Pee good for the garden??

So iv'e heard using your urine when diluted with water is a good source of nitrogen for your plants and garden. But iv'e also heard that it contains salt and can kill earthworms in your garden. Would like to get your guys opinion on what you think? Has anyone been trying this for years, if so what were your results? Is it long term damaging to the soil because of the salt?

Interested in what your guys feedback.

Peace

I've never seen any salt damage to my plants but if you aren't careful you can get burn from the amonia. I use a gallon jug and save as much as possible but I use most of it on the compost. It really speeds the breakdown of compost. An old code word among gardening ladies was,"golden elixir" when discussing the uses of urine. Old timers used it on gardens all the time. There is little or no chance of transmitting disease with urine. In a healthy individual urine is almost sterile. In a pinch it was often usd by soldiers to cleanse wounds if medical treatment was not availble.

I suspect the salt issue might be affected by your climate... where I live I couldn't keep salt my soil if I tried... I have read English gardening books that suggest that a pinch of salt benefits species decended from seaside plants (spinach and beets). In SoCal if you are not flushing with irrigation water I could envision a problem over time.

If you have a health soil microbiology the addition salt will not be a problem, also if you don't concentrate all the urine in one spot. I suggest pouring in a rotation, or just inject into irrigation in a good dilution ratio. the microbes will help bind up the salts.

i was enjoying eating my Uncle's herbs until I found out his secret. He told me with a large grin that he uses his urine to fertilize the herbs.

That's an attitude you have to get over if you grow organically. It's all in the mind. Why is human urine bad but urine in animal manures good? I keep rabbits and go to great lengths to preserve the urine along with the bunny berries. I also use diluted human urine for a quick nitrogen boost.

I've heard it's a good aid to kick start a compost pile. I'm not sure if I would apply it directly to plants though.

i pee outside almost every time i have to go, i try not to go in the same spot every time and generally piss on exposed soil more than established soil, if there is any

my only concern is if you or anyone whos piss is being used, takes pharmacuetical drugs or anything of the sort as this often gets excreted in the urine as well

we ahve used a lot of urine in our gardens never manged to deplete teh worm population, which is good.

we have diluted it with oterh used water and used it neat no matter it all works.

len

I try to pee on my opuntia compost piles...
Or under orange trees.
Or in a recipient for diluting.

It has been great for my moringa trees.
They are legumes but had yellow leaves, and I supposed they lack nitrogen for lack of the right rhizobium!
The urine effect seems to prove that I must look this way and inoculate (if I can find who sells this stuff!)

I have not been using urine in the garden for years, yet (just started this summer). I garden on land that has been tilled alot like upwards of 8 times in a season, needless to say the "soil" structure is very poor, almost all sand, very little organic matter. I collect a 5 gal bucket of urine per week, I cut it 50/50 with water and spray that over 50 sqr ft, and I move that 50 sqr ft around the garden. My sorghum and sweet corn have shown a very noticeable flush of green that only lasts for two weeks, which tells me that soil is lacking in nitrogen.

Anyway, concerning salt, there are two things that make me not so worried about it. One I have sandy soil, so salt will leach through pretty quickly I would think. Two, because the urine is being collected in one container over a week long period, I have noticed the salt settles out as a "scale" at the bottom of the bucket, so if your concerned about it, you could just pour the last little bit that has lots of salt scale somewhere else. I have poured all of the salt scale from the bucket onto a pig weed, and it just seemed to say "Thank you!", and suddenly there was a giant pig weed

I think next spring I am going to start dosing my rye cover crop with urine as soon as the day time temps are above 35 F.

Hope this helps, and if you want any tips on collecting the urine and then applying it in the garden, let me know, I have worked out a system that I think works quite well.

Kevin,

5 gallons over 50 sq ft, wow that's a lot of fertilizer all at once.

Have you ever been able to add "too much" and seen plants die back b/c of too much fertilizer?

I'd also noticed that just applying this to a garden with clay soil, low organic matter the effect didn't last long 1-2 weeks.

This year though on a hugelkultur bed I apply ~10cups on 15 sq ft. and it is good enough for about a month (squash plants).

I apply it directly and then just hose it in for a half a minute.

Kenny Garcia wrote:So iv'e heard using your urine when diluted with water is a good source of nitrogen for your plants and garden. But iv'e also heard that it contains salt and can kill earthworms in your garden. Would like to get your guys opinion on what you think? Has anyone been trying this for years, if so what were your results? Is it long term damaging to the soil because of the salt?

Interested in what your guys feedback.

Peace

Depends on diet. Eat a bit less salt and your urine will have less salt.

Eric Markov wrote:Kevin,

5 gallons over 50 sq ft, wow that's a lot of fertilizer all at once.

Have you ever been able to add "too much" and seen plants die back b/c of too much fertilizer?

I'd also noticed that just applying this to a garden with clay soil, low organic matter the effect didn't last long 1-2 weeks.

This year though on a hugelkultur bed I apply ~10cups on 15 sq ft. and it is good enough for about a month (squash plants).

I apply it directly and then just hose it in for a half a minute.

Eric,

Because of how I collect the urine the "5 gallons" is about 2/3 urine and 1/3 water, but still it is alot of urine. I have not noticed any burn out or die back, but then again I am mostly putting it on my corn and sorghum which are both nitrogen pigs. Also, so far I have only dosed each "50 sqr ft" once in the season, so no one "50" has gotten a second dose.

That is interesting about the clay soil with low organic matter, holding the N effect for only 1-2 weeks, also. I kind of suspect that as we build up the organic matter it will sort of dampen the spike of available N after fertilizing, since the N can be "bonded" or absorbed by the organic matter. But that's just speculation. Your hugel fertilizing on squash kind of points to the validity of that speculation.

My squash, watermelon, and pumpkins were all epic fails, which kind of surprised me, although this is my first ever garden, I kind of thought that those were pretty easy to grow. I think I will have to try doing some mini hugels for them.

I have seen bad consequences from overfertilization with urine, but not from my own efforts... our dogs were to blame. They're not so good about diluting the urine before application! We have two small pecan trees, and both got "mouse ear" (rounding of the leaf points) this spring, which according to my research is a symptom of too much urea. Once I flushed the soil with water, the mouse ear went away. I have also seen dead spots in lawn due to too much dog pee; my favorite solution to this is to plant comfrey (a nitrogen scavenger) on the spot and then use the comfrey leaves in compost or sheet mulch.

Thanks for all the great comments guys

Eric makov: you might want to be careful about letting your urine sit though,, I read that the longer it sits the more ammonia that builds up which is bad for the plants.

Horses release an AMAZING amount of urine each time they pee and I never had it adversely affect anything that was growing - probably did more good than harm.

Jeanine Gurley wrote:Horses release an AMAZING amount of urine each time they pee and I never had it adversely affect anything that was growing - probably did more good than harm.

One year in Wales we used haylage to feed our horses, which is much higher in protein than hay, and that winter we had patches of grass burned out where the horses peed. So I guess the 'strength' of the pee has a lot to do with it.

Peeing on your feet will cure athletes feet fast. I have no idea why... I have always if human pee would cure hoof rot.

I've been using urine a long time in our garden. We used to dilute it 5-1 but now often 1-1 to 3-1. It's been mostly the only fertilizer we've used except for humanure.

It should be used immediately (within the day, anyway) to ensure sterility.

There's a fun book about it called Liquid Gold.

Also, in his wonderful book, Creating a Forest Garden, Martin Crawford has a chart with the amount of urine (how many pees, is how he puts it) per year to give the right amount of nitrogen and potassium to plants based on their needs. He also mentions that urine has a moderate amount of phosphorus too. Some people are concerned abotu peak phosphorus and are suggesting urine as a good renewable source.

In the winter I just pee on the grass or compost. Then I pee on plants just as they turn green in the winter/spring. I select the plants that are showing yellow or yellow-green leaves. As soon as we get to about June, the soil becomes dry and I pee into a 5 gallon bucket of water. I put the mix on the plants until they become solid green. You can notice the difference as the year goes on. I stop as soon as they get solid green. About this time of year, I pee on grass or compost again, so as to not increase shaky growth that will be killed in the winter. It's the only fertilizer I use except for ash when I burn and shells when I go clamming.
John S
PDX OR

I have been doing it for years.

You should dilute it at least 1:10 and preferably 1:20. And only use it if the weather is not hot and dry, otherwise you might risk burn the plants. Other than that I never had a problem with salt burning but ocasionally if I do too much, plants get too fragile from the excess nitrogen use. Don't overdose. Avoid also seedlings, because it can increase change of root rot. I only fertilize with diluted pea about once a month and I stop it as soon as I see plants growing fast and greeny. I only fertilize stuff like tomatoes, corn, squash, salads, onions, not carrots or potatoes.