g'day balsam girl,

if i could produce enough i wouldn't dilute at all, so generally i mix it in with rinse water from the kitchen or sometimes washing machine or shower water, generally the dillution rate ends up around 1/4 to 1/3 bucket of urine with the rest the other water, sometimes it gets diluted more, but i simply want to have enough to share around our vege' plants, and when they don't need we use it on our food trees. always used daily fresh.

if the person creating the collection is drinking enough water (i think the minimum is around 2 litres per day), then the urine can be used neat, all food plants seem to benefit from the sue of anything that provides nutrients. we also share our vege's when we are over supplied, have done for a decade now.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

I have found that dilution of one part urine to ten parts water is quite satisfactory. It won't burn the plant roots and really does supply nitrogen. I would recommend application of once a week until the plants are nice and green. Then maybe every two weeks so as not to overdo it. Too much will invite pests as the plants are a bit too buff. Hope this helps.

I think there is a lot of lee-way in the dilution ratio. I usually go somewhere around 1/10 for direct app to growing plants, though I don't worry about being very precise. Often in spring when there is quite a lot of urine stored up I will put straight urine on the soil in an area to be planted in a few days or weeks upon the theory that this will create a flush of microbial growth which will then die and rot just as the seedlings come up. I also add straight urine to the pile during the winter.

I read a while back that aged urine has the most fertilizer value; since then I've been aging it as long as possible before using on growing plants and it does seem to be having markedly better results.

If urine helps plants, then why are there yellow spots on the lawn where dogs have peed? Is that because it's dog urine or because it's concentrated?

What about urine in the compost bin?

I imagine a lot of human urine is chock full of nutrients. Most of us take vitamins, and the excess is peed away. But then, what about those of us who take medication? Wouldn't some of that be in the urine? What would that do to the plants?

My cats are certainly full of "p*** and vinegar." I doubt if I could take them out to the compost bin and have them do their thing over it, but I wonder if kitty litter urine clumps would have any value.

I apologize if these are stupid questions, but this is kind of new to me.

i can't answer the question about the urin but as to the meds yes the body is not capable of breaking down all meds so they do exit the body as urin as to what will they do to the plants not sure but it does do strange things to the waters and fish

Lilacs - dog pee definitely kills the spot where it hits. But notice the nice ring of green that grows around it. It's concentrated and burns the grass. Diluted it would make a nice source of nitrogen. Meds in urine is another question of which I have no experience nor knowledge.

Thanks for the good practical advice on this subject. I was rather worried about over doing it and killing my plants. I think that I'll still begin using a rather highly diluted mixture just to be on the safe side. I'm mostly interested in getting chard to grow faster, and also to buff up my brussels sprouts, brocolli, and corn. This is poor sand ground low in nitrogen with a short growing season and highly drought prone. It's tough to get good lush vegetation here. If urine gives plants a fast growth burst I'm all for it, and I'm sure my plants will agree.

Speaking of aged urine, I have a couple jugs of urine for deer repellent that have to be a 2-3 years old. Is that too old to use???

That we throw away valuable "home made" fertilizer and then go buy chemical fertilizer in the store is rather nutty when you think of it. Since I'm not on meds, I don't have to worry about that angle either.

g'day lilacs,

with dogs it can mean they are eating a dry food diet and not getting enough water to drink, might have to introduce some wet food into the diet?? our dog does no damage where she pees.

as with keeping urine all the advice i have ever seen says that after 24 hours urine starts going amonic and can be used as a weedacide.

i've always used mine fresh and even applied neat has never caused any problems but then i drink anyhwere from 2 to 8 litres of water a day, don't drink soft drinks/sodas or cordials just water and a couple mugs of coffeee first up in the day. so i don't get a lot of colour so maybe not as strong as some might be?

len

Len, search the net for trials on urine used fresh vs aged. I don't know the chemistry but it does have to do with the increased availiability of ammonia, which is fertilizer. As mentioned above, straight urine could be a "weedacide" because it can be strong enough to burn some plants. No mystery there, it's a question of dilution, not age. Balsam, I havn't found that there is any limit to the aging. You might want to clothes-pin your nose before you open those jugs, though!

Another question:

If I dilute the urine, say, to around 10 parts water to 1 part urine (fresh), can I water plants with it on a daily basis without overdoing it?

I am talking about stuff like chard, etc. that don't freak out and not produce if you give them too much nitrogen. Again, this is sand country and it's almost impossible to over water....

Thanks!

The only problem I can foresee is that too much nitrogen renders your plants susceptible to insect or pest invasion. Over - fertilization causes rapid growth but doesn't impart resistance to disease and the buff plant life is very attractive to pests. I would suggest you do something with your sandy soil to improve it's water holding ability. Soil conditioning is handled quite well in another forum. I've found their knowledge to be invaluable.

Thanks,

Yes, I've been working on improving my soil for years now, but when you start with essentially pure sand and have a large garden results are slow. I mulch, compost and also dig and haul peat and muck. But the soil still drains fast and is drought-prone.

I also see that animal urine is at best 1 to 2% nitrogen, so it less concentrated than I thought. I assumed it was WAY up there!

Every day is probably a bit much. I have sandy soil also, but I don't hit a plant every day with urine-water. Couple times a week maybe, in the prime growing season.

jbann, your scenario that "buff", vigorous plants attract insect pests more than otherwise is in direct contradiction to my experience and all that I have read. That well-fed fast-growing plants are the strongest and most pest-resistant is a tenet of organic gardening as well as basic farming science. I have to presume you are speaking of really extreme over-fertilization. I think that is hard to achieve given an abundance of sun and moisture - I've never been able to.......