Hey! You're a Nitrogen Factory

What?!...

Creepy title but I'm gonna leave it.  I've been wanting to write about this for awhile but have been putting it off because I wasn't sure if it was "too weird".  I've decided (after a bottle of wine) that it's not that weird, that people are just too uptight!

Urine!  It's amazing stuff and we are constantly creating and disposing of it.  We pee and flush it away, using several liters of water in the process.  Turns out that pee has some excellent uses in the garden and compost pile.  Urine is created by our kidneys, it's a byproduct of regular body functions and is the primary vehicle by which our body will evacuate toxins and surplus nutrients from the blood stream.  Nitrogen can be quite toxic and our body is constantly trying to get rid of it.... by sending it out in urine!  Did you hear the N word (Nitrogen) in there?  Right, the same "N-P-K" nitrogen that we purchase as 1 of 3 components in most fertilizer.



In a nutshell, if you can get over yourself enough to use urine as a fertilizer you can enjoy:

• saving water from flushing the toilet
• saving money by not buying fertilizer
• Utilizing an organic nitrogen source in your garden and compost

I go through phases when I do and don't use urine as a fertilizer.  It's a difficult habit to maintain, righteous and confident as I may try to sound in this post I am susceptible to the social stigma that "using your own urine as a fertilizer" carries; I don't exactly brag about this to everyone that walks in my front door.  But then here I am blogging about it, it's like I'm coming out as a urine-as-a-fertilizer user and proponent!

Turns out now is one of those using-urine phases, it was triggered by one of my compost piles that went totally cold and was neglected for some time.  I knew that a gallon or so of good old, urea based nitrogen would get it cooking in no time.  I also knew that I would be planting blueberries and I read that blueberries CANNOT have nitrate based Nitrogen, bur rather they need Urea based Nitrogen - pee to the rescue!

A couple of quick notes:

• Urinary tract infection? - don't use your urine, it may contain bacteria
• Older than 24 hours? Don't use as fertilizer, use in compost instead
• As a fertilizer you will want to dilute heavily with water  (10:1)
• If you are dating someone kind of new, you may want to wait awhile before letting this cat out of the bag...
• This article has some nice info and echos some of what I said above