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gobi_gw

Adding urine to compost ?

gobi
13 years ago

Hallo All :

preparing for a late winter/early spring crop - my best efforts of local cow manure, compost and cut up pine needles - soil in pots still at 7.o ph - looking to grow tomatoes - I read on another post for Blueberries that urine and saw dust is good to lower soil ph - I wish to stay as GREEN / Kind and natural as possible - anyone have words /experience with adding urine to compost ?- for the desert floor my property has plenty of pine needles - leaves from Carolina Jasmine - grass clippings - Bottle Tree leaves w/plenty of veggie material/pulp from juicing

pleasant Holiday to all

cheers in advance

Comments (11)

  • tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
    13 years ago

    If you search for "urine" on this forum you'll find reading to last until Christmas.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    tj

  • goren
    13 years ago

    I think you're reading too much of what someone has suggested as not to be thrown out...and since urine from our dogs kills our lawns because of high nitrogen values, its been thrown around that urine can be added to a compost to give to the pile such element that is used to break the contents down.
    Surely you can think there's a better medium to do that....without resorting to such fouled up thinking.
    I realize urine is used in many manufacturing situations but your compost pile is not one of them.
    If you think that, then why not bring your bathroom to your compost pile and put up a sign to exhibit such.

    Pine needles should be gone over with the grass clippings with a mower before being added to the pile. Such evergreen needles have a tough texture to their make-up and can take a lot of time to break down unless you break their skin (so to speak).
    If you use such for mulch around acid loving plants, such as rhodos, again they should be gone over with a lawn mower before using.

    As for growing blueberries, their soil should be at a pH level that cannot be changed much by adding pine needles...the change would not happen; there's so little acidness in them it would take many months/years even, to bring it about.
    Instead, if you have some idea what pH your soil has now, then use garden sulfur to take the pH down to where the blueberries can do well in. Do this in early spring so that the benefit can be seen as the plant grows and if remedy has to be done, you have time to change it.
    I believe the blueberries need a pH of 4.0 to 5.0...which is quite different from what it might be -- probably near neutral 7.0
    Using such acid plants like evergreen needles and their ilk, would take more time that you would have patience for.

  • burra_maluca
    13 years ago

    Urine works wonderfully to help sawdust break down. And anyway, if you don't compost it, what else would you do with it????

  • annpat
    13 years ago

    Oh, goren, goren, goren, how you make me laugh! Stick with us, kid, and we'll take you places henceforth unimagined by you.

    Here is a link that might be useful: The pee bale

  • annpat
    13 years ago

    Henceforth!?! I meant 'hitherto'. I get my 'h' words mixed up sometimes.

  • jonas302
    13 years ago

    Well you know what they say just p--s on it yes anyone is welcome to come do that in my compost pile after all it is a compost pile full of manure,urine,dead animals, ect

  • Lloyd
    13 years ago

    Joseph (Joe) Jenkins literally wrote the book on human waste. It's a good read (and free).

    Lloyd

  • ericwi
    13 years ago

    Compost piles need moisture, as well as a source of nitrogen, to help break down the vegetable fiber that tends to dominate. Given that Arizona is often lacking in rainfall, I would think that adding urine to a compost pile would be a good use for it. It can be overdone, but if the compost pile is kept free of any objectionable odor, then adding urine is fine, in my book.

  • goren
    13 years ago

    Then may I suggest you put a cabinet around the pile, and place a chamber pot there. Maybe put a picture of somebody who you'd like to ......thunder in the face on the side of the pot...then dump when conditions warrant.

    In rural areas where water is much more valued as something to put to better use than dumping it down the toi-toi, it is a general rule to "if its yellow, let it mellow", then dump when there is need, when the smell cant be put up with any longer. Using a compost pile to add odors that reminds one of such bathroom smell just turns me off. Saving it for later disposal is not something I would like to do and I cant envision going out in the dead of winter to trod through snow to add to the pile.
    Really, what's the point of adding so little just to say you do it.

  • burra_maluca
    13 years ago

    I can't seem to post photos here these days, but check my link. Pink bucket is for ladies use. Men just stand. No problem. And yes, that *is* a humanure heap...

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:316252}}

  • thecompostnerd
    13 years ago

    Go ahead, pee on the compost.

    I wouldn't try and do it with a mindset like "oh look, the pH isn't right, time to pee on it" ... I don't think it should be your first solution to your concern.

    I love peeing outside, it's a habit... coincidentally I may pee where my trench compost is, but never in the tumbler, the worm bin or the bucket on the deck.