Free Urea Based Fertilizer for Gardening

Urea is among popular fertilizer use in agriculture. Commercial urea is paddy field.

Studies indicate that each person's waste fluids can provide enough nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to grow a year's supply of wheat and maize for that person. According to some studies, human waste can be an even more effective fertilizer than animal manure. (What is urea?)

Urine, which comprises 90 percent of human waste, contains about 80 percent of our waste's fertilizer value. It can be applied to field crops without treatment because it is generally sterile. By the way "fresh urine" does not contain any bacteria, unless the person has a urinary tract infection, so you could even use it to wash out wounds without causing any infections,

Human urine can be used as an alternative to chemical fertilizer to reduce pollution in air, water and soil and help avoid or control other environmental hazards which surface due to the use of chemical fertilizer, Human urine contains nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium at a much higher ratio than in commercial fertilizers and is environmentally safe to use.

If you want to use urine to fertilize your gardens, keep in mind that when urea becomes ammonia, it also becomes volatile and part of it strips into the air. Both ammonia and nitrates are also very soluble and if not picked up by plant's root systems can enter groundwater with the irrigation water. So it would be best to keep gardens moist but not over watered, but these are similar problems faced by people who use other forms of fertilizers.

Problems urine causes

Most toilets use between 50 and 100 litres of water daily to flush away one to 1.5 litres of human excrement.

Urine is the largest contributor of nutrients to waste water, estimated as 50% of phosphorus and 80% of nitrogen.

The high level of nutrients in sewerage runoff leads to the consequent growth of algae, resulting in the lack of oxygen and the death of plants and animals on river, estuarine and sea beds.

Problems Chemical Fertilizers cause

Serious environmental hazards are often associated with the use of chemical fertilizers. In industrialized countries, for example, indiscriminate use of these substances has polluted water supplies. Dangerously high levels of chemicals have been reported in nearly one-fourth of Europe's groundwater supplies.

Advantages of Urine Fertilizer

One advantage in using urine, as a fertilizer is that much of the urine is available in ideal chemical forms: nitrogen is in the form of urea (ammonia/ammonium which is present at concentrations of approximately 3.5 g/l), phosphorus as superphosphate and potassium as an ion. Urine is almost free from heavy metals - for example, cadmium - because even if we ingest them, they will tend to bind to the liver and kidneys, making the urine much lower in such contaminants than commercial fertilizers.

 Urea outside the body quickly becomes ammonia and will be oxidized by special bacteria (called nitrifiers) into nitrates. All these 'reactive' nitrogen sources can be used to form amino groups for new amino acids, thus then being made into proteins. So make other steps to encourage the soil life in your garden, eg things lie mulching etc.

It helps conserve pure or town drinking water

Reduces the rate and amount of chemical fertilizer runoff into the groundwater and surrounding waterways

Reduces the amount of sewerage runoff

Reduces nutrient build-up in waterways and estuaries and oceans

Reduces your gardening costs, because of less reliance on buying chemical fertilizers.

Uses

Probably best used for non-edible plants, green manure crops and fruit orchards, though there is some usage being noted for edible crops. Apply in under fruiting plants, not onto foliage and fruits.

In a Hydroponics set-up, use it diluted, probably at a ratio of either 10- 20 to 1(water- urine), but keep a close eye on both the ph level and the level of individual salts of the mix in the nutrient storage container.

Dilute urine is also a good additive to a compost pile. Urea also helps break down lignin, accelerating the decomposition of woody materials. On the other hand, urine from somebody with a urinary tract infection or from unknown sources should probably be pasteurised or put in a long-term compost pile (of a year or longer)
before it is used on food crops.

When using a urine fertilizer in container plants, a 10:1 (water: urine) ratio can quickly burn plants in medium to small containers because of the salt and urea build-up, even at a 15:1 dilution rate is very strong for the medium to small containers. While at 20:1 you can use it more frequently (once or twice a week) with good benefits and little danger.

Unfermented urine can supposedly be sprayed as a fungicide. Indigenous people in southeastern Mexico claim that the use of urine as a fungicide was a traditional Mayan practice. However there needs to be a lot more research as to the validity or not of their claims.

While in Korea, they spray the undiluted urine as an insecticide, but again I do not know of any research to prove or disprove their claims.

So why not get out there, and help the environment by assisting in reducing the nutrient flow into the natural ground water and water ways, while saving yourself a bundle in fertilizer costs. Source

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Liquid Fertilizer

A transplanting solution aka Liquid fertilizer feeding solutions have long been popular. Home gardeners use them because they are safe and can be used in many more ways than dry fertilizers and produce results faster. For this reason many homeowners believe liquid plant foods are better than fertilizers made as granulars, like those used in lawn fertilizer.

 Liquid feeding is not a fad. As early as the 16th Century it was found that water coming from muddy streams stimulated the growth of plants while rain water had no such effect. Water in which animal manures had soaked was found to contain plant nutrients by the Chinese in the 17th Century. However, the procurement of water is a laborious process and retarded their use.

Fertilizer solutions may be made at home, bought in bottles or in a form of soluble dry salts. There are a large number of concerning applications of liquid fertilizer for garden use. Dry fertilizers sold for mixing in water are numerous from Scotts, Miracle Gro, Dyna Gro and Schultz. Which is the best liquid form or solution to grow a plant is difficult to say.

A number of years ago large number liquid foods were compared for use as transplanting solutions and the largest yield was obtained with a 1-2-1 ratio (nitrogen-phosphoric acid-potash). This mixture is comparable to a 5-10-5 dry fertilizer which is commonly used for growing commercial crops. 

In deciding which one to use, the only thing I can say is to figure out where you get the most units of plant food for a dollar. These dry mixtures are a little more expensive than dry fertilizer applications because water soluble salts are more difficult to get.

Fertilizer solutions sold in bottles, jugs or barrels are a different story. A gallon of these liquids is now made up to contain 10 pounds of fertilizer. They are highly concentrated and must be diluted before they are used. 

Here again, I can only say that the 1-2-1 ratio has given excellent results. Whether this ratio will stand up under close scrutiny is still some-what of a question. One important factor to keep in mind, however, is that any fertilizer applied dry or in solution will not do much good if the soil is already fertile enough.

“NO fertilizer Should Be Used Unless There Is A Need For It”

Liquid applications have given a good account of themselves when used as transplanting solutions or as starter solutions when applied directly on the seed when sown.

Transplanting solutions contain the equivalent of 6 to 8 pounds of 5-10-5 in 100 gallons of water or a table-spoon to a gallon. About 1/4 to pint of the solution is applied to the roots before they are covered.

Two precautions to observe, however, are:

• Don’t have any dry fertilizer in the soil surrounding the roots
• Don’t press the soil around the roots when they are set with the solution

I have gotten yield increases of 2 to 3 pounds per plant with transplanting solutions over using plain water. On sweet potatoes I have harvested 35 bushels more with the transplanting solution. Shrubs, trees and flowering plants may be fertilized with trans-planting or starter solutions.

Liquid fertilizer applications may, likewise, be used for side dressing or any other purposes where dry fertilizer is used. The crop usually dictates the concentration.

They may be used as they come or diluted with one or two parts of water. In most cases 10 pounds in 50 gallons are sufficient. These solutions may also be placed in a deep furrow and the plants set over it with 2 or 3 inches of soil between the solution and the roots. This method has given exceptionally good results on unproductive sandy soils.

Advantages Over Dry Fertilizer

Liquid fertilizing solutions have other advantages over dry fertilizers. When superphosphate is applied to the average soil we can expect to obtain between 20 to 25 percent back in our plants. When the same amount of superphosphate is applied in solution, we can recover practically all of it. 

For this reason I have obtained as good yields with 500 pounds of 5-10-5 in solution as I got with a ton of dry fertilizer where phosphorus was deficient and nitrogen and potash were not limiting factors.

I had some misgivings about applying liquid fertilizer on acid soils, because I expected to see the phosphorus become unavailable. This did not happen. If anything, the response was better than on a limestone soil. Also when using liquid applications we must keep in mind that magnesium and calcium are not present in the liquid forms and, if needed, we must supply them in the form of limestone.

The newest development in the use of liquid feeding applications, of course, is the spraying of the solution on the foliage and produce great results. Such, methods offer possibilities of growing more crops with the same amount of fertilizer. Source : Plant Care.com