permaculture

[George Anna Clark <esac@laneta.apc.org>]

Larry,

I was wondering if I get some kind of prize for latest response to a 
query?? sorry...

you asked...

Why don't you put the urine on a compost pile then extract tea from the pile 
and put that around your crops?

My answer is that I prefer to use a variety of soil 
improvement/fertilization strategies: green manures, bocashi, worm 
compost, worm compost teas (aerated with tiny aquarium pumps and 
non-aerated). Not that I know what I'm doing. But I see a huge 
difference when applying urine to the cornfield. I would never ONLY 
apply urine. The longer response from page 17 or 24 (depending which 
page number you're looking at) is below.

One exception to this rule is when growing in containers as explained in 
a previous post. In that case, Francisco Arroyo suggests "fermentation" 
of urine (a handful of compost in a 5 gallon container of urine) for 
three weeks in order to increase the quantity of some bacteria or fungus 
or mold or something (and if I wait to find that reference I'll never 
ever finish this post so write me if you want the information I PROMISE 
TO RESPOND more quickly next time, besides, the rains have stopped which 
means the temperature is dropping a degree or two so my brain is 
actually working a bit lately) which helps to break down the leaves in 
the bucket (remember? you fill the bucket with leaves soaked in 
fermented urine, top it off with two or 4 inches of soil (don't 
remember) and plant in the soil). When you harvest the plant, you also 
harvest the compost produced by the leaves and fermented urine.

from page 17 or 24 (depending which page number you're looking at)  
Guidelines on the Use of Urine and Faeces in Crop 
Production by ECOSANRES
Håkan Jönsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences – SLU
Anna Richert Stintzing, VERNA Ecology, Inc
Björn Vinnerås, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences – SLU
Eva Salomon, The Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental 
Engineering (JTI)

full document at 
http://www.ecosanres.org/pdf_files/ESR_Publications_2004/ESR2web.pdf

Urine is a valuable source of nutrients, used since ancient times to 
enhance the growth of
plants, notably leafy vegetables. There are different ways of using 
urine. The most obvious is
to use urine directly to fertilize crops and this is the use on which 
recommendations are given
below. Another possibility, *which entails large ammonia losses* ¨(*my 
emphasis) however, is to use urine for
improving the composting process of carbon-rich substrates. 
Recommendations on the use
of different composts are given in the Section “Faeces”. Several 
different process options for
concentrating or drying the urine have been presented, but the use of 
these products is not
treated in this text.

Urine used directly or after storage is a high quality, low cost 
alternative to the application of
N-rich mineral fertilizer in plant production. The nutrients in urine 
are in ionic form and their
plant-availability compares well with chemical fertilizer (Johansson et 
al., 2001; Kirchmann
& Pettersson, 1995; Kvarmo, 1998; Richert Stintzing et al., 2001). Urine 
is best utilized as
a direct fertilizer for N-demanding crops and leafy vegetables. If crop- 
and region-specific
recommendations are available for the use of N fertilizers (urea, 
ammonium or nitrate), a good
starting point for how to use urine is to translate the recommendations 
to urine. The translation
is simplified if the N concentration of the urine is known. If it is not 
then, as a rule of thumb,
a concentration of 3-7 grams of N per litre of urine can be expected 
(Vinnerås, 2002; Jönsson
& Vinnerås, 2004). Urine also contains large amounts of P and K, but due 
to its large content
of N, its P/N and K/N ratios are lower than in many mineral fertilizers 
used for vegetable
production.

The yield achieved when fertilizing with urine varies depending on many 
factors. One
important aspect is the soil condition. The effect of urine, just as 
that of chemical fertilizers,
is probably somewhat lower on a soil with a low content of organic 
substances than on a soil
with a high organic content. Experience shows that it is beneficial for 
soil fertility to use both
urine and faeces or other organic fertilizers on the soil, but they can 
be used in different years
and for different crops.

At excretion, the pH of urine is normally around 6, but can vary between 
4.5 and 8.2 (Lentner
et al., 1981). Of the N, 75-90% is excreted as urea and the remainder 
mainly as ammonium
and creatinine (Lentner et al., 1981). In the presence of urease, urea 
is quickly degraded
to ammonium and carbon dioxide (Equation 3) and the hydroxide ions 
produced normally
increase the pH to 9-9.3. Normally urease accumulates within the urine 
piping system and
therefore the above transformation is very swift, usually within hours 
(Vinnerås et al., 1999;
Jönsson et al., 2000).

Ammonium is directly plant-available and an excellent N fertilizer, 
which is verified by the
fact that urea (which is degraded to ammonium by urease in the soil) and 
ammonium are two
of the most used N fertilizers in the world. Many crops prefer nitrate 
to ammonium, but this
is no problem. Ammonium applied to arable soil is transformed within a 
few days to nitrate
(Equations 4-6). In soils with very low microbial activity, these 
transformations take longer,
since they are performed by microbes.

The plant availability of urine N is the same as that of chemical urea 
or ammonium fertilizers.
This is to be expected, as 90-100% of urine N is found as urea and 
ammonium and has been
verified in fertilizing experiments (Kirchman & Pettersson, 1995; 
Richert Stintzing et al.,
2001).
The P in the urine is almost entirely (95-100%) inorganic and is 
excreted in the form of
phosphate ions (Lentner et al., 1981). These ions are directly 
plant-available and thus it is no
surprise that their plant availability has been found to be at least as 
good as that of chemical
phosphate (Kirchmann & Pettersson, 1995).
K is excreted in the urine as ions, which are directly plant-available. 
This is the same form
as supplied by chemical fertilizers and thus their fertilizing effect 
should be the same.

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

> George Anna Clark wrote:
>  
>
> > I've fertilized with urine through my drip system... the injector is
> > mounted after the pump (is that what you're talking about? not sure
> > about english terminology). I suspended the practice just cause I didn't
> > have enough urine to make it worthwhile, preferred to concentrate it in
> > a few rows and I couldn't do that without blowing out the hoses.
> >
> > Some say it clogs up the drippers- I didn't have that problem - and thus
> > they suggest flushing well after use with straight water. I also pass
> > along the suggestion that one gave to pump it straight -i.e.,  have a
> > urine reservoir instead of a  water reservoir, but that's not exactly
> > practical, at least not in my situation.
> >
> > Anyway, I'm now collecting urine on a larger scale (i.e., more people)
> > and will start fertilizing the orange trees which have
> > ...um-m-m..."micro-sprayers" (?) -looking forward to that... Also will
> > start doing same with innoculants and mycorrizas and all that good
> > stuff... (not at the farm at the moment, frankly can't remember what I
> > have on hand). And yes, same goes with aerated wormcompost tea (I use
> > aquarium bubbles, not the commercial tea makers).
> >    
>
> Why don't you put the urine on a compost pile then extract tea from the pile 
> and put that around your crops?
>
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