My next door neighbor is from Europe, and is an excellent gardener. Virtually organic. Compost, seaweed, mulch. No chemical nutrients.
A couple years ago he grew these incredibly large marijuana plants. 7’ tall. An amazing feat in Massachusetts since our outdoor growing season is so short.
Ive never been able to pin him down of nutrients, since he seems to avoid the topic. Until today. He explained that he uses a process called urine diversion. All he feeds all his plants is…urine.
While I can’t argue with his results, I don’t know how I feel about the urine part. They save and store their urine. When they have a suitable amount, it goes out to the plants.
Thoughts?
1 Like
The good:
Urine contains nitrogen in the form of urea. Potassium, phosphorous, and micronutrient content would be dependent on the diet of the source of urine.
The bad:
Urine can contain high concentrations of sodium and chloride.
It needs to be diluted to prevent burning from the urea and sodium.
It should be used within 24 hours to avoid bacterial overgrowth and ammonia.
It should be avoided if the source is on medications or has an infection.
Test kits are available to test nutrient content.
6 Likes
While urine can be used as a fertilizer i would not recommend it while common in the middle ages to use human excrement and urine as fertilizer the practice was ended due to the fact that it is very unsanitary we have access to plent of other sources of fertilizer that provide the same nutrients with out involving human waste
4 Likes
How do you charge bio char? Urine. Ive seen off grid growing like this and ive seen a few folks out west grow that way as well.
4 Likes
I’ve got a lot to say about this one, unfortunately I gotta get my kids ready for school right now and I’ll have to come back to this after I collect my thoughts.
haha
4 Likes
Farmers quit doing it, because Post-WWI our Chemical industry had developed Petro-Chem fertilizers that leave a salt residue in the soil.
4 Likes
I am an organic farmer, I have been a vendor in multiple Farmer’s Markets. I know many off-grid Certified-Organic veggie farmers who use this as their preferred fertilizer.
5 Likes
I have read about urine being used to attract butterflies, when it dries it leaves a thin residue of salt. Which butterflies love. I have not observed bees being attracted to salt though.
2 Likes
Sugars are also excreted through the urine, bees are fond of sugar.
2 Likes
Following. Most of the pros are verifiable, while most of the cons are BS from what I’ve read.
I might try it on a couple plants as a test case one of these days. Diluted, of course. And since it’s coming from my faucet, they won’t have to worry about high blood pressure or cholesterol, hypothyroidism, or A1C, plus they’ll get additional vitamins and fish oil! And it’s free!
3 Likes
