Third Post (30 June 2008)

It's been almost two weeks since my last post. Well, as you can see, a lot has changed.

There are flowers on the potato plants, which means the tubers are forming below the surface. (Which also means that I need to add more compost around the plants tomorrow)

There are a few rogue peppers forming on the store-bought transplants.

The beet foliage looks very healthy and colorful.

The sweet corn is well past my knee and we still have four more days until
the 4th of July.

Overall, I'm very impressed and surprised that everything is doing so well. Oh--I also abandoned the urine as a fertilizer idea. It is far too time consuming and inconvenient. I've opted for a traditional all purpose (12-12-12) fertilizer, which I've only put on the corn so far.

Second Post

I spent most of today weeding--the rain and hot weather has made the little bastards sprout everywhere. I also spread a little composted cow manure around the potatoes.

I did some research last night about the nitrogen content of human urine, because I knew it contained urea and ammonia which are super high in nitrogen. This is what I came up with: "Human urine obtained from separating toilets was tested as a fertiliser for cultivation of outdoor cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in a Nordic climate. The urine used contained high amounts of nitrogen with some phosphorus and potassium, but numbers of enteric microorganisms were low even though urine had not been preserved before sampling. The cucumber yield after urine fertilisation was similar or slightly better than the yield obtained from control rows fertilised with commercial mineral fertiliser. None of the cucumbers contained any enteric microorganisms (coliforms, enterococci, coliphages and clostridia). In the taste assessment, 11 out of 20 persons could recognise which cucumber of three cucumbers was different but they did not prefer one over the other cucumber samples, since all of them were assessed as equally good." --Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN 70211 Kuopio, Finland

Here is a list of all substances contained in urine:

• Non-organic substances in the urine: bicarbonate, chloride, phosphorus, sulphur, bromide, fluoride, iodide, rhodanide, potassium, natron, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, cobalt, selenium, arsenium, lead, mercury.

• Nitrogenous substances in urine nitrogen, urea, creatine, creatinine, guanidine, choline, carnitine, piperidine, spermidine, dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, tryptamine, levulinique amino-acid, bilirubin, and so on.

• Amino acids in the urine: alanine, carnosine, glycine, histidine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, serine, tyrosine, valine, hydroxyloproline, galactosylhydroxylyzine, xylosylserine, and others.

• Protein in the urine: albumin, haptoglobin, transferrin, immunoglobulins IgG, IgA, IgM, and others.

• Enzymes in the urine: lactadehydrogenase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, alpha amylase, uropepsinogene, lysozyme, beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase, urokinase, protease, and others.

• Carbohydrates (sugars) in the urine: arabinose, xyloseribose, fucose, rhammose, ketopentose, glucose, galactose, mannose, fructose, lactose, sucrose, fucosylglucose, raffinose, and others.

• Substances devoid of nitrogen in the urine: wide assortment of organic acids

• Vitamins in urine: thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B6, 4-pyridoxique acid, nicotinic acid, vitamin B12, biopterine, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and others.

From Wikipedia


So, urine is sterile, full of nutrients, organic, and best of all--it is free! Sounds like a good deal... This morning I took a piss in an old plastic container and diluted it approximately 1:20 with water. The only problem with this method is that it only produced enough liquid fertilizer to cover one row of corn. Not to mention that I have to walk from the basement to the garden with a big jug of piss. Another added benefit that I could foresee would be that it might keep away the rabbits and other pests, and the unmetabolized nicotine might act as an organic pesticide.

Another thing I'd like to mention here is that I'm only applying this to the soil around the plants and not on the plants themselves, so its not like anyone is going to be ingesting straight urine. Although this might seem like a weird practice, the Chinese have been doing this for ages with no ill effects.

First Post

Hey Everyone,

This is my garden. Well, most of it... In total, I have over 500 square feet of growing space. I'm growing basil, beets, carrots, cilantro, corn, dill, eggplant, onion, oregano, parsley, peas, peppers, potatoes, sage, salsify, soybeans, spinach, swiss chard, zucchini, and probably 5 other things that I can't remember or haven't planted yet.

The purpose of this blog is purely to document my first attempts at gardening.

I'm hoping to take pictures often to get sort of a time-lapse effect to see the progress (or lack-there-of) during the season.