people generally put manure on their garden to add nitrogen to the soil…
in many parts of the world, adding human waste has been done for thousands of years – but has the unfortunate potential to spread disease & bacteria.
anyway, it seems that frequent urination on one’s plot would add nitrogen just as well (would there even be any nitrogen in purely solid waste?), and in a form that is free from bacteria and disease.
after all, doesnt all the nitrogen waste from the human body come in a liquid form? the solid waste – disease aside – doesnt really seem that useful. wouldnt it just be hard to digest cellulose/roughage sort of stuff that would be of negligible value (nutrient-wise) to a garden?
so why have i never heard of pissing on ones garden? it seems to have all the benefits of “night soil” with none of the drawbacks.
Please advise before i submit my recommendations to home and garden.
I think you don’t want to pee on your garden for the same reason you don’t want dogs peeing in the yard, namely, that the high nitrogen content of the urine can burn your plants.
Now, I could be wrong, but from what I remember from my Master Gardener classes, peeing on your compost pile would do the pile a world of good, because the nitrogen will help the pile heat up and break down into compost faster.
But peeing in your compost will not make the compost higher in nitrogen.
It all has to do with the nitrogen cycle and the process of nitrogen fixation, which I’ve read about until my eyes glaze over, and I still don’t really get it. But I think that’s why most soil tests don’t test for nitrogen, but rather for cation exchange capacity, which has something to do with nitrogen fixation in the soil.
A virtual libation to any Doper who can explain this in layperson’s terms so that we can all understand the role of nitrogen in “burning” plants, and therefore, where we should or should not pee in the garden.
I suppose it depends on the size of your garden; if you’re talking about a pocket-handkerchief lawn and a small row of petunias, there isn’t a lot of scope for non-detrimental sustainable dispersal of your urine.
If, on the other hand, you’re talking about a couple of acres of mature woodland, then no harm is going to come of you picking a different tree to pee behind every day. Although a garden like that doesn’t particularly need your nitrates either.
Better, as many have said, to pee on your compost heap; the nitrates in your urine are fantastic for getting really hot bacterial action(microbial porn movie title) going, especially if the material you’re adding is ‘hungry’ - such as chipped prunings, sawdust, autumn leaves or even shredded paper.
A little jem. My uncle spread a load of manure in the spring on a neighbor’s garden every year. The garden didn’t get used for another month so it didn’t kill everything. The year I was with him and he’s spreading, I hear “Oh well, he gets a bonus.” He’d forgotten about the still born calf that he’d thrown in the spreader. The guy had to love that when it came time to plow and till.
I’m not sure about Harmonious’s uncle, but composting is a way to deal with dead animals on a farm, so a dead calf could have ended up in the spreader, if not actually placed there.
Google “composting animal mortality” and you’ll find lots of info. What a weird phrase, though! I learned it because I work for an ag school.
Well, for me, the main drawback is simply that my tackle is so gigantic that in order to pee in the garden, I have to stand across the street, so his outrage would probably be justified.
There’s a website for everything, isn’t there: Liquid Gold.
You’re supposed to dilute it 10 or 20 to 1 with water so it doesn’t burn the plants. I’ve been using it on the cactus on the windowsill and the tomatoes in the front yard–I planted poppies in honor of Dorothy Gale and the DEA, and they came up tomatoes --and neither are dead yet.
No. The calve died and he threw it in there to get it out of the barn. He turned on the automatic cleaner and it got covered. It was 30 years ago, and he normaly put them into a long trench. The animal gets put in and a front end loader is used to drop earth over it. You just continue the line until filled. It’s not like you burry them in a coffin or have them cremated.
One advantage of that is you can plant potatoes without using a potato spud.
For the none gardener this should answer your questions. A potato spud is a pointed stick used to make a hole to drop a seed potato into. A seed potato is not a seed, but a potato chunk with an eye on it. A potato eye is a sprout on a potato.
coffeekitten may be reacting to the same thing I am. All this peeing on the garden is well and good, but only if you’re male. If you’re female, shocking the neighbors AND scalding the plants is highly likely.
What a coincidence! I was just at Home Depot, discussing peeing on one’s garden in order to repel deer (it helps if you’re a fox). The lady I was talking with looked like she didn’t believe a word I was saying. I think she suspected she was on Candid Camera
right. i’m with you. it was a bit of a sloppy post. i guess i was going for dramatic effect. i was thinking more along the lines of fertilizing the soil during the non-growing months rather than sprinkling the tomatos just prior to preparing a salad.
--and neither are dead yet.