I *have* read, on the Soil Forum, that urine is a good source of nitrogen for the compost pile.

My aloe puts out a new leaf every time it is watered and my water-dwelling lucky bamboo is happy as a clam.

I've attached a link to a place that really gets in to the topic.

ugh.

Being the depraved lunatic that I am, I am going to ask how it is extracted.

Ladies?????

Just how do you accumulate the... ummm... fertilizer... for use on plants?

Also, are any of you married ??? ;-) Sorry, couldn't resist that last question.

As for everyone else I warned you that this thread wasn’t for the faint! If you don’t want to know the details then don’t read on.

I haven’t tried this yet but have been thinking of getting the keeper. http://www.keeper.com/

It is expensive but I know that it is saves the environment from sanitary napkins and tampons so I was considering it. I was especially considering it if I would use the stuff for my plants.

I am not sure I am going to make the leap yet but I am considering it and was wondering if anyone had tried it.

thanks again TheInfamousJ for your input.

Um…. yes I am married

Other people get theirs from the rinse water of their reusable pads.

Still others freebleed or if they have stained panties due to a surprising start, they rinse them out and use that for their plantwater.

No, no no no no DO NOT SAVE IT. The stuff must be used fresh or else it smells worse than death. Fresh does not smell.

Other warnings for those who are intrigued but not entirely grossed out: If you are on hormonal birth control, consider skipping this as a means of fertilizing your edibles. The "does the excess hormones have any lasting effects?" question has not been answered and you don't want to be the person who says, "Yes, I grew a 1000 lb tumor".

And no, I'm not married but I do have a boyfriend. Does he know? No.

Thank you for posting it.

I didn't ever get around to trying it -- and I'd definitely skip this application -- would require a change in my habits and a fair amount of work for what seems to be a paltry amount of fertilizer.

As for non-edibles, by all means go for it.

Also, there are other concerns as to the possibility of blood borne pathogens surviving in the soil (and up into your foodstuffs), but that debate is petering out with the side claiming that soil microbes can destroy any of them seeming to win.

But then other people get paranoid about their water department's reclamation activities. Personally, I use their "end product" all the time--it's dry and free by the truck full and smells exactly like Kellogs' Gromulch.

About the hormones in birth control, some recent studies have shown that the water in highly populated areas like the Chesapeake Bay is messing with the hormones of male fish. Some large percentage of male fish studied were producing eggs! 40% or ? The female hormones causing this are excreted by women taking birth control pills. That is why to not spread your birth control pills around, you wind up putting 'girl' hormones into boys. Actually it is a big warning about releasing any sort of chemicals into the water.

Marcia

The box says they are single use menstrual cups but they can just be rinsed out and reused just like the expensive ones ordered online.

It's not a whit different than fertilizing with blood meal from a box or bag, is it?

Kristin

For those who are squeamish but eat meat, you can also use the bloody liquid you find in the bottom of the little plastic tray when you take the meat out. Either just add it to your compost pile, or dilute it until just barely pink and use it to water plants directly.

I'd imagine you could keep a plastic bucket in the freezer to collect it over the winter, then just throw the huge ice cube into your pile with a bunch of leaves. As soon as a thaw comes on, the pile would start working.

The box says they are single use menstrual cups but they can just be rinsed out and reused just like the expensive ones ordered online."

My sister does this. She says they're very comfortable.

One thing to remember is that Instead is shaped differently from menstrual cups like the Keeper and Diva (and those are shaped slightly differently from each other too).

This can be a plus, in that if for some reason a woman has trouble using a Keeper or Diva because of the shape, Instead may me more comfortable for her. Of course it can be a minus, too, in that if the shape of the Keeper/Diva works well for a woman, Instead may not.

Kristin

Since I don't live in the frozen north, I can do this all year. I don't know what would happen if the ground was severely frozen. Maybe the water could be poured on the compost. Y'all do compost, don't you?

I don't think this topic is gross at all. I think everything discussed is perfectly natural, and since I'm a "rabid environmentalist" to borrow led_zep_rules's phrase (or almost rabid, lol) it strikes me as a good idea. The collection might take some experimenting and fine-tuning, but once that is established it's no more work than ripping up cardboard or shredding paper for the compost pile.

I recently read that story about the male fish too. Scary what we as a society do to our world...

:)
Dee

The guys over in Soil & Compost can natter on for 50+ posts about whippin' it out and peeing all over their compost piles, but if we discuss blood everybody suddenly goes over all delicate?

Half the human species bleeds every month. People just need to get over it for petesake.

Kristin

Interesting topic. Thanks for enlightening me!

Why?

blood would not be a signifigant source of any nutrients in the quantities involved. Your buying an airplane to get free peanuts- yea it'll work, but there are better ways to do it.

btw I did plant one of my placentas is the garden :-)

One of the links below say that urine contains 80% of the dietary minerals. If these minerals are good enough for me to eat, they are also good enough for my plants.

I've done it a few times with my houseplants. I'm not sure if it made a significant difference but it certainly didn't hurt. I know some people say it made a noticable improvement in their plants though. Just soak your pad or tampon in water until the water turns pink then use promtly. Or if you use a cup, just dump the contents into a bucket of water. It's really pretty simple.

Like I said, I haven't tried this in a while but I think this thread is inspiring me to try it again. :o)

air is 78% nitrogen. just having nitrogen does not a good fertalizer make.

It's causation vs. corelation-

having nitrogen �� always a good fertalizer

it is funny though because I posted this thread and I buy regular tampons in bulk lol! but I have been thinking of getting the instead cup.

I got tired of boiling sponges. but my biggest problem is when you are wearing a full sponge and laugh you squeeze muscles that you don't normally realize you squeeze and well use your imagination..

Google it. :) You'll find thousands of women who find them very comfortable indeed. More comfortable than a wad of scratchy cotton, that's for sure.

Instead is one brand (made to be disposable but people do clean and reuse them). The Keeper, Diva Cup and Mooncup are all made specifically to be used for years and years before replacing.

There is zip, zilch, nothing unsanitary about reusable menstrual products. They are not eqivalant to needles because we are not sharing them with other people, so you're comparing apples to oranges.

Kristin

I have seen way grosser things in the composting forum! things like throwing a deer head into your compost pile and having it "disappear". i recognize the cycle of life and think it is awesome that someone is doing that but as for me well that just isn't going to happen :-)

I also do appropriate that amazon voices that she has a concern.

I think that as a society we have done some pretty kookie things to mess with the way nature works. Growing lawns, raking up all the leaves that would be a natural fertilizer are the most obvious things that we all know of.

Now I know that things have changed and we don't all run around naked bleeding all over the land...

when I was younger and deiced to go on birth control i thought that depo provera sounded like the coolest thing. I wouldn't have to remember to take a pill everyday just a shot every 3 months... I wouldn't get my period at all! sounded like a dream. plus everytime you ovulate your overy has to heal creating a potential site for ovarian cancer. I am at high risk so I thought the decision was pretty easy.

well I will spare the details but that drug destroyed me. every side effect listed happened to me and i didn't realize it until 4 months into it, after my 2nd shot that this might just be the cause . what was i to do? i had this drug in my system that was going to last for another 3 months! it sucked. when it finally wore off I bled for 4 months straight. this is what prompted me to look for alternatives. I had sponges and luna pads. At that time there was no cups that I knew of. anyway you can imagine how costly and wastefully you would feel if you have to use something every day for 4 months straight!

Are there many other ways to recycle that our society where (even member of this forum) are lacking? yes. Am i going to condemn people for not saving their blood? no.. i am not a freak (though many of you probably think I am) And believe me as a mother I always get frustrated at the fact that when people talk about America and how wasteful we are the first people we point to our mothers and disposable diapers. talk about an aspect of human life that deserves a little bit of convenience!

well i guess I am done ranting

"You may boil your sponge for 2 minutes if you wish, however, we do not recommend doing so because it shrinks and toughens your sponge and shortens its useful lifetime. ...There are several ways to disinfect Sea Pearls. You may soak them in any of these mixtures:

1. A solution of 1 tbsp. baking soda in 1 cup of warm water.

2. A solution of 1tbsp cider vinegar in 1 cup of warm water.

3. A solution of 1/2 hydrogen peroxide and 1/2 water.

4. A solution of 1 tsp. tea tree oil and 1 cup warm water. (Tea Tree oil has been shown to inhibit 60 strains of bacteria, including staphlococcus aureus) "

I'm just grateful we don't have to hand-wash all our laundry now!

http://www.mum.org

I didn't see any talk of plant fertilizer there, but it is an interesting site with all sorts of archived vintage ads for menstrual products, news articles, and trivia about menstruation.

There really is a Museum of Menstruation that you can visit too, if you are ever vacationing in the area.

My cycle is heavy and nothing else worked well for me, but the Diva Cup has been a dream. It is also less messy than any of the alternatives.

I think I'll try this over the summer. WIsh me luck.

Any female who is an environmentalist would have no doubt considered using a non-disposable product for handling her menstrual flow--I would hope. Since some posters have touched on it, but haven't gone into great detail about collection/reusable menstrual products I will provide more information.

Menstrual Cups: Not limited just the Diva or the Keeper/Knock off MoonCup are a great option for both improving your foot print on the environment and allowing you to neatly collect your menstrual flow. Insteads fall into this category but because they are worn very high in the vagina, next to the cervix like a diaphragm I would not recommend it for those that want to stay neat or collect blood. I would imagine it difficult to remove the Instead without spilling the flow but you would have to check out a forum of actual Instead users to find out if I am right. I personally use a Mooncup UK.

If you are looking to switch to a menstrual cup you should explore all your options and brands that are made world wide and get one that you think will be better suited to your body. If you look at the bottom of my article on The Culture of Menstruation http://theanthroblogogist.50webs.com/body/the_culture_of_menstruation.html you will see links to every known menstrual cup made. If you need more information you can indefinitely feel free to contact me through my website.

I've also heard about people using the rinse water from their cloth pads. Thats great as long as all natural detergents are used to launder your pads. Try etsy or ebay to find very cute cloth pads, or find a pattern and make some yourself.

With sea sponges I am not really sure how much of an environmentalist one could be, since these were actually living creatures at once. I can't assume but can only imagine how far down hill things might go in the harvesting/farming of sea sponges just to be used as your personal tampon. I wouldn't recommend it as they are not a readily renewable source & something like a menstrual cup has more positives on this option.

I do not recommend using disposable products to harvest your menstrual fluid from as they are laden with chemicals which is why most truly heath and environmentally conscious people have looked for better options. I am sure that if these are just house plants and nothing edible it might be fine, but for your health benefit switching to one of the healthier options discussed would be an excellent choice for yourself and the environment.

To all of those people here who are "grossed out" by this I can only lend a sad laugh that you think of your body that way. It is silly to think that far "grosser" things aren't being put into every product you could possibly buy in a store. I do think that there are valid points about pathogens and disease, etc. But I would expect a person to know their body, know if they are taking BC to be careful or avoid fertilizing edibles. And use common curtesy and not fertilize a public (especially edible) garden without the consent of those who share it. Other than that, there is little if anything gross or dangerous about using your own bio-goods to contribute to the natural life cycle of the earth.

To answer someone's question about being married. Yes I am married & my husband knows about all of this. He was weirded out by me bringing up the watering of plants with the blood from my cup (I haven't done it yet) But he is pretty open minded and would never try to stop me from doing so. Also I am sure he would eat plants I have grown that way (We use natural methods of BC, so no extra hormones).

Why do people think its accptable to eat plants grown from animal feces or even animal blood as fertilizer, but somehow our own is just disgusting suddenly?

Goodluck & health to everyone, please visit my page if you would like more info, or to discuss any of these topics further.

Sincerely,
The Anthroblogogist
http://TheAnthroblogogist.50webs.com