Urine as Fertilizer - Many applications.

13 years ago

I may have posted in the wrong forum before and this might be the better place. I'm sorry.

I am looking into using this more and would love for those who use urine as fertilizer to join in. Please, if you have nothing good to say about it, don't bother posting, I just want to talk with those who are familiar or interested in it to participate.

We are already adding it straight, to the compost pile.

We have begun applying it to the empty garden beds this winter. The garden beds are thickly covered in straw, and we are applying it gradually over the beds so that the straw will break down a bit to be ready for spring planting.

I have used it in a 1/10 ratio for potted plants to green them up.

Specifically I am wondering right now about how to use it for blueberries.

I have alkaline soil and need to amend it well to plant them. I wonder if I can make my clay soil, 6.5 PH, hospitable to blueberry bushes by mixing sawdust, which is free for our taking down the road, into the soil, using additional sawdust as thick mulch on top, and applying urine to keep the nitrogen levels good.

But I'm finding no information yet on how to do that exactly.

I would appreciate any discussion on the subject of urine as fertilizer.

Thanks!

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Comments (9)

gardenlen
13 years ago
my urine gets used in the garden usually mixed with kitchen water, i do this daily, water it around the root zone of the plants.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
morethornsthnflowers
13 years ago
I use diluted urine both on my compost pile and on garden beds and under fruit trees. However, I don't use it on the blueberries. Blueberries are very sensitive to the amount and form of nitrogen and it burns them right up. Once the urine penetrates to the root zone your blueberries would be in trouble. Don't mix the sawdust into the soil - it will deplete the nitrogen. Instead use sulphur to change the ph of the soil.

You can use sawdust as a mulch and it will gradually improve the soil. W would also combine the sawdust as a carbon source and urine as a nitrogen source away from the blueberries and only apply it after it has somewhat composted.
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Update: Urine as Fertilizer?
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Comments (13)
Thanks for the good practical advice on this subject. I was rather worried about over doing it and killing my plants. I think that I'll still begin using a rather highly diluted mixture just to be on the safe side. I'm mostly interested in getting chard to grow faster, and also to buff up my brussels sprouts, brocolli, and corn. This is poor sand ground low in nitrogen with a short growing season and highly drought prone. It's tough to get good lush vegetation here. If urine gives plants a fast growth burst I'm all for it, and I'm sure my plants will agree. Speaking of aged urine, I have a couple jugs of urine for deer repellent that have to be a 2-3 years old. Is that too old to use??? That we throw away valuable "home made" fertilizer and then go buy chemical fertilizer in the store is rather nutty when you think of it. Since I'm not on meds, I don't have to worry about that angle either.
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In response to a six year old comment on a very old thread, urine is actually quite sterile. What comes out the other end is not. That's the best thing to wrap your head around. I find that putting urine on my compost pile raises the temperature noticeably. It really does seem to accelerate composting. Urine sure won't do anything about the pH level of the bed, and wood ash is about the worst thing you can do about alkaline soil. My soil is alkaline, and I consider wood ash mildly toxic waste. (Though in very modest quantities, it is fine to put in a compost pile.) Per unit weight, wood ash is about half as effective in increasing alkalinity as lime.
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It's going to be pretty harmless :-) In fact, you can source out various recommendations for homemade fertilizer concoctions that include beer straight out of the bottle. They don't really do anything but they don't cause any fatalities either. The alcohol content is negligible and even more diluted once it has gone through your system. I'd be more concerned about the urea content of the urine causing burning of plant tissue if applied directly than I would about the alcohol.....much like the effect of dogs peeing on bushes. For best/safest results, I would the think the compost would be the best target. And yes, the mental image is a bit disturbing :-))
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Agree that the best application time depends on the age/stage of the compost. Of course fresh manures are never applied. And once a year application isn't the ideal either. So if your compost is fully ready to go and the manure has already been well aged then you can split the applications between now and again in the spring. If they aren't ready to go, then now is the time to apply so they can finish well before spring. Also please keep in mind that compost and composted manures are primarily a soil amendment, not a nutrient source. So nutrient dissipation is only a secondary concern as it usually needs to be supplemented anyway unless this is a long established and well amended bed with a very active soil food web. Browse through the many discussions on this question over on the Soil & Composting forum here. Dave
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Belgianpup
13 years ago
I don't think I've ever heard of anyone with neutral or alkaline soil who was able to keep it acidic enough for blueberries. I think you would be better off planting them in large pots where you can control the soil better. Blueberries not only require acidic soil, but they also need magnesium, which you can deliver in the form of Epsom Salts.

Also check the pH of your water. Most places with alkaline soil have alkaline water, and the same goes for acid soil and water.

Morethornsthnflowrs was right on with the advice on nitrogen and blueberries.

Sue
rich3800_netzero_net
12 years ago
That explains why my blueberries died...
Belgianpup
12 years ago
What I would like to know is what ELSE is usually in human urine. I know it is likely to be different with different diets, but even the basics would be helpful. People seem to just talk about nitrogen, and I'm sure it can't be ALL nitrogen! Phosphorus? Potassium? Magnesium? Calcium? Sulfur? Boron?
Belgianpup
12 years ago
I finally found some useful facts about human urine as a fertilizer.

"... urine is rich in valuable plant nutrients and can be considered a liquid fertilizer... Within a period of one year, an average person excretes almost 6 kg of pure plant nutrients via urine. This is almost equivalent to the amount of nutrients contained in 15 kg (33 lbs) of compound NPK+ fertilizer."

The approximate amount of nutrients the average person produces in their urine...

Nitrogen: 7 grams per litre (think quart); 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs) per year
Phosphorus: 1 gram per litre; 0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) per year
Potassium: 2 grams per litre; 1.0 kg (2.2 lbs) per year
Sulphur: 1 grams per litre; 0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) per year
Magnesium: 80 mg per litre; 40 grams (1.4 oz) per year
Calcium: 200 mg per litre; 100 grams (3.5 oz) per year

Makes you think, doesn't it? Not only do we waste these nutrients, but we waste purified drinking water to wash it into the septic or sewer system!

The source of this info is in the link below.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing with human urine
memphisp83
11 years ago
Great info belgianpup. Urine coverts into ammonia nitrate (nitrate nitrogen) after roughly 24 hours, and everything i have ever read said DO NOT use nitrate nitrogen on blueberry plants. As mentioned, use sulphur to lower the ph of soil, along with peat moss which has an average PH of around 3 or 4. Urine I'm sure is great for many plants (diluted of course, and not after drinking alcohol) but I would not recomment it for blueberry plants. I also agree with the suggestion of planting your blueberry plants in pots, I have had success for many years and great harvests planting them in containers with peat moss, perlite, some regular topsoil, and a few tablespoons on sulphur granules mixed in at planting. Add a couple tablespoons or a little more each spring and work in the top layer of dirt right before a rain, or water afterwards.
gardenlen
11 years ago
dunno about blueberries but my urine gets used everywhere, general dilution(to aid sharing it around) app' 1/4 to 13 10 litre bucket mixed with other grey water.

when we water it is only the root zone not the foliage.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden
HU-626012341
last year
I like to use wood chips versus sawdust for mulch. When I used sawdust because that was available and free, it actually choked out the plants. Whereby the wood chips allowed moisture to seep through the air pockets created by the chips.

I have seen sawdust used for bedding for animals like chickens, rabbits and cattle. Then it gets moved into creating composting.

Urine as Fertilizer - Many applications.

Comments (9)

gardenlen

morethornsthnflowers

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