http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/humanurinesafeproductivefertilizer;_ylt=AiWqFLOOEoiyDNF0aR6GCMsPLBIF

Human Urine Safe, Productive Fertilizer

By Carolyn Colwell
HealthDay Reporter Mon Oct 8, 11:44 PM ET

MONDAY, Oct. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Cash-strapped farmers shouldn't look far for a source of free fertilizer, according to a new study that finds human urine to be a great source of nitrogen and other minerals. The "yuck" factor aside, scientists who used urine to help raise a bumper crop of cabbages said the practice may not be a bad idea.

"Urine is a valuable fertilizer which poor people could use to increase yields and not contaminate their environment. It is a resource, not a pollutant, if correctly managed," said Helvi Heinonen-Tanski, leader of a research group at the University of Kuopio's Department of Environmental Sciences in Finland.

They decided to look into how human urine could be used to help farmers and at the same time save water and reduce the contamination of water resources, added Surendra K. Pradhan, a research student at the university and the study's lead author.

"It is important to areas which are not connected with wastewater treatment systems," he added.

The use of urine as fertilizer is uncommon, but it is increasing in some parts of Finland, the researchers said. It also has been used to fertilize barley and cucumbers, the study said. "We assume the nitrogen contents of human urine could be a good fertilizer for many other plants or crops," Pradhan said.

The researchers chose cabbage as a test crop, because it needs a lot of nitrogen, it is distributed worldwide, and it can be preserved as sauerkraut.

The cabbage fertilized with urine was compared with similar plots of cabbage that either went unfertilized or where commercial fertilizer was used. At harvest, the cabbage enriched with the urine had several advantages: It was slightly larger, it grew to its maximum size more quickly, and, for most of the growth cycle, it suffered less bug damage than the commercially fertilized variety.

Cabbage from all three plots was made into sauerkraut and taste-tested by 20 panelists. Each type tasted different, but all were rated "good," the study said.

As a result of the findings, the team concluded that urine produced by one person over a year would be enough to grow 160 cabbages -- that's 64 kilograms (141 pounds) more cabbage than could be grown in a similar plot fertilized with commercial fertilizer. They recommend collecting urine from eco-type toilets, storing it, then scattering it on the soil around the plants rather than directly on them.

The study was expected to be published in the Oct. 31 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Urine is "a good natural nitrogen containing substance and probably could be easily utilized" as a fertilizer, agreed Dr. Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Center, New York City. "There's nothing wrong with using it," Tierno said. He added that there is little risk of contamination by urine-borne pathogens, because they would be in competition with microorganisms found in the soil and would "probably lose the battle."

Urine is actually a relatively clean substance, added Tierno, author of the book The Secret Life of Germs.

Barry Swanson, a food scientist at Washington State University, had a similar reaction. The study "demonstrates pretty clearly that although this might be somewhat objectionable in our hygienic population, it probably has pretty practical application in other countries," he said.

"It makes a lot of sense. Human urine does contain nitrogen. No matter what you apply to the soil, plants take up organic or inorganic material in the soil irrespective of where it comes from," Swanson added. He said urine is a good source of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous.

Preserving the cabbage by making sauerkraut also has some advantages, he said. The large amount of salt used in making sauerkraut inhibits the growth of pathogens. So, if any pathogens were unexpectedly present, the salt would eliminate them.

More information
Find out about the urinary system at the U.S. Nationnal Cancer Institute.

Wow... that's...interesting....lol!

All jokes aside, Would I be able to use urine as a source for my trees when they need to be fertilized for free? It would't be as efficient as nromal fertilizer, right? I'm serious here.

It is best to spray them. Dilute 1:10 with water then foliar spray. It would be a good fungicide too. See my other post in pest and diseases.

Come to think of it...

Drink beer. You and your plants will surely enjoy together....

The excess beer you can foliar spray... (according to Steve)

And when it is time to pee, you can spray it too. (based on scientific research).


Nothing is wasted.

If you don't dilute the urine, it could damage the tree roots. But it depends on the strength of someone's urine. To be safe, dilute with 1:10 for citruses.

During dormant season, some references recommended to apply full strength on dormant stone fruits to minimize or prevent fungal infections. These are washed off anyway by the wet winter rains.

When BBQ party extends to dark night hours my friends often visit bamboo field behind north side of the house. Plants do not complain

In Asia, they often put their outhouses over their fish farming operations to add nutrients to the water. Some actually consider municipal sewage as a resource for aquaculture production.

Beware of imported farm raised fish.

Phillip

China is the world leader in recycling "fecal matter" as nutrients for everything and could easily pass the requirements of organic farming set by the US. Organic Tilapia from China, anyone? They're avaiable from Wal(China)Mart, filleted, and ready to fry!!!

Well, urine is a high mixture of urea and other organic components.
But the components difer, from type of human (vegetarian and more carnicor living humans, female and male sex) and it's nutrition.
so the content in urine depends on what we eat and drink.
So herte is the question for me, because as the contents in urine differ that much, what's best?
Should be conserve urine after Christmas, because our food and drink will lead to a better urine for the plant purposes, or is a chamfering time better, to get a much better urine for spraying?
So what's inside and what should be inside?

Because simply pee onto the plants, seems not to be the trick, and in europe we know, that often plants in parks will die at typical human 'pee spots'....
Soo spraying with something of so different indigreeds, well, what will be realy benefical and what simply timewasting?

So what has to be inside?

I agree with you Steve that the urine content depends on what you eat. Also on the health of the individual, age, time of day, etc.

Granting the variable nature, it is really best to dilute with water. If someone pees on the tree, hosing it off with water by at least ten times the estimated urine volume, would be a safe bet, no matter what the composition at that time.

You can definitely store urine, and the composition should average out. Then you can dilute as needed when using it. Be sure to have air tight containers, not because of the smell, but urine can tranform into ammonia and would be lost through volatilization in standing open containers. We have studies that as much as 50% of nitrogen from the urine could be lost into the air via ammonia volatilization given optimum conditions in the tropics, such as wind speed that causes eddies, algal blooms inducing the increase in pH due to carbonic acid consumption, and high noon-time temperature as examples of the many factors. The chemical reaction differs if the urine gets absorbed into the soil. Following it up immediately with water application should ameliorate or lessen the toxic effects on plant roots.

Joe

You can easily tell if the dog owner has female or male dog in the yard from the patterns of dead portions of grass lawn. All because of the differences in the pattern of urination between male and female dog.

We have a female dog. I cannot usually tell where she've been until after about a week when dead spots shows up. I have now solved my problem by readjusting the automatic sprinkler irrigation to time it just after she pees everyday.

This topic is actually in line with a question I was going to pose to the group. At the water district that I work at, we have two tertiary wastewater treatment plants. We dispose of our effluent on sprayfields for which we have to purchase about 0.25 acres for every home that gets constructed. With the price of land and water at all time highs, we have in the past approached some of the avocado growers to use the tertiary recycled water in lieu of their untreated imported water. This saves us from buying land and them from buying water. The response has been negative due to a report produced for another city (Escondido) showing that the high total dissolved solids (TDS) (salts) are detrimental to avocado production. The author of the study has since admitted that it was flawed, but the stigma is still there and without any other data, the TDS still may have a detrimental effect on production. Is anyone aware of any studies out there showing the yields for various TDS concentrations for either citrus or avocados?

Thanks,
Phillip

There are numerous environmentally friendly way to reduce the TDS. One of them is to employ the algae in treatment pond by high volume low flow stirring of treament pond trhough the use of SolarBee pumps.

What happens in this case is that the salts are precipitated out as harmless sand-like particles and the resulting water is good quality with all foul smell removed.

Here's the website:

http://www.solarbee.com/

And best of all, the pump is solar powered.

Phillip, I think it was too technical. The website is for convincing the managers. Anyway, I have talked to the inventor personally, he is well credentialed scientist too, I forgot which university.

We talked about various chemical reactions. IIRC, some chemical reactions similar to rice floodwater chemistry that I have encountered, but in their case where organic matter and salts of effluents are high, it helped convert total solids together with the salts into very compact sand like particles, prolonging the life expectancy of settling ponds by a factor of 10 or more. The resulting sand like particles are totally inert.

There are very few cases that this doesn't happen, like in some clean reservoirs that only have slight problems, but most effluents from cities and sewage, this is the case where it is most applicable.

You can email the inventor, I will see if I can contact him again. The solar bee pumps could clean up the very polluted Manila Bay and the huge Laguna Bay of the Philippines.