JAS: "I see that one of the comments raised the same question as I had: what about all that salt? I imagine with sufficient rainfall, it would be ok."
I have been using it in my garden with no ill effects. One golden rule is to dilute it -- around 5:1 or more before pouring on the plants. And spreading it around. At original strength, the nitrogen is potent enough to burn roots -- just like chemical fertilizers. I also do instant composting (blend fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, used tea leaves, etc) in blender (umm, pre urine). And then mix with diluted urine. It helps fill out the urine fertilizer complex as well as further dilute it. And the urine accelerates further decomposition of the liquified compost. Plus, if you use vitamin and mineral supplements, amounts not at that moment needed by the body are pea'ed away. Recycling them in the garden (appears) to help nourish healthy vibrant plants. And I eat very little sodium chloride -- so its less of a problems. (I use potassium chloride as a salt substitute and assume the potassium is absorbed by the plants and not built up. And urine can help keep critters away. And it depends on your soil. I have brought in my own organic topsoil thus it does not have the clay problem that is more susceptible to salt build up. Using urine in the garden takes almost no extra time or effort. While high density urban dwellers may have less gardening applications, houseplants and potted deck gardens (not to mention indoor light / hydroponics gardens) would in most cases more than use the daily golden stream. If adopted universally, it would result in huge environmental healing and improvements. (among many other benefits, including reduction of harmful algae blooms. "Harmful algal blooms are overgrowths of algae in water. Some produce dangerous toxins in fresh or marine water but even nontoxic blooms hurt the environment and local economies." (Speaking of algae, algae has a high energy content and strains are being developed to amplify such -- as well as more efficient technologies to harvest algae oil. So urine could become a major input to rather large a benign sustainable energy source. ) A blurb from What is in urine? http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/What_is_in_urine__63__/ http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/What_is_in_urine__63__/ What is in urine? http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/What_is_in_urine__63__/ Urine has an NPK of 11-1-2.5 and is also quite high in salt. You can use urine as fertilizer without building up salt in the soil by using a few precautions. View on www.waldeneffect.org http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/What_is_in_urine__63__/ Preview by Yahoo Alternatively, just spread urine around a lot, never focusing on one part of the garden, and salt buildup will probably be minimal. Finally, a doctor-gardener profiled inLiquid Gold (and pictured here) took a more proactive approach --- he put himself on a low-salt diet so that his plants wouldn't be hindered by the salty urine. I wasn't entirely content with Carol Steinfeld's answers about salty soil, so I did a little research of my own. Although extension service and USDA websites don't talk about applying urine to your plants, they do have answers for salt buildups from other sources. Reading between the lines, I would suggest applying your urine to salt-tolerant crops http://www.ussl.ars.usda.gov/pls/caliche/SALTT42C such as asparagus and zucchini, while steering clear of salt-haters like beans, carrots, okra, onions, parsnips, peas, and strawberries. Don't apply urine to waterlogged or high clay soil since these soils will hold onto the salt no matter what you do --- sounds like we should keep our urine out of the badly-drained back garden. If you're concerned that http://www.liquidgoldbook.com/uncategorized/new-photos-and-lor/you've overdone it, you could send your soil in to be tested by the experts, or you can follow the Colorado State University Extension http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/224.html's lead and use bean plants as biological indicators: "Bean plants are rather salt sensitive and can be used to help assess salt problems. In a garden, if beans are doing well, soluble salts are not a problem." The cure for salty soil is adding lots of water (6 to 24 inches in a slow, continuous stream) to leach the salts out. As long as you understand how to prevent salt buildup in the soil, it sounds like urine is a great fertilizer. Liquid Gold's website http://www.liquidgoldbook.com/uncategorized/new-photos-and-lor/ includes some beautiful pictures from gardeners who fertilize with urine, and we're keen to work the kinks out of applying urine to our own farm. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about the nitty-gritty of urine fertilizing.
