Want a great garden? Pee on it!
 (Read 500+ times)
By Emma Cooper
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Every time we pee, we’re flushing away a valuable source of nitrogen that we could use to fertilize our gardens. Not only that, but we’re wasting valuable water for flushing and potentially contaminating our water supply – removing nitrogen from water is expensive, but allowing excess nitrogen to enter rivers and streams causes environmental problems.
Urine is a sustainable source of nitrogen for gardeners. When it’s fresh, it contains very low levels of pathogens, although it can be acidic and quite salty. It needs to be diluted for use as a liquid fertilizer – at least 5 parts water to 1 part urine, and up to 10 parts water can be used.
Every adult produces between 1 to 3 liters of urine per day – enough to fertilizer around 300 square meters of plants. But if you don’t want to use it directly on plants, then add it to the compost heap – the nitrogen works as a compost activator, speeding up the composting process while adding nutrients to the compost.
The golden rules of using pee in the garden are to make sure it’s fresh. In any case, if you try to store urine the nitrogen gets converted into ammonia gas – making for a nasty smell, as well as letting valuable nitrogen escape.
Don’t add urine to worm composters, the worms won’t like the acidity, and don’t use too much in one place in the garden – a build up of salts in the soil may result from over-use, especially for plants in containers. And never give neat urine to plants – it’s far too strong and may burn their foliage – although it’s worth considering as a weedkiller!
The plants that will most appreciate the dose of liquid nitrogen that urine provides are leafy ones that you want to grow fast – salads and leafy vegetables - and nitrogen-hungry plants such as fruit bushes or corn. Late in the season you may want to switch to adding urine to the compost heap, where it will help keep the compost hot, to avoid promoting to much leafy growth susceptible to winter frosts.
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Author Bio Box: Emma Cooper
Emma Cooper is the author of Growing Vegetables is Fun. She also has a weekly gardening podcast, The Alternative Kitchen Garden, all about growing your own food in an environmentally friendly way. Check out her website for her gardening blog and more articles.
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