Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: weed4me on 24/08/2006 23:43:18

Title: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: weed4me on 24/08/2006 23:43:18
my crazy uncle gets drunk almost every nite and while going out for a quick smoke has taken to urinating in my garden...nice eh? i didnt know until recently when i walked out to smoke and then quickly walked back in (lol) however the grass in the "specific" area seems to be growing faster...any ideas why? im guessing something to do with the nitrogen in urine (i've read nitrogens good for plants) but also think he mite hav been suppin mircle grow in a drunken stuper...hmmm anything ne1??? not that im annoyed now iv forced him to mow my lawn. ahhh that lovely cloud and its silver lining..

"You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is."
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: neilep on 25/08/2006 00:05:59
I thought urine killed grass ! (and I don't mean ' da erb'  [;)])

Men are the same as women, just inside out !
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: daveshorts on 25/08/2006 00:09:53
The other issue is that this year it has been so dry the water may have made a difference. but yes urine contains urea, which is a byproduct of breaking down proteins and does contain nitrogen, which will probably make the grass grow faster.
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: neilep on 25/08/2006 00:05:59
I thought urine killed grass ! (and I don't mean ' da erb'  [;)])

Men are the same as women, just inside out !
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: daveshorts on 25/08/2006 00:09:53
The other issue is that this year it has been so dry the water may have made a difference. but yes urine contains urea, which is a byproduct of breaking down proteins and does contain nitrogen, which will probably make the grass grow faster.
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: weed4me on 25/08/2006 17:32:05
hmmm wonder if theres a retail opportunity then?? cheers for the answers tho

"You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is."
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: neilep on 25/08/2006 18:06:16
I suspect the retail opportunities would be rare as people would just need to collect their own ' wee wee ' ..but, you never know...an entrepreneur with the right pitch may find a novel way to market it. Perhaps using animal wee wee !!..I imagine a cow and horse wee wee in not ' wee ' quantities !!..and I suppose ..convenience would win. people may not want to collect their own urine and store it..unless a clever attachment could be built into the toilet....one press of a button and the contents are syphoned out to a barrel for treatment !!..or something to that effect.

hey ...I'm warming to the idea now !!

Men are the same as women, just inside out !
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: weed4me on 25/08/2006 23:08:17
we'll discuss it over lunch lol although your idea of the toilet shypon doesnt appeal, ud be mixing it with huge quantities of water, and it might dilute it so much that it doesnt work. wonder if you could find a way to dry it and crystalise it, make like a revolutionary new fertalizer...organic fertalizer... i dunno tho...ur the pioneer of bathroom science matey.

"You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is."
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: daveshorts on 26/08/2006 00:46:26
I wouldn't say it was particularly revolutionary, slurry - a major byproduct of cattle farming has been used as a fertilizer for ages, and it is a mixture of urine and faeces. Composting toilets are used to make compost to make the garden grow, etc etc
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: weed4me on 27/08/2006 01:33:17
now thats just peeing on my bonfire.

"You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is."
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: Monox D. I-Fly on 22/11/2019 08:01:46
I thought urine killed grass ! (and I don't mean ' da erb'  [;)])
I thought so. Once I peed on a weed and after about a week it died.
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: alancalverd on 22/11/2019 10:06:25
"Thamesgro" commercial fertiliser is sterilised pee and poo from all the sewage plants in London. Most of your Essex-grown salad crop, Kent fruit and hops, and a fair bit of malting barley from the Home Counties, is recycled cockney wit.

Other rivers are available.

Enjoy your lunch!
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: Bored chemist on 22/11/2019 17:53:39
Most people's urine has too high a salt content to work as a fertiliser.
However, some plants like sugar beet are relatively salt tolerant and also, if a plant is growing in soil; that's badly deficient in nitrogen the urea in urine might do enough good to offset the harm done by the salt.

A much more interesting question is how did anyone come to the conclusion that this

I thought so. Once I peed on a weed and after about a week it died.

was worth necromancing a long dead thread for?
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: alancalverd on 23/11/2019 00:22:07
Tomatoes in particular enjoy a regular drink of urine - reputed to be the secret of many champion growers. I wonder if they derive from a coastal species, or whether they are so hungry for nitrogen that they put up with the salt?
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: Bored chemist on 23/11/2019 00:32:01
Tomatoes in particular enjoy a regular drink of urine - reputed to be the secret of many champion growers.
If I was a champion tomato grower that's exactly the sort of story that I would tell my rivals (at the risk of pissing myself laughing).
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: Monox D. I-Fly on 23/11/2019 03:37:45
A much more interesting question is how did anyone come to the conclusion that this

I thought so. Once I peed on a weed and after about a week it died.

was worth necromancing a long dead thread for?

Because I'm bored?

It looks like the moderator didn't mind either.
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: alancalverd on 23/11/2019 08:00:11
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170308-why-a-german-lab-is-growing-tomatoes-in-urine (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170308-why-a-german-lab-is-growing-tomatoes-in-urine)

worth reading
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: Colin2B on 23/11/2019 15:21:33
It looks like the moderator didn't mind either.
We only intervene when someone breaks the forum rules.
Lack of comment should not be taken as approval  ;)
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: evan_au on 23/11/2019 17:12:51
We excrete a lot of valuable chemicals - including phosphorus, necessary for building DNA, and hence cell replication.

However, I understand that our current sewage treatment plants are very inefficient - they would work much faster if the urine were separated from the feces. So some countries are promoting toilets that keep them separate from source.

Unfortunately, the sewage system in my country just carries them together.

Recently I watched a documentary* on the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation promoting safe sewage systems. Unfortunately, some of the potential competitors just burn the sewage, losing these valuable minerals.

*It was part of a series called "Decoding Bill's Brain", available on Netflix.
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: RD on 24/11/2019 17:51:57
Recently I watched a documentary* on the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation promoting safe sewage systems...

Here's Bill Gates watching "synthetic faeces" being flushed down a prototype crapper ...
https://www.fastcompany.com/3021855/designing-the-toilet-of-the-future-youre-going-to-need-this-fake-poop#1

BTW if anyone is looking for brand-names for pretend-poo, how about...
"ershatz (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ersatz)", "similiturd (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/similitude)", "ana-logs (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/analogs)", "ploppelgängers (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/doppelganger)", "dookie-likes (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/look-alike)", or "I can't believe it's not sh1t (https://www.google.com/search?q="i+can%27t+believe+it%27s+not+butter"+knockoffs&tbm=isch)".
Title: Re: Will urine fertilise my garden and make plants grow better?
Post by: Monox D. I-Fly on 25/11/2019 02:08:36
It looks like the moderator didn't mind either.
We only intervene when someone breaks the forum rules.
Lack of comment should not be taken as approval  ;)

Well, I did read the forum rules and as far as I recall, necro-posting isn't breaking any rule.

Database Error

Please try again. If you come back to this error screen, report the error to an administrator.
Back