Water your house plants with natural organic fertilizer for free

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What you need is a soda bottle, a measuring cup or scale, a funnel, some water and some urine.

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Step 1: Fill the soda with water

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Fill a 2 liter soda bottle with water right up to the top of the label. This will give you about 1.7 litters.

Step 2: Get some urine

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Pee is full of urine. Pee in a measuring cup until you have 300 ml. If you can not pee this much at one time hide the cup near the commode and try again later to add more pee to get a total of 300 ml, or get out your calculator and use the following formula to determine how much fertilizer solution you can make with whatever amount of urine you've got and how much water you need.

300/2000 is 0.15 or 15 percent of the total volume we need to fill a 2 liter bottle.

Say you only have 100 ml of urine. Divide 100 by 0.15 to get 666.6. This is the total amount of solution you need.

Now calculate how much water you need by subtracting 100 from 666.6 to get 566.6 ml of water.

Pour out the 1.7 ml of water and pour in the 100 ml of urine. Then measure 566.6 liters of water and pour it back in the soda bottle.

Now you have 666.6 milliliters of natural fertilizer solution you can water house plants with.

Be sure to label the soda bottle so no one will think it is lemon soda and take a drink by mistake.

You can also use this fertilizer solution to fertilize your lawn and other plants outdoors for free.

Step 3: Now make some of your own "Dark Earth"

Picture of Now make some of your own "Dark Earth"
If you really want to make stuff grow don't stop here by just using urine. To make stuff really grow add your urine to 2 part regular soil and 1 part powdered biochar by weight, not volume. Biochar is like charcoal but made entirely from organic waste matter with all the bio-oil separated and removed. Unlike some charcoal you buy at the store, biochar does not have special additives like oil that help it burn better.

Mix your soil and biochar and then soak it in the urine you have made so the carbon particles can become saturated with nitrogen and phosphorous and other minerals in the urine. Use this mixture as a very rich potting soil but be careful not to over concentrate the urine. One neat thing about this potting soil is that after bacteria start growing you will not have to add any more fertilizer and can reuse this potting soil over and over again without it becoming depleted.
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Must be male pee not female.....pee. Female urine contains too much acid...

Wrong, see my post about dilution of urine. Has nothing to do with male or females. The only thing is, it is a lot easier for men to pee outside than it is for women.

I have a male cat. Would that work?
There are ne laws comming out that farmers will have to abide by called GAP's, General Agricultural Practices. In these guidlines, any said farm laborer must have a bathroom facility within such a distance according to the farms size. It is not acceptable to urinate on produce and such because of all the outbreaks of salimenilla and disease. Urine is supposed to be sterile, in some cases it isn't though, if you have a urinary tract infection, nd how would an employer know if that were the case. But, if you are just using urine on your houseplants, what is the harm. America can't take away all of our rights! However, I don't agree that any farm can put anything, especially human waste on our food products. That is disgusting because you don't know where people have been! LOL

As a farmer/gardener, one usually has a lot of options on where to pee. Don't be stupid and pee or put any not fully digested compost on root crops or crops that one eats! Corn plants, tomatoes that are well staked, staked beans, squash, etc. are good candidates. Use some common sense with something like urine.

Recently th ePark Service in London came with the idea that their male staff would not use the toilet anymore but pee outside coz it was thought to be good for the plants.

Could not find that link anymore, but the National trust says the same:
Reggie65671 year ago

As a long time gardener/farmer and pee (as fertilizer) user, some of you are missing a very important point that has to do with moisture in the soil and percolation rates. During the mid to late summer, most areas in the eastern US get very dry. The top soil has very little moisture. Even when it rains, an inch of rain will only percolate in to about 4-5 inches into the soil. In 90 degree weather, this will evaporate out in about 5 days. If an animal, wild, domestic, or human pees on the ground, it will burn the plants if there is not enough moisture. This is the same thing if someone applies a granular fertilizer and then it rains a 1/4 inch. That small amount of rain is enough to dissolve some of the fertilizer, but it will also be very strong and as a result burn the grass. This is what is happening when a dog takes a pee on the grass.

I use pee around my farm on many of my trees where I usually have a wood or mulch ring around the trunk. The urine will only permeate the mulch a couple of inches. The water in the urine will evaporate in a few days. But then when either we get a good rain or I water the tree well, the minerals will soak in. I have never seen any negative consequences from doing this. I also intentionally do not pee in the same spot continuously. Why go indoors and pee in a toilet - which eventually flushes into our waterways? Use your own fertilizer if/when you can!

sellulose3 years ago
People are getting their facts wrong. Direct urine on plants will kill it as it is too strong. The ratio is 1 part urine to 4 parts water once or twice a week only. Too much nitrogen is also bad for plants. All the best.
pixman553 years ago
in the movie "worlds fastest indian" about new zealander "burt munro" who went to usa bonnyville salt flats with an "indian" motorcylce and won the speed record with his bike the actor in the movie about him pees on his lemon tree.well around the roots. i have used diluted pee added water to feed plants and they never died...nitrogen from the urea in pee is good for green leaves ...if you think about the diet of a person or animal you will work out why cat or dog pee can be strong and kill grass....they eat mainly meat lots of uric acid .... m vegetarian..
servion5 years ago
Where can I find biochar??
Make it yourself
Dig a hole
Arrange some non-burning cover besides the hole
fill a third of the hole with very hot and fast burning material. Straw, little dry branches etc.
Then put in the thicker wood you wants to make charcoals of
cover it with some fast burning material
fire it
when it burns really hot cover the hole with the not burning layer (if the hole is wide you will need help here) and quench the fire
wait untill it's cold
Filter the coals out of the ash
bmorgan-23 years ago
Ever seen what the grass looks like after your dog pees on it a few times. It dies.
Mitten7 years ago
Why dont you just use household ammonia? Unscented of course.
That's not so wise. In large scale was done in China as irrigation additive. Ammonia stinks nasty and is almost a deadly toxic alkaline. You can drink urine, best not to, but you cannot drink ammonia unless you are badly insane.
Pee is free! Free the pee!
Apparently you've drunk too much urine and your brain fried. That is simply impossible. Urea is one of the best forms of nitrogenates to nourish a plant. We expel it because our metabolism digests...the plants reconstitute...are able of fixing nitrogen as protein.
yeah, that's a good answer ! Anyway excess of salt is expelled by kidney and that may be not so good on a long period in a dry climate for some plants, so don't
eat too salty. I never seen someone salting a garden.
and what about dogs in a rainy ? May be it could be safe.
Our bodies expel what they do not need. This includes excess vitamins and minerals. Who says the surplus nutrients cannot be of use to another being? Do you have a reason why urine would kill plants?
sdavies Tidnull4 years ago
There seems to be some confusion about pee. Yes, it contains nitrogen-rich urea, vitamins, and minerals that are great for plants. Urine also where the excess protons in your body get dumped. So this "burned" affect your seeing is probably the plant's reaction to the decreased pH levels in the soil. Although, if you're drinking enough water this should not be a major issue.

Of course everyone's pee is different. The content of your urine is dependent on your diet, metabolism, and water intake.

Hope this was helpful!
Ever had a dog who would pee in the same spot every time? You'd get a burned spot on your grass. And most disgusting, my male room mate burned up my plants on either side of my front door. The reason, so if his dogs got out they'd find way home. It's tough living with a guy!
You're dead wrong. Dog urine is different from human. We take in different things then they do. Urine in flower gardens and such are fine, but I wouldn't do it on food. Plus if it's a little diluted then it definetly won't do any damage.
ones body also expells faeces. Still plants grow on it. The fact that it is expelled by the one, doesn't mean it is bad for th eother
2high6 years ago
*Pee is full of urea
Narlo11 2high4 years ago
Urine actually is not that high in urea. Most of it is water. The amount of urea is about 2%.
Moralito5 years ago
Works wonderfully on Cannabis. The female plant is greedy on nitrogen. More nitrogen = stronger and healthier buds.
EMich Moralito4 years ago
A lot of people who grow Cannabis have medical problems IE: medical marijuana. Just a word of Caution. If you are taking prescription drugs. What your body doesn't use will be passed in urine. Especially blood thinners,cholesterol meds, Valium type drugs etc. Everything in the soil will be taken into the plant, making urine poor choice for anything consumable.
On a side note. urine on top of your grass compost will heat it up and 1/2 the time your compost will be ready. Again same caution on meds in the body. The compost can really concentrate after time.
The female Cannabis plant requires large amounts of nitrogen only in the vegetative stage, in the flowering stage, they need Phosphorous, Potassium, and only small amounts of nitrogen.
I feel sorry for you.
atlantica5 years ago
I'm cringing thinking about the direction this is heading. One of you is going to do an instructable about connecting strings and lines to granddad's colostomy bag ..aren't you? Theres going to be a whole thing about Colostomy bags being nature friendly, and you are going to talk about "harvesting stuff," and how it's going to help the earth because everyone is going to want a senior shut-in to keep tied up in the garden. It'll be trendy to have one.. Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein will go to war over the latest pattern for the Colostomy bag..... "There was a time when a colostomy bag was a hidden secret..... no more!! No with nine new shades and 10 bold patterns to choose from , Louis Vuitton makes a statement. I'm not incontinent, I just love my environment !! Plus my tomatoes taste amazing !" And it'll be good for the seniors to too, because they will have human contact....Aww. Here it comes...the ultimate Instructable........ Build a Solar powered Colostomy bag worm farm with poop discombobulator and a pee harvesting processing alchohal STILL for your own elderlyberry whisky and plant fertilizer which is completely non toxic and environmentally friendly!
Kiteman7 years ago
Is it really necessary to be so exacting with the dilution?

I can see that dilution would help reduce the odour, but the concentration of urine varies wildly from person to person and even from pee to pee, depending on how much you've been drinking and eating, what you've been eating and drinking and even on the time of day.

Wouldn't it be as useful to say "mix one part urine and six parts water in a 2 litre soda bottle, water as required"?
Yea, way to much measuring, here's a short cut, if you have a compost pile, just pee straight on to that.
How do you water houseplants with a compost pile...?
you plant in the enriched compost an water with water.
Okay to plant in the compost the compost must be removed from the compost pile and put in a pot for the plant. That means you only have a single enrichment if you just pee in the pile of compost. This way enrichment is constant especially if you use the recently published method of potting house plants in a plastic bottle with a string feeding urine up through the cap to the houseplant.
"This way enrichment is constant especially if you use the recently published method of potting house plants in a plastic bottle with a string feeding urine up through the cap to the houseplant." Ha! Why didn't I think of that?
you're really giving this too much thought ;-)
A healthy plant is a happy plant and a happy plant makes people smile.
Unless it's Kudzu that's growing out of control... then people stop smiling :P
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