. The summer before last I dug and hole in the garden and spent all winter filling it with household kitchen waste, newspapers, cardboard and layers of soil (to keep the smell down). The husband and the daughter were a harder sell. The mulch will stop the plants from receiving an overly-concentrated blast of urine, as well as helping to break down the nitrogen into a source the plants can use. And keep moving. What is amazing is that researchers calculate that each individual produces enough urine to fertilize enough vegetable plants for one person. Urine does sometimes smell. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Staff at Wimpole Hall using their new 'pee bale' to aid composting. You may have heard that peeing on your compost is good. The ideal mix for fast compost is 50 percent brown to 50 percent green. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits! (A gallon vinegar bottle is almost as good) Store it under the bathroom toilet tank. Its very high in nitrogen, so it counts as a green in the compost, and shouldnt be added to a compost bin that is already high in nitrogen-rich materials like food scraps. I save my urine in the garage all winter and add it to the pile in spring. Straw will also not replace the job of shredded paper and/or bulking agent. Ever see a yellow patch on a lawn because a dog keeps peeing in the same spot? So while vegan-organic growing excludes the addition of waste products from animals that have been bred and raised, humans can be seen as free-living animals who voluntarily contribute their waste. I have 2 acre garden in the United States that employs the homeless and helps them re-establish their lives. When I am not tearing cardboard boxes into strips or tossing tea leaves into the kitchen compost, I happily read about compost for hours at a stretch. I feel guilty when I forget to use the bottle and revert to my old ways. In cold composting, you are accepting that the water will either drain into the ground or evaporate and hence you are only adding the nitrogen rich food (2% = a few grams) to the compost pile/bin. Succession Planting: Growing More In the Same Space. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Simple genius of Gods creation , isnt it ? By Meghan Kelly. How Often Do You Empty A Composting Toilet? It's the latest measure adopted at the National Trust property Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire to both save water and ensure efficient composting. I already pee in the back yard frequently. According to an articleby National Geographic, scientists believe they can turn human urine into liquid gold for gardens. Its the right height to use if you set it on the toilet bowl lid. A blind taste test was performed (after a good cleaning) and the beets described as very flavorful. While it is a great compost activator, peeing in the actual garden is still being explored at least by my son, who fried a few boxwoods with his continual visits a few years back. Recent field studies support the benefits of peeing on crops. Your email address will not be published. I suggest reading The Humanure Handbook. SSWM (Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management) www.sswm.info, World Health Organisation 42-page pfd www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/urineguidelines.pdf. As a pregnant woman, I am happy to make contributions to the garden 20+ times a day. My name is Jessica Knowles. The youth would be horrified, but Sir Albert would approve. What do you do to kickstart your compost heap? Or, when cycling our urine for environmental reasons, theres no need to add it to our food crops: it can just as easily be applied to non-edible plants, like trees, wildflowers, lawns and landscaping projects. If the odor offends in the bathroom, add a bit of vinegar. Peeing on your compost is not only good for the soil and good for the environment, but it can actually increase crop yields and replace fertilizers entirely. On Melindas website, theres a picture of a hen divided into sections labelled Education, Empowerment, Financial Security, Health, Entrepreneurship. Another common method of adding urine into a compost heap is if straw or hay has been urinated on. This article appeared in Growing Green International magazine Num 29 (Summer 2012), p38. Just pee on the mulch. Its like the seasonal craving you develop for red meat, as if the rain and cold and the dark nights bring on a creeping anaemia that can only be banished by blood and iron in the diet. Hes not much of an outdoor personality and value his modesty type 2 energy/blue on the color code thing. Jeffrey Douglas own a landscaping company and has been in the business for over 20 years. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published.
As a basic premise, the urine must be mixed with carbon-rich materials in order for the nitrogen to become accessible to the plants. You can also store urine in a sealed container for several months to minimise any potential pathogens. As far as compost goes, urine serves as the green component in the green-to-brown ratio. When we eat, our kidneys filter out extra nutrients that our bodies cant utilize, and these nutrients are then excreted in urine. Anyone who has been gardening for a while knows that peeing in the compost is the thing to do. If youve got too much nitrogen, youll know because it will smell. Nonetheless, I recommend that you be carefulif you are on multiplemedications. My son refuses to pee outside unless hes bursting and were in the middle of nowhere. They had just come out when my youngest was born. All rights reserved. Urea is a source of food (nitrogen) for the bacteria, it is made up of lots of small molecules in a water solution these properties allow urine be digested very quickly which means fast growth and heat. So, peeing on your compost is a great free and non-toxic approach to restoring critical minerals like nitrogen in your soil. You have to watch the pile. On the upside, adding a little urine can help activate the decomposition of organic matter, so a wee bit of pee here and there is fine. The National Geographic says, Researchers estimate a single person could supply enough urine to fertilize roughly 6,300 tomato plants a year yielding some 2.4 tons of tomatoes., Chris Roy from Orange County Farm Supply in Orange, Calif., said he has heard that peeing on the plumerias leads to fantastic plants. No, this is not a joke, as funny as it may sound. Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants by Carol Steinfeld If you're female, don't find an al fresco urination an attractive option, or don't have space for a straw bale in the garden, a plastic drinks bottle filled in the comfort of the bathroom and decanted onto the heap will serve just as well. Thats gonna be fun , kids . In healthy populations, human urine is almost always sterile. Dont overdo it at the beginning of the season, as excess nitrogen can lead to bushy, leafy plants that bear little fruit. Group use When mixing urine from multiple people, again, its probably sterile, though there is more chance of pathogens, especially from accidental fecal contamination. Here are a few possible ways to use pee in your garden or landscaping. With cold composting this provides the bacteria with a source of food which can be digested quickly producing heat rapidly. Our urine contains significant levels of nitrogen, as well as phosphorous and potassium (typically an N-P-K ratio around 11 1 2.5, similar to commercial fertilizers). Although we are now into the autumn the lawn has never looked so healthy. Fawn, Maybe a mens restroom sign will guide them that way , Love it! However, all vegan-organic gardens naturally contain free-living animals, like microorganisms, earthworms, and birds, who eat organic matter and create micro-manure as part of their normal daily life. Required fields are marked *. The Microsoft billionaires and philanthropists have reached the conclusion that raising chickens provides a route out of poverty for millions of women around the world. Im glad it worked so well for you. Recipe 1: Watered-down pee For soil with good drainage that is crumbly and earthy-smelling. )jas, John Lewis-Stempel: Heres looking at ewe, kid. In some countries urine is accepted in commercial farming, such as Sweden, where its even applied mechanically to large-scale farms. When we eat food, our kidneys filter out excess nutrients that our body is unable to use, and these nutrients are then expelled from the body in our urine. So there. Urine is almost always safe unless you actively have a urinary tract infection. The children are less sure it seems to them a little offensive. Studies conducted in Sweden (Sundberg, 1995; Drangert, 1997) show that an adults urine contains enough nutrients to fertilize 50-100% of the crops needed to feed one adult. I am much older than the people I see here, but I have always been an alternative thinker. Suffice to say I am now filling an even deeper hole in the garden and yes, it getting a healthy dose of urine. Not into the front yard though, or you can wind up in the slammer on indecency charges. If urine and ash or biochar can replace fertilizer entirely, imagine what urine and compost can do. And the Washington Post reported the fantastic results urine had on cabbage crops. What is a non-traditional homesteader? If you include wood ash in your compost, youve replicated most commercial fertilizers without the harmful chemicals. Its the repeat visits, I believe, that did them in, as my calls to move down the hedge row went unheeded. Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants. Recipe 2: Straight up pee For soil with a thick layer of carbon-rich mulch, like wood chips and leaf mulch. The following is intended to be a brief and non-exhaustive overview of health concerns and solutions, though we ask that people do their own research and draw their own conclusions. If you have a garden and a composting system, your golden liquid is basically liquid gold. I lust after compost, thick as cake and dark as chocolate and smelling of the earth. Required fields are marked *. to eliminate potential pathogens) keep it in a closed container to reduce the smell. I'd like to think we are the people who don't fit the mold; figuring out how to live the life they want.
My family puts up with some very odd requests from me, but this one takes the cake. So in general, liquid feeds should only be used as a complement to other forms of fertility, such as compost and mulch. The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities by Peter Ladner Anecdotal reports in the rose-growing community say urine does wonders for these beauties. Thank you for your humorous post . Not all plants respond well to high salt content. Than I watched a video about this old and famous eco biologist ( cant find the link now) where he revealed how our entire planet mass desertification can be stoped and reversed by roaming herds of livestock and predators , free to munch and excrete like thousands years back.