MiracleGro VS Pee: Which Fertilizer Is Better? Surprising Results!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- In this video, I find out which fertilizer is better: MiracleGro fertilizer or pee! Some natural gardeners promote human urine as free homemade fertilizer, and human urine has an NPK ratio surprisingly similar to MiracleGro All Purpose (24-8-16). But how does it stack up in a controlled experiment? I designed an experiment to put human urine fertilizer to the test. In the end, we got shocking and surprising results!
With recent increases in fertilizer costs, finding ways to make homemade fertilizers and reduce costs is attractive. Using pee as fertilizer has a long history of use, but how does this free fertilizer stack up against "real" fertilizers sold at stores? This experiment was filmed over 5 weeks from design to final results. Be sure to stay until the end to see an explanation of the findings.
Please see the following high quality fertilizer PRODUCT LINKS:
Jack's 20-20-20 (1.5 lbs)*: amzn.to/3MfQhDY
Jack's 20-20-20 (10 lbs)*: amzn.to/44OoaTE
Jack's 20-20-20 (25 lbs)*: amzn.to/3Mgqrji
Jack's 10-30-20 (1.5 lbs)*: amzn.to/42poXZI
Jack's 10-30-20 (25 lbs)*: amzn.to/3I5lnvP
MiracleGro AP 24-8-16*: amzn.to/3MYupxt
MiracleGro Tomato 18-18-21*: amzn.to/43vwPJf
MiracleGro 15-30-15*: amzn.to/3VTcFGF
Jobe's Organic Fertilizer (4 lbs)*: amzn.to/3BTNJ8G
Jobe's Organic Bone Meal* (4 lbs): amzn.to/3nMuCtX
Alaska Fish Fertilizer (1 Gallon)*: amzn.to/3nTlqnx
Amazon Store Slow Release Fertilizers*: www.amazon.com/shop/themillen...
Amazon Store Soluble Fertilizers*: www.amazon.com/shop/themillen...
The following articles were consulted:
goveganic.net/gardening-how-t...
www.lowimpact.org/posts/takin...
www.permaculturenews.org/2011...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Using Urine As Fertilizer
2:05 Setting Up The Experiment
4:05 Making The Fertilizers (Rocky Montage)
6:25 Experiment Rules And Fertilizing Plants
9:58 Follow-Up Fertilizing And Progress
10:52 Experiment Results!
12:24 My Explanation Of The Results
17:56 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to use human urine as fertilizer for plants, have questions about growing fruit trees or want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and "how to" garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
****************************************
MUSIC CREDIT:
Training in the Fire by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
****************************************
VISIT MY AMAZON STOREFRONT FOR PRODUCTS I USE MOST OFTEN IN MY GARDEN*
www.amazon.com/shop/themillen...
****************************************
VISIT MY MERCHANDISE STORE
shop.spreadshirt.com/themille...
****************************************
SUPPORT MY SECOND CHANNEL!
/ 2minutegardentips
****************************************
EQUIPMENT I USE IN MY GARDEN*:
Miracle-Gro All Purpose Plant Food amzn.to/3qNPkXk
Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster Plant Food amzn.to/2GKYG0j
Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food amzn.to/2GDgJ8n
Jack's Fertilizer, 20-20-20, 25 lb. amzn.to/3CW6xCK
Southern Ag Liquid Copper Fungicide amzn.to/2HTCKRd
Southern Ag Natural Pyrethrin Concentrate amzn.to/2UHSNGE
Monterey Organic Spinosad Concentrate amzn.to/3qOU8f5
Safer Brand Caterpillar Killer (BT Concentrate) amzn.to/2SMXL8D
Cordless ULV Fogger Machine amzn.to/36e96Sl
Weed Barrier amzn.to/3yp3MaJ
Organza Bags (Fig-size) amzn.to/3AyaMUz
Organza Bags (Tomato-size) amzn.to/36fy4Re
Nursery Pots amzn.to/3AucVAB
Heavy Duty Grow Bags amzn.to/2UqvsgC
6.5 Inch Hand Pruning Shears amzn.to/3jHI1yL
Japanese Pruning Saw amzn.to/3wjpw6o
Double Tomato Hooks with Twine amzn.to/3Awptr9
String Trellis Tomato Support Clips amzn.to/3wiBjlB
Nylon Mason Line, 500FT amzn.to/3wd9cEo
Expandable Vinyl Garden Tape amzn.to/3jL7JCI
****************************************
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow Me on TWITTER (@NCGardening) / ncgardening
Follow Me on INSTAGRAM / millennialgardener_nc
****************************************
ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8A
****************************************
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
© The Millennial Gardener
#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #urine #freefertilizer
I've been using urine as a fertilizer on my plants for years....ever since my wife started locking the door when I come home late from the bar
It's how I kill a beautiful bush of roses.
At the beginning they were blooming like crazy, but after a couple of months they were dead.
@@bestdjaf7499 You have to dilute it, not concentrated.
@@MickSupper
I don't dilute my drinks.
I am not gay.
Why would I dilute my pee!?
🤣😂
🤣🤣☠️
😂😂😂
We live in a slum in East Africa and teach sustainable, regenerative agriculture to the locals. We have a rabbit house with 170 rabbits, and the cages are designed where all the urine from the rabbits is automatically collected in a holding tank connected to our irrigation system. When we irrigate, a fertigator mixes the urine with the irrigation water and the dilute urine is sprayed on the crops. It is a gentle, balanced foliar fertilizer, and seems to discourage all manner of pests. When we turn the sprinklers on, you can sometimes see a cloud of bugs escaping the raised beds. We use the urine primarily as a fertilizer, but it seems to handle most pests. If that is not enough, tobacco grows on our compound almost like weeds, and mixing smashed tobacco leaves and some smashed hot peppers with the urine seems to take care of any pests not taken care of by the dilute urine alone. The cages also automatically collect the rabbit poop which is an excellent manure, and can be applied directly to raised beds without composting. We dedicate some fraction of our raised beds to growing timothy hay and alfalfa to feed the rabbits, so we have virtually no input costs in keeping the rabbits, and they provide most of our nutrient and pest controls needs for the compound. This alone justifies the keeping of the rabbit project. Now, this size of rabbit colony produces a great abundance of meat, and the meat is just a free benefit of the nutrient/pest control program. We are now investigating to expand the nutrient program by adding several tilapia tanks. Rather than recirculate and filter the fish water, we will simply use the fish water as a nutrient spray for the farm. Sort of like an open loop aquaponic system. Anyway, I am learning a whole lot from your channel, and we are finally achieving some really amazing results on this farm.
Wow ❤ amazing 🇵🇷✊🏻🙏🏻
Great ecology. I wish people didn't need to eat meat, but most do. But your use of resources is incredible.
Good Work
Yep rabbit waste fertilizer is known to be pretty good. I think I saw some setups where the rabbit hutch was placed over the plants.
Love it and thanks for the explanation 🇨🇻
Thanks for your thoughtful and informative experiment. I have been gardening and composting for years and I did my own experimentation by adding urine to my compost at various intervals. One result was a more rapid breakdown of the materials being composted and the end result was a robust, high nitrogen soil amendment. I used NO chemical fertilizers or pesticides and got great results. I didn't use a control along side the compost / soil mixture, but I had used Miracle Gro in previous years and the results were comparable. Gardening is the process of growing soil, not plants.
Awesome! Great job doing a video that was fun to watch, nicely paced, and very thought-provoking. I definitely want to try a test like this, too. I had a garden expert tell me that plants need different amounts of N,P,K during the lifecycle, because N is good for green growth, P is for blooming/roots, and K is overall health.
For seedlings you need to mix 1 part urine to 20 parts water. The pepper was most likely burnt. For larger plants 10 parts water to 1 part urine. You were using it way too strong. Been using urine in garden for years.
It depends on how dilute your urine is. If you're dehydrated your urine will be dark. If you just drank a gallon on water it will be clear almost.
THANK YOU!!! I can't believe he dumped a cup of urine directly onto the plant. No wonder the pepper up and died and the lettuce had issues. I've used urine for 20 years.
@@saintmichael3879 🫶
Thought the same thing, used straight pee on a plant once and it died within hours. Figured it just needed to be more dilute. I use MG, but I do like 1/4 the recommended strength and just fertilize more often/as needed. Since your plant basically is forced to absorb chemical fertilizers, I figure consistent low doses are better for the plant, then hitting them hard every 2 weeks.
Also depends on diet
Human urine is a good fertilizer for plants. It is a natural source of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are essential nutrients for plant growth. Urine is also a good source of other trace elements, such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.
Urine can be used as a fertilizer in a variety of ways. It can be diluted with water and applied directly to the soil, or it can be composted and then used as a fertilizer. Urine can also be used to make liquid fertilizer, which is a concentrated form of urine that can be diluted with water and applied to plants.
When using urine as a fertilizer, it is important to dilute it properly. Urine is very concentrated, and if it is not diluted, it can burn plant roots. A good rule of thumb is to dilute urine 10:1 with water.
It is also important to note that urine should not be used on plants that are sensitive to nitrogen, such as tomatoes and potatoes. These plants can be damaged by the high levels of nitrogen in urine.
Overall, human urine is a safe and effective fertilizer for plants. It is a natural source of nutrients, and it is free and easy to obtain. If you are looking for a natural way to fertilize your plants, urine is a good option.
Here are some additional tips for using urine as a fertilizer:
Collect urine in a clean container.
Dilute urine 10:1 with water.
Apply urine to the soil around the plants, not directly on the leaves.
Do not use urine on plants that are sensitive to nitrogen.
Be sure to test the soil pH before applying urine, as urine can lower the pH of the soil.
If you are using urine to make liquid fertilizer, be sure to store it in a cool, dark place.
how about for eggplant?
Excellent reply, sir!
What about urine that is tainted with pharmaceutical drugs? There is nothing natural on pharmaceutical drugs.
From being a fish keeper I understand the nitrogen cycle. Basically pee is ammonia, not great, you want bacteria to convert it first to nitrite, and then to nitrate before you put it on plants. So if you want to a really good fertilizer you want to setup a mini sewage treatment plant in your backyard. When I had my large fresh water aquarium setup I used to pump dirty tank water out onto the lawn and also dump all the muck from cleaning the filters on the lawn.
By the way, next do poop
turns out an engineer makes some of the most easily digestible and informative gardening videos out there!
We are very plain folk 😆
Besides the 10-1-4 application being a bit strong at 1 to 1, better at least 1 to 5 dilution, consider the gradual concentration of salt, NaCl, from your diet. Most of our western diet is a bit rich in salt, tasty in our food, but easy to accumulate in the planting medium. Some folk are learning to moderate the NaCl but most of us use more than MDR 1,500 mg/day. Some plants can tolerate salinity, but not as much as we need, or like, so have to consider that.
Salt! We excrete like 90% of our excess salt through our urine, so it really depends what your diet was like when you filled that jug.
Yeah like if you just added straight fertilizer with no water
Like maybe dont "ferment" ?
Fresh pee vs stagnant pee, may also be a variable?
Salt. Good point 👍
Brawndo's got what plants crave, electrolytes!
Glad you didn't delete this video. Every failure or success must be recorded and now that you've published this on RUclips your theory and results are cast in concrete. Whether your experiment is flawed is for the next RUclipsr to resolve. However you've answered a lot of questions and gave us closure for this. Great experiment you handled this like a real science project thanks for putting this up!
Add wood ass and burnt eggshell to the urine and the plants get much more nutrions.
Or just don't pour it without properly diluting it. Lots of studies were done on this and the piss needs to be dilute with 5-10 parts water. Not poured directly on a plant and then an equal measure of water, which would be 50-50.
I started trying it at home, and I disagree with most of the ratios I see here. I've decided dilution of 30:1 is my baseline. I wouldn't bother going below 20:1, perhaps 15:1 if it's a plant thta can really use the mineral ratios in our bio-product.
Of course, I began this experiment with repotted plants and dracena cuttings, in store bought potting soil. Even though I mixed together all my spent soil, and the unopened stuff, I'm sure it had significant added minerals anyway.
But once I started diluting it much more the results have been pretty good.
No, he did not answer any questions, the whole experiment is so flawed that it is useless. People do not grow anything in sterile coir.
This is the scientific process not a failure! 🙂 The goal of growing healthy plants with only urine failed I suppose. But as an experiment, evidence was obtained that could lead to the next iteration of the experiment. I think millennial gardener was hard on himself saying that.
I loved watching this!! Great experiment!
Keep the video up, along with the comments!
This is how we learn !!
Thank you for your work !
You’re welcome! I appreciate you watching.
I went 100% organic a couple of years ago and I've never had healthier plants than when I began fertilizing with pee! It works wonders for building soil and getting your compost...to compost! lol I do a weak application a couple of times for seedlings and then a stronger feeding or two went the plants are established and that's really all it takes. I'm raking in a massive harvest so far this year. Canning, dehydrating, and freezing my homegrown food every day for the last month or so. Shelves are stacked!
Ah...yep. I grow in the dirt with compost and I remineralize my soil every year with a complete mix.
I think you burnt that poor pepper right up. LOL That way WAY too much pee for those little guys...
you should try applying electroculture. Amazing technology
The moment I got to “weak application”, I could not stop seeing in my head scenes in which I made fun of you for this.
@@JanicePhillipsquick question why is pee diluted by ten parts water but the fertilizer is diluted 1 part to 100?
Yes, i put mine into the compost. Also compost chicken poo ans vegetable scraps.
If you conduct this experiment again, may I suggest that you dilute the urine down 1:10 into a separate container and mix it well before you feed your plants.
In order to dilute the solution down it needs to be properly mixed with water before not after. Essentially you fed your plants full strength urine and washed it down with some water.
Yes, I was surprised to see this as well.
When he poured the 50% urine solution, (and not more diluted to say, 10%) I thought to myself "he's burning those tiny baby roots!"
Well, live and learn...
Is there any way to mitigate the sodium content? Mixing at 1:10 and using it as a supplement fertilizer only reduces your fertilizer cost by 10%.
Also, maybe a little mycorrhizae or lactoferment solution as a mediator would be helpful in both, and might help synthesize whatever nutrients are available in both.
Either way, this was a great experiment, and I'm grateful that he conducted it!
Also if he only used the urine from that 1st collection it would start to turn to ammonia after sitting for time and fermenting.
If you ad a teaspoon of baking soda it will kill the acid in the urine an mix 50/50
@@johnnylambert6003 1 teaspoon of baking soda per gallon of straight urine?
This is why I flush my plants with water before I feed them
Great experiment. Thanks for sharing. You have a great sense of humor. Good video.
You need to add wood ash to the pee for fruit bearing plants. Also, the pee you used was too strong. The ratio is 1 part pee to 10 parts water.
Such a funny way of getting important information out there and I can appreciate you for it.
I can say that urine is all my corn needed one year. It had a few yellowing leaves and I added some of my yellow and it’s yellow disappeared and it was the best corn I’ve ever eaten. I was going to plant it for shade (high desert) and let the deer eat it, but it was so beautiful and delicious I didn’t share with them. I did give them all of my broccoli this year and most of my cabbage 😊 I’m a carnivore.
I should try that cuz I live in high desert too.
yeah since going carnivore i dont grow as much veg. have you seen sun hemp for tall cover crop, deer prolly love it,
I am planning to plant food for rabbits and squirrels on my suburban lot and get myself a pistol crossbow. Seems like the easiest way for a carnivore to get food from their property.
Best venison I ever ate was the one I caught trespassing in my corn patch
Just tell everyone how you did it after they eat it
Not reporting/publishing negative results is a major problem with science. Thanks for sharing regardless of the results.
The urine is great, but not at full strength.. so this confirms what we already know.
It really is a major problem with science, and I'm glad to see other people recognizing it too.
I never expected it to be a complete fertilizer, but I did expect that it had some of what a plant needs. I have had other people tell me that they thought human urine would kill the plants. So this is an interesting experiment to see. Thanks
It works very well as lawn fertilizer. Like really really well.
Great experiment, I think the PEE is an excellent amendment for soil that is already rich (compost etc.) in micro-nutrients, but still probably lacks sufficient N and K since these are required in large amounts. Another item to consider however is that the pepper plant may have been burned. I have come across references to university studies that have concluded that urine needs to be cut by a ration of 8 parts water to 1 part urine to avoid being burned. 50/50 may be too concentrated. Though I still think you are exactly right. Pee simply isn't a stand alone fertilizer, but may be quite useful as an augmentation.
10 or higher to be safe.
This is why you have a fence around your property isn't it..
10’!!! 😂😂😂
😆🤣😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Can't put raw urine on any type of plant. You Oughta try just putting raw chicken shit on a plant see what happens
😅😂
Great informative video! I love doing garden experiments!
A friend gave me some heirloom lettuce sets. I planted them in a planter. He stopped by a few days later an noticed that they were nitrogen deficient by the color of the leaves. He had some commercial fertilizer in his truck and offered me some but I told him I wanted to try diluted urine instead. I did, and in a couple of days the leaves were beautiful.
I was sold.
Add the urine to compost. It helps break the cellulose from wood down to lignins. As far as testing, you could run a parallel test feeding MG to a compost. Then use the compost to grow plants for the experiment.
Tnx, I'm having trouble breaking down compose, will try that next :)
@@Eduardo_Espinozathrow a handful of grass fertilizer on a pile of compost stir it and spray enough water on it to make it damp but not soggy wet.
Drunk compost = Coca-Cola, beer, amonia or to make it
Organic- sugar, yeast, Urine
I tried this and the neighbors complained. Oh wait....I guess you meant collect it first?!? 🙂
Just be careful because this is the basis for some illegal activities. You might get some unwanted guests.
Nice experiment! I would love to see a 2nd version of this experiment with the plants planted outdoors in garden soil to see the results there.
Dude, I absolutely love the part where you faked out with the garden. Hose, that was very comical that was fantastic. You had me for a split second.
Yeah I agree. Definitely a good sense of humor helped with the entertainment factor of this vid. Reminded me of the bro science lifting guy.
Me too. I was impressed by the flow.
🤔
Great video, my bougainvillea plants were blooming when I bought them, last spring but haven’t done anything since..
If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 Using Urine As Fertilizer
2:05 Setting Up The Experiment
4:05 Making The Fertilizers (Rocky Montage)
6:25 Experiment Rules And Fertilizing Plants
9:58 Follow-Up Fertilizing And Progress
10:52 Experiment Results!
12:24 My Explanation Of The Results
17:56 Adventures With Dale
Good info, thank you.
Funniest vid in gardening 😂😂😂
Try #2 next time.
One major mistake is the age of the urine. You should have allowed bacteria to break it down for weeks first. In nature plants don't live in a sterilized environment. They work with nature, not against it.
Bottle up another jug and smell test it a month from now. How do I know you might ask? I live on a farm. Deer repellent.
I'm impressed that you done this though. Seriously! Hats off to you sir.
How about molasses?
Newer flower / rose gardener here. I live in a townhouse that recently allowed me to remove a dying bush from two areas in front of my unit. The plants weren’t doing great. Actually, one perennial flowering plant wasn’t flowering, my Stalk flower weren’t growing tall, my delphinium looked like
Sh!t and my rose was all but dead.
I tested the soil and found the P,K were both “adequate” but the Nitrogen was depleted. I peeeeeeed and diluted it approx 1/10 and watered the garden with that (and cheated with fish emulsion 0-10-10 and bone meal 0-20-0) and I think it works!
Within a few days my rose has new red shoots (red are blooms and not leaves) and my stalk is flowering / growing and the delphinium is growing new shoots.
I also added this to the flowers in an already established garden and same, the rose is going nuts with new shoots. My honeysuckle is flowering like mad and growing new shoots.
I am a believer.
I don’t use Miracle grow as I prefer organic
Alaska Fish Emulsion, Dr earth’s and superthrive.
I'd like to see a part two with:
1. More Samples of seedlings
2. Fresh urine vs aged (test if there is nitrogen gased off due to N cycle)
3. Your local top Soil test instead of no nutrient test, (since is probably how most people will be using it)
4. Intensity and PPM of urine vs MG (I'd like to know if they would perform the same with more diluted more frequent feedings )
So you want more samples, and fresher pee...and you have no idea why that might be a problem.
I've seen the same thing with people who advocate electroculture. When somebody runs an experiment, and conclude thst its bullcrap, everyone has an excuse for why it didn't work.
You have a favored result, and you're embarrased. So you try to discredit.
Where is this guy getting the urine? Is it clean, healthy, pee or not. Is there RX drugs in the pee? What's the person's water/food intake? Miracle grow is poison. That's a fact that's not going to change, but if dude is not taking care of himself and peeing straight medicated acid, he could change what he is doing to see different results.
@@A.E.Lanman777 I love how pissed off people are at his results. Poor babies.
@@A.E.Lanman777Clearly you didn't watch the entire video
He explains in detail where, when and how the urine was collected, What the donor's diet consisted of and what medications could possibly be in it. Why are you asking us to watch the video for you?
Nitrogen in urine does gas off and the nitrogen changes form. Urine is recommended to store air tight and use as fertilizer fresh, that is, within 24 hours. I am also interested to see the results of fresh vs month old.
This was a great video. I think you're on the right track with your micro-nutrient theory. Good science, good conclusion.
Cool test, thanks! Have you used anything like azomite, rock dust, etc?
There is another Chanel that pays for element analysis of that type of trace elements compared to tree leaves and urine and the rock sample had less trace elements than urine or tree leaves
Been a fan for a few years and I must say this is one of your best videos! I laughed out loud multiple times. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Wishing you and Dale all the best.
Brilliant Video. Thanks!
Useful experiment thanks
Hey great video! Good thoughts and point of view, the other thing to consider is the salt load from urine. That amount of salt in coir is like you said, not going to have enough micro nutrients and the salt load could start to effect the roots and ability to absorb the nutrients.
This was a very intelligent and creative gardening experiment. Great work! And thank you for sharing your findings with us! I'm very impressed with your well-spoken conclusions and I love meeting the clever mind behind another great gardener! I look forward to seeing more of your videos.
Wrong... urine has to be digested by soil microbes to be beneficial... not a fair experiment
I will respond under here so maybe it gets seen. So one big problem i see with your experiment @The Millennial Gardener. You use the same scoop with out cleaning it to pour both the pee and the miracle grow into the pots. This was slightly rinsed when you added rain water but you did not do this each time. This is grounds for cross contamination of the different fertilizers and taints the experiment. I applaud the effort and the idea, I suggest a more mindful application of these ideas. I only say this to attempt to assist, not as a knock on your abilities or your channel. I support everything you are doing. I think your doing great, keep it up!
I like to see a repeat of the experiment with a compost tea used to inoculate the roots.
He didn’t use the pee in the right concentration. 1:10 is what I’ve read so he killed it by burning it with too strong a dose. Another person posted that seedlings require even more dilution, 1:20. Using a sample size of one also isn’t scientifically worthy of showing any results anyways. What if the one plant had some root damage from the transplant? He just turned off many ppl from using a free natural fertilizer.
Awesome comparison. Thanks!
You’re welcome!
Great video thanks. Im def gonna experiment
I have never thought of urine as a complete fertilizer though it does contain more than N, P, and K, but another variable is pH, and urine can have a very high pH especially if consuming a lot of veggies. When I was on a very low carb diet, I was checking the pH of my urine daily, and there were times when it was about a 9! Few plants like or can tolerate a high soil pH (tomatoes are very sensitive, in my experience, to strong urine whether that's from high pH or high nitrogen and can easily decline as your experiment showed), and you don't have compost in your mix for helping to buffer the pH of the urine so you will need more water to reduce the PH. I suggest a redo of the experiment with a lower concentration (maybe 10-50%) the whole length of the experiment--just more volume as the plant grows. I believe you said that the plants looked equally healthy for the first two weeks. Perhaps the 2-week mark is when you jumped the concentration.
Another good experiment would be to see how long plants can remain happy on urine alone without supplementing with other nutrients.
The nitrogen content of urine is also affected by diet. I consume a lot of a food that increases nitrogen content.
I agree, a diet very high in whole food plant foods, especially veggies and fruits, tends to leak to high alkalinity in the urine and saliva.
A diet very high animal protein (especially meat) tends to lead to a more acidic urine and saliva. A diet high in junk foods also tends to lead to a more highly acidic urine and saliva. A diet high in both of the just former will tend to lead to a very highly acidic urine and saliva.
My well water is somewhat acidic. Back when I used to grow stuff (gave up because way too much shade, not enough sun), I used to mix fresh urine with a a little epsom salt, some kelp powder, and a very little bit of wood ash, all in a lot of well water.
To throw another spanner into the works, I don't think that coco coir was buffered so it'd probably throw things out of whack short term.
I would enjoy seeing a redo of this experiment using normal garden soil, not inert material. Also, mix the urine and water together first prior to watering. You could be burning the plants with straight urine. (Ever notice a dead patch of grass where a dog peed, which, after recovering from the urine burn, turns dark green and lush ?) My guess is the plants will perform equally well with the revised protocol.
Thanks so much for taking so much time with this test. I had no idea the urine was actually a good fertilizer!
Great experiment! Thanks for that!!
You’re welcome!
Not a well designed or informed "experiment" more entertaining than imformative
The next part of your experiment should be a taste test.
the lettuce or the fertilizer😆
I would think the urine toxicity depends on what the human has been eating.
And their fluid intake and exercise routine. Im a heavy duty water drinker that also sweats a LOT, so my gallon of pee would be MUCH more clear than his was. And if you collect pee right after vigorous workouts, there will be significantly more ammonia in the mix.
Lots of variables with the pee
Also, their meds. I am on some meds that would kill plants. 😂
@@SameCoin12
He explained he was not on any meds
Depends on how fresh the pee it. Very fresh it is sterile and the N is in the form of urea, nontoxic. But let it stand around a while contaminated and it will ferment into ammonia and become toxic. Space agencies are planning to use human pee when growing food or oxygen producing plants for long term space travel.
@7thsluglord363 looking at the thumbnail of apple cider coloured whizz, my first thought was, "My God are you dehydrated!!" Idk maybe it turns brown when it sits?? But that can't be true because I had a barbarian ex who used bottles and they didn't turn brown....
Very interesting. I always wondered about this.
Great videos from one engineer to another 👏🏾
I appreciate that!
This was a GREAT video! The experiment was interesting, full of good information, and also humorous! My husband and I laughed multiple times while watching! 😂 Thank you for all you do, we have learned a lot in the couple months we have been watching your videos.
This teaches a wrong result. The urine needed to be diluted to work, otherwise it would pickle the plant like dog piss pickles the grass. If he used 10 tablespoons of Miracle Grow per gallon it would have been a fair comparison. Entertaining stuff but do it again with 5-10 times diluted pee to show people a meaningful result.
Good video bro. You put a lot of work into this and it shows. Happy gardening.
Good workout. Interesting 🤔 but nasty experiment 😝. Great time at shoreline. And thank you for explaining the end results.
I usually purchase any broken bags of fertilizer at a discount from the Home Depot with a military discount. And save them for a later day when perlite and other broken bags are sold at discount. Then mix them together and generously spread the barrels across the entire garden. And turn the mix into the soil before watering and tarping and leaving covered for two or three weeks to kill of weed growth. Then uncover and begin planting seedlings and seeds.
I have had great yields from our family garden. With the included addition of Miracle Grow after a month and an additional application a month later then no more but fresh water up to harvest. Yummy
Then turn the soil water, tarp and repeat the entire process.
I will be copying your black can composting x2 because you are on it!
Very good explaining of garden success and failures.
Keep up the great sharing., AL
Well done! Thank you. I do add urine to my compost though.
Great experiment. Was thinking that if you took multivitamins and minerals or increased your dosage of them maybe the results might be different with the urine. Just something to consider.
What about Meth?? That gets things done!
I have never in my life been so entertained or laughed so hard on a garden video but yet learned so much!😂
Dude, this is the best garden video I’ve ever seen! That music and preparation for the showdown on Pee vs. MiracleGro had me cracking up
Laughing so loud my cats were looking at me like I am crazy😂
Glad to get this problem solved Thanks for this info
You’re welcome!
Awesome test u run.
Thanks for posting this experiment. I saw another comment on RUclips on another channel that stated that the author's father used only urine and wood ash and had incredible (enviable) yields. I"m sure dilution is important and he was growing in garden soil.
Especially with urine AND woodash, you really have to dilute.
If you chose to do this again next year, I would very much like to see a comparison of the two "fertilizers" with good soil. Perhaps using some garden soil mixed with added perlite for drainage?
Brilliant analysis. Thank you
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.
In the saltwater aquarium hobby, the fish waste needs to be broken down from ammonia into nitrites and then from nitrites to nitrates or usable nitrogen. Same thing happens in a waste treatment plant.
I wonder if you had the bacteria and time to change that urine into usable nutrients, if it would have made a difference.
Exactly thank you!
Can you expound on this?
I want to start using ray aquarium water on my plants..
@@jaimethiessen When fish pee or poop the water becomes toxic when it builds up so you need to add something to the water in the fish tank that dissolves their waste or changes it into something safe for them to swim in because your freshwater or salt water tank is not a real environment.
Ok. Moreso in Saltwater. Freshwater aquarium water can be used directly?
@@jaimethiessen Yes, probably, not sure. Now it makes sense what he said about the soil. The actual earth like real salt water would be able to break it down naturally instead of using somewhat fake soil in planters. Both tanks freshwater and saltwater need to be cleaned for the fish?
Thank you for experiment. I noticed that the urine concentration is way too strong than the MiracleGrow, Urine was dilute 1:1 and MG was diluted more than 1:100, bc the half cup of MG is already diluted. Ideally urine should be 1:10
In addition, nightshade like pepper and tomato seedlings are very sensitive to amonia and they wilt and die with the smallest amount of amonia in soil.
Agree
Yes, the amount of urine should have been a tablespoonful vs half tablespoonful of MG powder both diluted properly per feeding.
but it was very entertaining...
The miracle grow was NOT diluted 1:100. The way miracle grow is labeled so that the NPK ratio on the label represents the ratio after mixing with water. The actual salt granules are very concentrated, and then they are diluted to the labeled NPK when you follow the mixing instructions. So to get half strength miracle grow, you use half the amount of salt granules with the normal amount of water listed.
Likewise, he said that the urine has a natural NPK ratio of like 10-2-4, so to get the miracle grow to match that he had to half the strength of 20-8-16, down to 10-4-8.
He did everything correct, only differences is that he maybe should have used a fertilizer that was originally 20-4-8, that way it would completely match the urine in the NPK ratio after diluting.
@@gabumonboys Thank you for your comment about miracle grow concentration, you are correct, we generally follow the Miracle Grow instruction on how to dilute the fertilizer and it works! which is not the case in urine, what I know is urine contains on average 10-20 grams of Nitrogen per one litre of urine, that a crazy amount of nitrogen. and a considerable amount of this nitrogen is in the form of amonia which is really potent and sometimes toxic to plant especially seedlings if not diluted correctly, which is not the case in this experiment.
Very informative, thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
You obviously already know that your sample size was too small, N=40 is considered a bare minimum for statistically significant results. Also, the urine was way too strong, I have seen it recommended to be applied no more than once per week at a 5% or less solution. I'd like to see such an experiment redone with these considerations.
I was going to say the same thing.
He's an engineer, and they typically work with small sample sizes, for example when doing materials stress and strain testing, or failure analysis. They believe the small sample is a pretty close approximation of the population. A real scientist (that is, not an engineer) knows that ain't so. Even a biologist, with limited math skills, knows enough to make the sample size large enough to yield statistically significant results, and would verify a conclusion by hiring a statistician to validate the work.
exactly what I was thinking
@@DanielinLaTuna Engineers typically work with HUGE quantities, for example when making 10 Million mobile phones or 10 million cinderblocks and do pull a few here and there for quality checks (and yes, they understand the math involved in sampling and testing.) An engineer gets fired if they don't know their math inside and out because the thing doesn't work. Perhaps you are basing your impression of engineers on too small a sample size, or perhaps you have been faking your data in a rush to get your papers published.
@@asicengineer thank you! My dad is an engineer. Let’s just say without his work, and those who work with him, the military would have a lot of training accidents.
that, and down here in Australia native plants suffer from phosphorus toxicity as we have a primitive soil.
I am in a FB group for tomato growing. there they recommend 10 to 15% urine in the water. the advantage is that it is free
He used full strength urine for his test. He should have used about 3tbsp of urine in his gallon test solution diluted with water. He used 1.5tbsp of miracle grow diluted with water for the other solution. Remember that urine was about half as strong as the miracle grow powder according to several sources so he should have used twice as much urine by weight as he did miracle grow by weight. That is what the problem was. Full strength urine is about a hundred times as strong as his MG diluted solution.
Subscribed. Looking forward to next years human manure experiment.
It may be awhile for that experiment 🔬
loved this, and all good! the micronutrient thought makes sense.
Interesting experiment. Thank you! Please also consider doing the experiment in living soil (your normal garden soil, topped-dressed w some compost soil)? It would be interesting to see if urine would do better where there is active soil life/biology all around it to diffuse it & break it down, maybe helping the plants utilize it's micro-nutrients better. My garden plants do very well this way & it's lowered disease & pest pressure.
Active soil life is assumed, but not always correctly, it my intention to work with the naturally occurring microbes in the soil. There is the emerging field of regenerative ag which deals with soil biology.
“Babe I’m not drunk I’m just fertilizing the garden”
Thank you, I have wondered about this as well. My neighbor uses urine, although I never asked how it is used or if it is combined with other fertilizers, but I appreciate your test! I think I will stick with my Miracle Grow!
I like your comparative method.
I would love to see pee vs nothing just to see how much it helps
Need a control without any fertilizer.
There are more videos.
It helps so much you wouldn’t believe. Try it out you will be amazed. I use 1 liter of urine and 8 liters of water. Actually there is nothing better than urine
@@Vertikala-pc5ig The harsh reality is that most commercial fertilizers have salts in them. They seem good in the short run, but it kills the biology in the soil in the long run. Requiring even more fertilizer later.
I'm gonna try it, nothing to lose 😂
I appreciate that you decided to post anyway. You've contributed data to humanity.
Age of the urine matters. Notice old pee smells like ammonia? Duh 🙄
Results need updating to allow for this variable.
Great video!
Thanks!
Loved the video lol, anything for science, only thing you're missing is a control setting with plants just getting water.
I think urine is still fine to use but you have to use it as a supplement only. For example use miracle grow or whatever you normally do but then also mix urine in diluted with water when you are watering other times.
It's not compete until you harvest and sample the product to see which tastes better. Come on, take one for the team. 🙂 Btw, the P should have been kept on the fridge, because warm temps damage any vitamins and minerals that may have been in it. I would also guess that fermented P can't be a good fert either.
Urine should be stored in a cool dark area and fermented for 30 days for sterility before use for agricultural purposes.
Urine at room temperature converts to ammonia.
You can see my videos of a garden fertilized with urine.
Human wee is used by those wishing to dye with plant-sourced indigo dyes by purely natural means (ie without industrially-produced chemicals). It is referred to as a Sig vat, and the chemical changes needed are caused by the fermentation of human urine ... very interesting process.
I was having issues growing some plants on my soil. Once I tested, it turned out they were low in Zinc. I didn't even know that was a thing. The micronutrients explanation makes sense. May be adding the micronutrients they may be more compatible.
What have you been eating Dude! Thanks for sharing your experiment!
I use human urine in my compost piles. It is mixed with hen house liter and veggie stalks including corn stalks. I do have good luck with this, and believe it is better than direct addition to a plant.
Urine kicks compost into high gear.
I'm curious if salt content in pee had an effect.
He used full strength urine for his test. He should have used about 3tbsp of urine in his gallon test solution diluted with water. He used 1.5tbsp of miracle grow diluted with water for the other solution. Remember that urine was about half as strong as the miracle grow powder according to several sources so he should have used twice as much urine by weight as he did miracle grow by weight. That is what the problem was. Full strength urine is about a hundred times as strong as his MG diluted solution.
If you have that much salt in yer pee, yer garden is th least of yer worries. Just don't pee in th same place all th time.
I developed wrlds best garden system. Chicken wire vases lined with leaves. Can dip in water to save water. Mulch all surfaces, breathes better, roots grow beneath vase or if lay on side, endless advantages mobile garden. Plants exploding in these vases. Cut 32" x 48" give u 20" tall 4gallon pot, dynamite (shaped long root system)
Plant tomatoe 1gallon dirt, add dirt as tomatoe grows so stem forms more&more roots.
Ocean water is same as human womb. Plants like it. Heals cuts fast. Table salt poison.
Very interesting study. Would like to see more studies. Thanks.
You're welcome!
No experiment survives first contact with data, but it was a relaxing pleasure to watch you go through the process. Or at least the first iteration of the process; I'd value an experiment to test your hypothesis about missing nutrients, and the many commenters' hypothesis that half diluted urine is too harsh.
This was an good experiment, thank you. I was wondering if you had considered adding a control plant as a third category by feeding it just water? This could be compared to the urine to see what the urine did to aid in growth.
I have the same question / request for a water-only control group.
I'd be interested in a follow-up experiment comparing inert medium to potting soil and/or untreated compost or soil from the yard.
If the pee-plants do much better on pre-fertilised potting soil it would further strengthen the hypothesis that urine is lacking in one or more micronutrients.
Great video! Thanks! Greetings from Ireland :D
You're welcome!
What were you growing with ?? It didn't look like dirt !! If u could give the info I would appreciate it 👍👍🖐✌👈❗👉🐸❗
Any chance you might revisit this, but use a mix of urine and fish meal instead of just urine?
That would go some way to address the nutrient imbalance.
I do use some urine but add it to my compost bins to keep them moist rather than putting it straight on the plants.
If you don't do it - I might have to 😄
I would be very interested in your results if you do it.
Thank you for the ten-minute long entertaining advertisement for miracle grow. Great job with controlling all the parameters of the experiment
Exactly. It wasn't an experiment it was a 'how not to use urine as a fertiliser' demonstration. Urine should be used fresh and diluter 10:1 with water.
So interesting. My vegetable garden is 99 percent organic. I say 99 % as once in a while it do use a tiny bit of Miracle Gro. during periods of plant stress. Thanks.
My question is. Did the plants start going downhill before or after you went to full-strength?
I'm wondering the same thing.
@@jennifereverettgrowsfoodor1598 We are probably going to have to keep wondering. My guess is you're thinking that he burnt the plants when he went to full strength. It certainly makes more sense to me than the video.
@@victorb145 I have killed plenty of young tomato plants with full strength before I knew better. Probably too much nitrogen and/or the pH was too high. Diluted is a requirement for success.
@@jennifereverettgrowsfoodor1598 Your spittin facts. But it's not like I was going to start using urine on my plants anyway. The the dog and cats like using the flower bed, but if it was a garden they wouldn't be allowed.
Millennial Gardener providing a valuable community service 👍👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@TheMillennialGardenera week of good pee wasted on a pee plant I wonder how that pee plant tasted like 😂😅?? Very pissy
Thankyou. To overcome the limitations of urine I process it by putting it over my garden compost pile - not only does it speed up the process but super charges it.
That was a great video, and I think your method seemed pretty solid. That being said, MiracleGro I think is meant to provide "complete" nutrition where soil biology is lacking. If you were to try repeating this experiment, maybe try adding the soil biology to that inert coco-coir/perlite mix. You wouldn't be adding an additional fertilizer per se to the experiment because what the biology is doing is just making whatever is there accessible to plants. (I could go on a very long rant about this, but I don't want to write you an unasked-for essay in your comments, lol).
The main problem here is dosage. By nature p is a great herbicide. If you want to get rid of weeds in your yard and don't want to use weed killer, 99% of the time it kills anything that you have growing you want to kill. At least in my experience that's the case. When it's full strength or half.
The only time that urine actually makes good for fertilizer when it's one part urine to 10 part water. Other than that it doesn't work as it's too strong.
Urine is actually toxic enough to kill athletes foot fungus.
I've used white vinegar to kill weeds between the bricks in my patio, but only because I didn't want the lingering odor of human urine in our seating area. I have used possible further out to discourage rodents, though.
I haven't been able to kill any weeds where I whizz, but I shall keep trying
He used full strength urine for his test. He should have used about 3tbsp of urine in his gallon test solution diluted with water. He used 1.5tbsp of miracle grow diluted with water for the other solution. Remember that urine was about half as strong as the miracle grow powder according to several sources so he should have used twice as much urine by weight as he did miracle grow by weight. That is what the problem was. Full strength urine is about a hundred times as strong as his MG diluted solution.
I LOVE when gardeners test what they are talking about, not just passing on "here-say". This was so interesting. Great montage too 😂
Hearsay
It's only a partial test. I'm willing to bet that in good soil, you don't normally need either. And when there's a shortage, the pee solution will work perfectly. The soil and all the organisms in it provide the micronutrients (and some of the macros). Do this experiment with 3 containers, all in proper gardening soil. We're not at farm scale where the soil can be leeched over years and years of use, so I don't think we need to supplement. I grow hot peppers every year, and I usually forget to feed them at all. They still come out amazing and burn your face off.
@@Arthur327327 always love the spell checkers- what would we do without you in the comment section 🤷
Interesting test
Is urine any good at catalyzing the composting process? Have used it to break down maple and oak leaves. Seemed to work well.
Something I was wondering as well
The best thing about using urine for fertilizer is you can always find it, even in a grid down situation. You have to understand that you have to water urine down at a 1:10 ratio, in order to not burn your plants. And you can use it very regularly. Just remember all medications will be present in the urine. So if you take medications don't use your pee on your plants. Vitamins are ok
But what about the table salt you are eating?
A relative of mine was collecting his urine in a bottle because of health problems, so he wanted to know how much and when he produced. And because it was already in a bottle, he wanted to fertilze the garden with it. The average male here is said to eat about 10g (1/3 oz) sodium chloride per day, but he eats a lot of salt, so even if he loses some of it by sweating, let's calculate with 10g per day. In a month, it would amount to 300g (more than 10 oz). I would not dare to spread so much salt in the garden. Fields were made barren with salt in ancient times of war...
Exactly! 😊
The medications are no problem. They will break down in the soil. Even nasty herbicides like aminopyralids break down over time (they say in as little as 2 weeks in perfect soil conditions, but it's probably usually longer). The main concerns are the strength, as you mentioned, and also salt buildup, which takes time to show up as an issue when using a weak salt solution like urine. If it's used infrequently enough, the salt will have time to get washed out of the soil and you won't have any problems. It's only when the concentration in the soil gets too high that the plants start to suffer.
Yep, Miracle-Gro heavy metals are also in your plants. And you are what you eat.
@@christineedwards4865 aminopyralids don't break down in two weeks. Gardeners who have been getting hay, straw and animal manures that were grown with grazon it's being killing their gardens for 3-5 years before they can get anything besides grass to grow there. It's becoming a huge problem it doesn't break down when digested by the animal, or composted after. Or as mulch sitting in the sun. The best way to test the manure or mulch is to try to grow bean plants in it. Tomatoes as well. Tomatoes will come up start to produce then wilt and die. grazon and 2,4 d are horrible chemicals.
As far as medications they are less of a issue but still one. City water is full of hundreds of medications because they recycle the water from treatment plants back into the water supply and it doesn't break down. so most people are getting micro dosed with anti depressants/ anti psychotics, and birth control hormones among many other things as they drink cook and bathe in the water. I'm so glad I have a well and was grandfathered in to where I never have to hook to city water.
Would be interesting to run this experiment again (larger sample size, obvs) but have you take multi-vitamin tablets every day. Excess minerals will be excreted along with the usual nitrogen, potassium etc and might make up for the deficiencies.
Multivitamin tablets are not to be overconsumed.
Yes also . Health of urine is dependant on what the human consumes - foods and Water ! along with their health !
It deff deters some Cats from gardens tho 🤣👀
As a nerdy scientist (of the healthcare variety) and 30+ year organic grower, i loved this experiment. i also think your conclusions are sound. As an organic vs conventional grower, i've gone on the idea of feed the soil and the soil feeds the plant vs a more conventional idea of feeding the plant without considering the soil. For instance, an objection to conventional practices is that petrochemically manufactured fertilizers and pesticides often kill of beneficial elements in the soil (like earthworms). i restored a historical house/farm in Virginia that had been growing tobacco since the 1700's and the soil was dead as a door nail, couldn't find an earthworm to save my life. i brought in semi truck loads of compost, was spraying molasses on the dirt, all sorts of weird stuff to try and restore a natural biome. Why? Because ultimately, i think nature is more practiced and smarter than we humans. Of course, we are a part of nature, so i think we can have beneficial input, but i think it wiser to consider ourselves as a part of nature vs taking all of nature into our hands and trying to control it in a reductionist manner (and i think conventional farming can venture there). To wit, i think the variable that doesn't quite fit in your experiment is the use of a sterile growing medium, for the exact reasons you identify, all those micro nutrients that more possibly exist in soil, but do not in a sterile growing medium. Miracle grow, and other fertilizer manufacturers have also noted this and include some of that stuff in their fertilizers. i think the question of whether a manufacturing process can beat nature is a question that would better be answered using more of nature in the experiment... i.e., as you note, planting everything in garden soil. Of course, in that kind of experiment, it would be impossible to identify all the variables/confounders of the garden soil... but if garden soil vs sterile medium is where we are all, or most, are gardening, i'd argue it would be a more useful experiment for gardening and gardeners. Also, another thought is the MG is a standardized, consistent product, urine is not. Urine is the bodies way of getting rid of stuff it doesn't need. i appreciate you consider that when you speak of eating a whole foods diet, no meds, processed food. Still, kidneys help keep things like potassium and phosphorus in balance. E.g, in healthcare we give phosphate binders to our patients who's kidneys aren't working right and not regulating phosphate well. I.e., the human body as a fertilizer producer is a variable. Either way, great stuff, thanks for doing this.