Compost time again

[belly]

I use water with a little ammonia in it for washing my windows... is it OK to throw the leftover water on the compost pile?

[Steve]

It seems to me that it would supply a little nitrogen. I can't think of any reason not to. We'll see if anyone else can think of a reason to avoid it.....

Steve

[Stan Goodman]

Ammonia is a natural component of urine.

[belly]

On 13 Oct 2004 08:19:00 GMT in , "Stan Goodman" graced the world with this thought:

I know that, it's why I ask. Now, would it be OK to dump two gallons of urine on a small compost pile?

[shazzbat]

It's kind of traditional to put urine in the compost. It may be because when one is in the allotment or garden, It is inconvenient to go to a toilet or get cleaned up to the point where the wife lets you indoors, especially if you have lots more work to do. Some people say that using it neat is not a good idea, so I get a bucket half full of water, retreat to the shed, pee in the bucket, and put that on the compost. No problem.

Steve

[Stan Goodman]

Ah, you said initially that it was "water with a little ammonia in it". Now it sounds like much stronger stuff. Concentration is an important parameter.

What you need to do is to have more carbon (straw, paper, whatever) in the compost than you would normally have. The nitrogen you've added (ammonia) will rot the straw, and you'll come out with an improved compost.

[Kellie J. Berger]

What about vinegar? I have some experimental pickles that went wrong..... vinegar, salt, garlic, sugar, cucumber, cardamon and dill but the cukes were almost round the bend and there wasn't enough salt and prob. too much vinegar....

can i add the cukes and the juice to my pile? or should i pour it down the sink and garbage grinder?

[belly]

On 13 Oct 2004 13:37:57 GMT in , "Stan Goodman" graced the world with this thought:

It's not that strong, but I'm sure it's more ammoniated than urine... and I don't urinate by the bucketful, either..! I was kind of concerned with damaging the pile's culture.

Sounds good, thanks... I just happen to have a fair amount of yard waste that wasn't initially going to go on, I'll go ahead and use some of it.

[Pen]

Vinegar's okay, it's the salt you'll worry about.

[Glenna Rose]

Steve,

I respectfully take exception to your statement "it's kind of traditional..."

Because some people do it doesn't make it traditional. I personally know of no gardeners that urinate, either directly or indirectly, in their compost pile.

Glenna

[belly]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 22:36:28 -0700 in , [e-mail] (Glenna Rose) graced the world with this thought:

Yeah, but is that the kind of thing people share with you?

[shazzbat]

You do now :-)) Seriously though, this may be one of the many differences between UK and US. I am taking the liberty of assuming you are in US.

By traditional I mean that it's been going on for a very long time, I know someone who was doing it during WW2 as part of his contribution to "digging for victory". I don't know if that phrase means much in US, but it was a big deal over here. Urine is a recommended compost activator to many people.

Steve

[Steve]

shazzbat wrote:

tradition

n 1: an inherited pattern of thought or action 2: a specific practice of long standing.

Works for me.

Steve (the other one)

[belly]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 12:53:58 +0100 in , "shazzbat" graced the world with this thought:

well, as far as direct application, I'd say it has more to do with the difference between men and women...

[EV]

I'd do it if I could pee standing up. I got my husband to pee on it last summer, and I must say the pile did break down faster. Not to mention that it might help to discourage critters.

Thanks for the reminder!

EV

[patriarch]

EV wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I can just see THIS being added to my Honey-do list!

Patriarch

[Charles Newton]

Yes

[Beecrofter]

No it isn't at least not for terrestrial animals. Now if you are a fish it is. But to conserve water our kidneys combine the waste nitrogen with carbon dioxide to form urea. Sitting in a bucket bacteria break down the urea and nitrogen outgasses as amonnia.

That said, on a western diet you can expect to excrete about 10lbs of nitrogen in urine a year.(roughly an Oz of urea a day) Or about the same amount of nitrogen as in a 100 lb sack of 10-10-10

[ellis]

Vinegar is a phytotoxin so I wouldn't exactly call it okay.

[ellis]

Isn't that exactly what does make it traditional?

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