Pee-Cycling for Gardeners

, written by Barbara Pleasant us flag

Plastic container of urine on a straw bale

Human urine has been used as a garden fertilizer for thousands of years, but fell out of favor in the age of modern sewage systems and chemical fertilizers. Urine contains important nutrients for plant growth, including carbon, phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen, and when handled properly, it makes a darn fine plant food. Plus it’s free, in a time when commercially-produced plant foods cost more every day.

If you’re icked out, you’re not alone. In Niger it is taboo for some women to speak of urine, so a research project among women farmers renamed it oga, which means “boss” in Igbo. When the farmers applied home-produced Oga fertilizer to pearl millet every two weeks, yields rose by 30 percent. Oga has since become a regionally popular fertilizer because it works well, costs very little, and is socially acceptable.

“A
One adult produces enough urine to feed a generous size garden

Safe Pee-Cycling Practices

I first wrote about using urine in the garden in Mother Earth News more than 10 years ago, and readers immediately started asking questions about its safety for people and the planet. Of special concern was what might happen if bits of antibiotic-resistant bacteria lurking in human bodies got introduced into soil, and thus into the food chain. Modern problems, for sure, but recent research from the University of Michigan found that aging urine makes it lethal to the worst bacteria. When urine is set to age in plastic jugs for six months or more, it becomes increasingly inhospitable to a wide range of microbes. Six months at cool room temperature is the current aging recommendation from the World Health Organization.

Large-scale agriculture is eager to develop urine-based fertilizer systems, which have additional environmental benefits. Less water is needed for flushing, and less dirty water enters the waste stream. In France, research is ongoing using urine to grow grains and other crops, and steady progress is being made developing urine-based packaged fertilizer products in France and Sweden.

“Pee
A pee bale set outside an outbuilding eventually becomes rich garden mulch

Home-Based Pee-Cycling

Adults produce about 1.7 liters of urine per day, but unless you have a special toilet, collecting all of it is impractical. Then again, it is easy enough to collect urine in a labeled plastic jug when you’re in the mood or in a convenient outdoor space. Once collected, just screw on the cap and leave it in an out-of-the-way place. It’s okay for stored urine to freeze in winter.

Where privacy permits, you can collect urine outdoors in straw bales, which are then used as mulch or added to compost. We have no facilities in our workshop building, so there is always a pee bale stationed on the hidden side. I’ve used rotting pee bales to mulch everything from asparagus to tomatoes, with consistent success.

“Flowers
Container-grown flowers respond well to regular feeding with diluted urine that is watered in well

Before World War II, people did this sort of thing all the time. An elderly British friend says when he was a boy, a bale of peat would be placed in a trough in the boy’s toilet at school. When the headmaster thought it was ready, the bale would be moved to the school’s vegetable garden to enrich the soil. Pee-cycling is far from new!

Using Urine in the Garden

In the US, the non-profit Rich Earth Institute has turned the area around Battleboro, VT into a pee-cycling hub. Local farmers use urine to grow everything from flowers to giant ears of corn using pee collected by interested residents and stabilized at Rich Earth facilities. They estimate that one adult pee-cycler can support a 1/10th acre food garden.

“Sweet
Use lower dilution rates with heavy feeding crops like sweet corn

Whether fresh or time-stabilized for six months or more, urine must be diluted because of its potent supply of salts and nutrients. Salts in urine are the reason why grass dies when dogs pee on it repeatedly. Early advice on pee-cycling advised diluting urine with water at a ratio of more than 1:10, but the gardeners at Rich Earth have found that nitrogen-hungry crops like sweet corn respond well to a stronger 3:1 mixture. A 5:1 dilution is good for broccoli, peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables that benefit from booster feedings, as well as container-grown flowers.

Once diluted, the mixture is applied directly to the root zones of actively growing plants and then watered in to distribute the nutrients into the soil. Don’t worry - any odor present at application time will dissipate within minutes, and you will have come a step closer to growing a great garden with fewer outside inputs.

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Comments

 
"It is worth thinking about where you place your compost bin. If you make it sort of private you can use the pee without storing it. Also, should you have the soil tested to ensure you are not over doing it? "
Mark Hausammann on Friday 16 December 2022
"I, too, pee on my compost heap, despite someone commenting that old man's pee has too much oestrogen (like a bitch killing the grass). I am assuming that the bacterial action in the compost will kill any effects from oestrogen, drugs, antibiotics etc so that there is a net benefit, as there has been historically. I presume it's no worse than slurry, indeed rather healthy in compost form, and a bit more nutritious for the soil than putting it through a sewage treatment plant first. I'm not sure where the popular myths ("old wives' tale" as one might have said) end and the science begins. Please correct me if I am wrong. I can't believe that it is worse than peeing into a bale and using that."
Whysacre on Friday 16 December 2022
"The gardeners at old stateley homes used to collect pee from the pot under the bed for the kitchen garden. "
Michael Alan Wilkins on Friday 16 December 2022
"Mark, the main risk to overdoing it in the compost bin would be too much salt in one place. Keep moving a bit. Some use sawdust in a pail or pile, good if you have it. "
Barbara Pleasant on Saturday 17 December 2022
"I used to keep a 5-gal bucket out in my garden shed. Had a raised toilet seat jammed on the top. Saved a trip to the house and some extra nitrogen for the near by compost pile. "
Mrs. McElliott on Tuesday 20 December 2022
"I am an old man, going on 82, but still gardening. I have used my urine in my garden since the middle 1970s. I have stored urine in covered garbage cans, but I see you recommend storing in closed containers. How long can it be stored in this way? Urine I have stored for a year or more is black. Should I use it or discard it? Thanks!"
Mark Parsons on Thursday 12 January 2023
"Mark, with no urine shortage in sight, I think it will be best to discard your oversupply. Hope you have a great season this year."
Barbara Pleasant on Friday 13 January 2023
"I've heard that if you take medications, that your pee would not be good to use in the compost/garden. True or false?"
Carrol Pace on Tuesday 24 January 2023
"Carrol, the only medications of real concern would be chemotherapy drugs, I believe. "
Barbara Pleasant on Wednesday 25 January 2023
"I'm seeing conflicting comments on the subject so I'll reiterate the basic question: Is it OK to apply human urine (collected indoors) directly to a compost pit? And if so, how much becomes too much? I have a private garden/compost pit and could literally apply more collected pee to my compost pit on a daily basis if it would help speed the composting process and add nutrients to the compost. Does urine applied to compost destroy beneficial composting insects and bacteria?"
Frank Gresham on Tuesday 9 May 2023
"Acting on advise from others, I have been pouring diluted urine down the mole tunnels in my garden and it seems to be a good mole deterrent "
Alan on Monday 5 June 2023
"Good people After reading an old gardening article, they spoke of urine as a fungicide to prevent apple scab. Diluted 4-1. I am going to give this a try. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. "
Patrick on Sunday 24 December 2023
"Would urine deter vine weevils from destroying plants in containers.?"
Eileen Shea on Monday 11 March 2024
"Are there any foods you could recommend eating to enhance the nutrients in the urine?"
Brindon Scalpellion on Thursday 21 March 2024
"Catching up on comments here, yes you can definitely use urine in the compost pile. It may repel some animal pests, but would not deter insects. On the question of foods that enhance nutrients in urine, the science says to eat a healthy diet to produce healthy urine. "
Barbara Pleasant on Wednesday 5 June 2024
"Can pee be used on outside plants straight away? I'd like to use it on grapevines so that when people next say my wine 'tastes like pee' I can inwardly smirk. "
will on Friday 16 August 2024
"Will, it happens all the time. Could be the best wine you ever made!"
Barbara Pleasant on Monday 19 August 2024
"Always usefull! Firt think I log into when I'm up!"
Elizabeth Slough on Saturday 21 September 2024
"It really needs to be understood that urine is sterile. Unless it isn't which is a problem of which the person will be only *too* painfully aware. So in general, there is no requirement to render it sterile before use as a fertiliser. A single direct watering of the grass will not burn, especially if properly distributed. Depositing it in only one place and certainly, repeatedly *would* be a problem but is easily avoided. "
Paul B. on Sunday 6 October 2024

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