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Urine in compost?

thirdcoasttx

thirdcoasttx

I know this is a weird thread but I couldnt help but ask. Im watching extreme cheapskates and this woman keeps a glass jar in her restroom to urinate in. When its full she adds it to her compost pile. I dont know much about composting nor do I plan to urinate in a jar but I was wondering if urine is beneficial to a compost pile?
 
Reminds me of a funny story,,one time I tell my neighbor ,,"your dog snapped at me"  he asks why
 
well he tryed to lift his leg in my garden,,I put a knee in his ribs.  ;)
 
I'm certainly no expert, but I don't see why that would be a good idea. Urine contains high amounts of ammonia which can be used as a cleaning agent. It probably kills bad bacteria, but also will kill what's good in the soil.

You would have to be perfectly hydrated at all times to keep from bad things happening to your compost and at that point you might as well use water.
 
Ignite said:
I'm certainly no expert, but I don't see why that would be a good idea. Urine contains high amounts of ammonia which can be used as a cleaning agent. It probably kills bad bacteria, but also will kill what's good in the soil.

You would have to be perfectly hydrated at all times to keep from bad things happening to your compost and at that point you might as well use water.
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Free and rich in nitrogen. Check out the article I posted. I'll be using used coffee grounds :) .
 
Here is an article that supports what that lady was doing:
 
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/10/human-pee-added-to-compost-boosts-crops/

I actually just finished reading that article and the comments below. Wow one person actually ladles urine out of the toilet. I dont know the whole idea just seems a little out there to me. Although I remember reading that beer can be good for plants and I do drink a lot of beer...hmm the wheels are turning.
 
I've been peeing into my compost "green" bucket and adding it to shredded leaves thoughout the winter so I will let you know what it ends up like.  This is my first year to compost and I have read its high in nitrogen and just assumed it would be good without any evidence.  I guess I just took a chance but I am 90% sure it will be fine.
 
I collected and poured it on mine 2 years ago after it had set dormant for a year. The Urea jump starts the computing process.
 
     Anyone who's spent any time in the corn belt in the fall, after harvest can tell you how prevalent the use of ammonia is as a Nitrogen amendment. Granted, anhydrous ammonia (fertilizer) and urea (found in urine) are chemically VERY different. But when used properly, they can both be used to supply plants with Nitrogen.
     Both need to be chemically converted into a useable form in order to be of any use to plants. Anhydrous ammonia is added in the fall so it has a chance to be acted on by soil microbes (among other reasons), which turn it into Nitrate. If it were added at plant, it would probably kill seedlings. Urea is milder, but still needs to be converted.
     This conversion is what happens when we combine "green" and "brown" plant material to create hot compost. The microbes in the compost pile need Carbon (cellulose, starches, sugars) and Nitrogen (proteins, nucleic acids) in the proper proportions to thrive. If your pile suffers from an abundance of brown material (Carbon), it would make sense to add supplemental Nitrogen (urine, or whatever) to balance things out.
     However, if your compost pile is composed mainly of lawn clippings ("green" material), adding additional Nitrogen will only throw things further out of balance. Your pile will likely be colonized by microbes that use urea and other Nitrogen-containing molecules for energy (not just as a nutrient source). The final waste product of these microbes is ammonia, which is harmful to plants and will make your neighbors hate you.
     So, yeah, pee on that leaf pile! FOR SCIENCE!  :party:
 
dash 2 said:
Anyone who's spent any time in the corn belt in the fall, after harvest can tell you how prevalent the use of ammonia is as a Nitrogen amendment. Granted, anhydrous ammonia (fertilizer) and urea (found in urine) are chemically VERY different. But when used properly, they can both be used to supply plants with Nitrogen.
     Both need to be chemically converted into a useable form in order to be of any use to plants. Anhydrous ammonia is added in the fall so it has a chance to be acted on by soil microbes (among other reasons), which turn it into Nitrate. If it were added at plant, it would probably kill seedlings. Urea is milder, but still needs to be converted.
     This conversion is what happens when we combine "green" and "brown" plant material to create hot compost. The microbes in the compost pile need Carbon (cellulose, starches, sugars) and Nitrogen (proteins, nucleic acids) in the proper proportions to thrive. If your pile suffers from an abundance of brown material (Carbon), it would make sense to add supplemental Nitrogen (urine, or whatever) to balance things out.
     However, if your compost pile is composed mainly of lawn clippings ("green" material), adding additional Nitrogen will only throw things further out of balance. Your pile will likely be colonized by microbes that use urea and other Nitrogen-containing molecules for energy (not just as a nutrient source). The final waste product of these microbes is ammonia, which is harmful to plants and will make your neighbors hate you.
     So, yeah, pee on that leaf pile! FOR SCIENCE!  :party:
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So forgive my ignorance but are leaves considered brown or green? I was under the impression that leaves are brown and pee is very green. This is my first compost adventure and it's too cold to tell if anything is happening out there in the tumbler.

All that's in my tumbler right now is 5 huge bags of shredded leaves and about 5 buckets of kitchen scraps with pee.
 
JoeFish said:
are leaves considered brown or green?
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     If the leaves are those of a deciduous hardwood tree, then yes, they are "brown". As Fall approaches, deciduous trees (being the geniuses they are) start to resorb as many of the precious soluble nutrients as they can back out of the leaves. (There's no use in just letting all that Nitrogen and sugar and other soluble nutrients fall to the ground.) The key thing to remember is SOLUBLE nutrients. These are chemicals that are very valuable to the tree and can easily be reused, unlike the chemicals that make up leaf litter. Those are all big, insoluble chemicals that would require a tree to use lots of extra energy to break back down and be reused (likely leaving the tree in a net energy defect - not a good place to be in winter…) That's why trees leave it up to soil microbes to do it for them.
     Now, if we're talking about fresh-cut leaves (lawn clippings, green tree leaves and small twigs, some garden waste…), then these are "green". These still contain all the soluble, Nitrogen-rich chemical nutrients that a tree would've scavenged from its leaves before allowing them to abscise in Fall. 
     It all comes down to whether or not fresh organic matter of any kind contains these (usually) Nitrogen-rich chemicals. Fallen pine needles and deciduous leaves as well as wood chips etc. all contain these solutes in such a low proportions, compared to their content of cellulose, lignin, pectin etc., that they are simply ignored. They are thus deemed "brown".
     In "greens", the proportion of Nitrogen-rich solubles to the cellulose, lignin etc. is much higher. So, in this case the bigger chemicals can be ignored. It's not exactly an all-or-nothing choice, It's just a convenient rule to apply to compost components that helps gardeners figure out the best way to keep their pile  :mouthonfire:  HOT.  :mouthonfire:
 
 
Edit: You are right. In the context of composting, your pee is considered "GREEN". But in the context of medicine, if your pee is green… You probably need to stop drinking Budweiser.
 
     Glad I could help! Soil science is such a complicated, intertwined and obscure area of science that it seems the more one thinks about it, the more questions arise. How many people realize that microbiology, geology, zoology, hydrology, chemistry, plant biology, climatology and others… can all be used to understand the soil in their garden? Soil truly is one of the "final frontiers" of science - right up there with space and Earth's oceans. But the cool thing is, THIS one is right in our backyards and we have an opportunity to explore it every time we step into our gardens! 
     Science is great, just don't pee on your compost pile too much, or it might start to stink when it wakes up in spring...
 
using Urine as a fertilizer goes way back, but make sure you dilute it down especially if you use it near your garden plants, liquid ammonia that is unscented can be used as fertilizer also,  just be careful how much you use. I also use old vitamins and any old dried dog food in my compost pile.
 
wildseed57 said:
using Urine as a fertilizer goes way back, but make sure you dilute it down especially if you use it near your garden plants, liquid ammonia that is unscented can be used as fertilizer also,  just be careful how much you use. I also use old vitamins and any old dried dog food in my compost pile.
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     I would only recommend using ammonia if you need to raise the pH of your soil, otherwise you'll end up with soil that may be too alkaline until it has a chance to be turned into more neutral ion. Urine would be a much safer (and cheaper) alternative to ammonia, since urea has a neutral pH.
     Either way, both may burn plants if added too often or at too high of a concentration. This is why it's a good idea to compost. Chemicals that are harsh or otherwise might not be readily useable to plants have a chance to be converted to a more plant-friendly form. They will also be adsorbed by humins and fulvins - yielding a very gentle "time-release" nutrient source/sink.
 
As someone who runs an aquaponic garden I can say that putting urine in a garden works by the same principle as me using fish waste water for nutrients.  The ammonia breaks down into nitrites and then nitrates with the aid of bacteria.  Pretty simple.  Compost is one thing, but it might not work so well if you were going and peeing on the same plant all the time though.  I would think the ammonia would have a bad effect on the plant.
 
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