Gardening and Plant Thread

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okay that was the wrong word...its harmless as a fertilizer though.
especially compared to the newfangled bullshit coming out, like GMO soil microbes that will soon be everywhere.
thanks science! those organic microbes were dangerous!
It's not harmless. It's not dangerous but there is a risk. If you want to take that risk then you are fully welcome to. But it's not 100% safe and pushing it as such to other people is kinda dumb. Just looking online pissing on plants can spread leptospirosis and herpes, admittedly that would need someone infected to be the one pissing but still. You also have no idea what else is in your piss, it's not just water and urea.

Especially as the post you initially replied to is a plant actively producing a crop.

As I say I piss on the grass or the bushes all the time. I have no problem with using piss as a fertiliser. I just would not do that when it comes to something you eat.
 
It's not harmless. It's not dangerous but there is a risk. If you want to take that risk then you are fully welcome to. But it's not 100% safe and pushing it as such to other people is kinda dumb. Just looking online pissing on plants can spread leptospirosis and herpes, admittedly that would need someone infected to be the one pissing but still. You also have no idea what else is in your piss, it's not just water and urea.

Especially as the post you initially replied to is a plant actively producing a crop.

As I say I piss on the grass or the bushes all the time. I have no problem with using piss as a fertiliser. I just would not do that when it comes to something you eat.
I've read about using pee as a fertilizer a fair bit and I think a lot of the risks are overstated, as you would expect (with a little intuition) when you are talking about using a free waste product to partially replace a major industry.
For example: pretty much everyone says you can't use pure urine on plants, but I have never found this to be true. I rarely mix water in and haven't killed any plants.
And just follow the logic here "you are so dirty and diseased that you shouldn't Maybe put a tiny bit of that disease in the soil that is consumed by fungus and then fed to plants because....The Experts say you might get a little of that disease back in you. so instead, use chicken manure from a factory farm where animals are tortured so they have no immune system and are kept together in unsanitary, cramped conditions....that is Expert Approved! use synthetic fert made in a lab halfway across the country by who knows who using who knows what and is relatively very expensive. you can trust those strangers more than you can trust natural methods used for millenia!"

any studies on places where people are using pee as fertilizer that shows clear harm caused by using pee?


if anyone got sick from using urine, the fertilizer giants would make sure everyone knows about it. instead they can only pump out 'research' on 'potential' and 'hypothetical' harms.
 
This year is starting off warm and dry in my region which is a blessing for spring but an omen for summer. Radishes, lettuce, and several brassicas like varieties of kale, cauliflower, and broccoli are all thriving in the greenhouse, we started them several weeks ago and they’re going strong. We have started some luffa squash since they claim 150 days to maturity and our growing season is only a bit longer than that. Peas have been growing very, very slowly so we’ve held off on planting beans. I use peas as an “indicator” and as a common companion plant since they grow readily without much support or care and actively fix nitrogen into the soil throughout their lifecycle.

We waited a few extra weeks to start our peppers and tomatoes this year since we had quite literally manifested over 100 of each last year. In hindsight, I would still start pepper plants in late January or early February but holding off on tomatoes has made almost no difference, starting them early didn’t gain any time in their growth cycle, and starting them in March is still plenty of time for them to grow before being transplanted out.

Additionally we’ve put together a lot of pollinator beds and pots with many native plants and I’ve just recently built a deep box for cut flowers to be grown from bulbs and seeds.

Next we’ve got to work on the community garden plot we have which was neglected due to personal circumstances so it’s going to be a challenge to make it useful before the end of summer. I’m hoping to get lots of pumpkins and squash and cucumbers there again.

I’ll take any advice I can on growing celery. It’s our first attempt and I’ve got some sprouts that are about an inch and a half to two inches tall and have 2-3 true leaves each.

ETA:
any studies on places where people are using pee as fertilizer that shows clear harm caused by using pee?
Idk about studies but I operate on the idea that pharmaceuticals can be re-uptaken by food plants.
 
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i didn't realize you ran a commercial greenhouse. soon they will all have nothing but GMO too and you will be a fool for not buying into that newfangled shit.

my pee is full of nutrients and is free...actually better than free because it saves a lot of time/money using/cleaning a toilet to flush that sweet golden plant food away like a fool. haven't had any issues using it. i think it works especially well on fruit trees, which are probably the best thing to grow in terms of amount of work:food output.

Wrong again- no GMO, only hybrids.

I wonder if piss jugs here has thought about his organic inputs and how they can be dangerous to humans or the plants they are trying to grow.

Manure/compost- glyphosate, e.coli
Anaerobic ferments- Pythium, fusarium
Seabird guano, azomite, humic acid- heavy metals
Kelp, piss- sodium content

I use coir/peat/hydrafiber, salts and biostimulants and never have to worry about bugs or disease indoors or out.
 
Wrong again- no GMO, only hybrids.

I wonder if piss jugs here has thought about his organic inputs and how they can be dangerous to humans or the plants they are trying to grow.

Manure/compost- glyphosate, e.coli
Anaerobic ferments- Pythium, fusarium
Seabird guano, azomite, humic acid- heavy metals
Kelp, piss- sodium content

I use coir/peat/hydrafiber, salts and biostimulants and never have to worry about bugs or disease indoors or out.
"i wear 3 masks at all times and never have to worry about long-covid"
 
I think a lot of the risks are overstated
They probably are. But that is for you to decide for yourself. There are risks. If you want to take them then you can. But if you're going to tell other people to do the same then don't say shit like 'oh it's sterile and perfectly safe'. If you do something you know to have risks then tell the people that there are risks and let them come to their own conclusion.
 
"i wear 3 masks at all times and never have to worry about long-covid"
What are you even talking about?

Ideal growth parameters for plants are well studied and you can’t reach genetic maximum potential with pest/disease pressure or variability from “organic”.

Did you get you farm certified with OMRI yet, they are the Better Business Bureau for organic.
 
They probably are. But that is for you to decide for yourself. There are risks. If you want to take them then you can. But if you're going to tell other people to do the same then don't say shit like 'oh it's sterile and perfectly safe'. If you do something you know to have risks then tell the people that there are risks and let them come to their own conclusion.
i said sterile was the wrong word....slightly. it has a Low Level of bacteria. plenty of piss drinkers out there who think its good for them to drink, but with your logic they must all be near death since they are consuming pure piss, whereas with a plant you are consuming piss that has been processed through soil's microbes/bacteria/fungus, and then the plant itself. how is that tiny bit of possible pee dangerous, yet piss drinkers aren't dying en masse?

there are risks with everything. tell people about the risks of synthetic fertilizers. it is your responsibility! can you drink it and be fine? do you know for sure what is in a product that you buy in the store?

"Plant fertilizers are mildly poisonous if small amounts are swallowed. Larger amounts can be harmful to children. Touching a large amount of plant fertilizer may cause severe burns." Never got a severe burn from touching pee!

SMR results showed increased lung cancer and leukemia mortality in a full cohort of the phosphate fertilizer production facility

not to mention the issue we are seeing now, where we have become dependent on synthetic fertilizer (and forgot how to use natural/readily available fertilizer) and now the Iran War is looking like it could set off major issues with farms due to everyone relying on oil-based fertilizer. great job, experts! you built a society on shaky, high-tech legs and now it might collapse.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine_therapy#Health_concerns
people have been doing this for millennia. where's all the deaths and disease?

from WHO:
1776123625954.png
 
Any tips for new fruit trees? I just planted some and they seem to be doing well. I felt like amended the soil fairly decent, but if any of you had some tips or tricks I'd love to hear!
 
how is that tiny bit of possible pee dangerous, yet piss drinkers aren't dying en masse?

there are risks with everything. tell people about the risks of synthetic fertilizers. it is your responsibility! can you drink it and be fine?
Sir, this is the garden thread, not the piss drinking thread.

Salt-based fertilizer is for plants, not people. To argue that is in bad faith. My farm produces great without dubious arguments.
 
@TheVoodooThatJewDo
Does have a point. This is the Self-sufficiency board after all. If you are relying entirely on synthetic fertilizers that's your choice, no wrong in that. But discussing alternative, natural fertilizers that you can make or source by yourself is definitely on topic.
I use my own diluted urine to water my tomato plants some years and they love it. Probably not this year tho as I am currently on medication and I don't want that to end up in my tomatoes.
 
@TheVoodooThatJewDo
Does have a point. This is the Self-sufficiency board after all. If you are relying entirely on synthetic fertilizers that's your choice, no wrong in that. But discussing alternative, natural fertilizers that you can make or source by yourself is definitely on topic.
I use my own diluted urine to water my tomato plants some years and they love it. Probably not this year tho as I am currently on medication and I don't want that to end up in my tomatoes.
Apparently using your own urine as fertilizer is very well-recognized and commonly practised especially in the world of homesteading. I was ready to talk about how non-composted urine could be harmful but it turns out that isn’t the case. As long as it’s diluted it’s usable. I can say from experience from peeing in one spot in the yard when the bathroom was being renovated did make the grass grow unmanageably large in no time flat in just the one spot.

I already use pelleted organic fertilizer for slow release, manure at regular times between crops, and crop rotation methods to ensure each cycle has the proper nutrients to grow and corrects the soil for the next crop in rotation. These are all long-term and slow-release, though. Usually when I want a quick fix I just use fish emulsion, but I might be peeing on my flowers this year.
 
pee is sterile and its great fertilizer. unless maybe you're doing chemotherapy or something.
i'm not saying to use human shit, since that is risky unless you know what you are doing, but pee is not risky.
Slightly disagree, but not enough to slap you with a disagree sticker. Urine contains a lot of sodium, especially here in the West where our diets are higher in sodium than elsewhere in the world. Depending on the soil chemistry, using urine as a fertilizer can be a sodium accumulation risk, particularly if you're in a dry region where there isn't a lot of rainfall to wash the sodium below the root zone, or if the soil has a high pH.

As with all things, it depends.
 
Plants can tolerate about 400 ppm sodium before it becomes detrimental. You can mitigate this with humates, but sometimes they contain high sodium content as well.
 
Slightly disagree, but not enough to slap you with a disagree sticker. Urine contains a lot of sodium, especially here in the West where our diets are higher in sodium than elsewhere in the world. Depending on the soil chemistry, using urine as a fertilizer can be a sodium accumulation risk, particularly if you're in a dry region where there isn't a lot of rainfall to wash the sodium below the root zone, or if the soil has a high pH.

As with all things, it depends.
Yeah I'm aware of the salt issue, but I've never observed any problems. And the youtube farmer I mentioned (Jim Kovaleski) had a salty well in Florida and his plants thrived on it.
 
Plants can tolerate about 400 ppm sodium before it becomes detrimental. You can mitigate this with humates, but sometimes they contain high sodium content as well.
I imagine the relative potassium content in the soil influences this somewhat. As I understand the main reason sodium is toxic to plants is because it starts competing for potassium uptake, but can't function as a potassium substitute in their biology. If there's ample potassium in the soil, the sodium concentration can probably get closer to that 400ppm before it becomes a problem.
 
I dunno the times/place I pee in the yard drunk at night, isn't that nice.

I found a few groups of daffodils in the compost pile! Just made me happy :)
 
Oops, I posted this in the Growing your own food thread because I was too retarded to find this thread.

This will be my 3rd year growing my own garden. I live relatively far north, so I started my seeds in the middle of March and they won't be going outside until around the last week of May. I've been growing 3 or 4 different heirloom tomato types every year, documenting their growth, yield, when they ripen, etc. This will also be my first year growing peppers, nothing super hot, but a few different types, ranging from the humble bell pepper up to to serrano and a type called bishop's crown, both rated up to 25000ish SHU.
 
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