Similar uses for both Coffee Grounds and Urine
What do coffee grounds and human urine have in common? Both are useful and abundant natural forms of fertilizer which don’t have to be bought. Natural fertilizers of course are materials that contain plant nutrients obtained from the remains of an organism, while synthetic chemical fertilizers are nutrients produced from inorganic materials. This article does not address the issue of what are the positive and negative aspects of chemical versus natural fertilizers. It is explained here as to how two household ingredients viz., coffee grounds and urine, can be used as a replacement for commercial fertilizers.
Urine Urine is an excellent source of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the three major plant nutrients. For use in fertilizer, it is also available in the ideal chemical form liquid. Except in certain specific cases, urine should be diluted before being used as a fertilizer to reduce its high acidic levels. Utilize gray water or rainwater to dilute urine is a terrific choice. The dirty water the drains out of sinks, showers, and washing machines is known as gray water. It is a completely hazard-free supply of water for irrigating purposes. The traces of detergent phosphates it often contains are a valuable fertilizer for plants, but when gray water flows into rivers and lakes, phosphate traces become pollutants. Nitrate-rich urine combined with phosphate-rich gray water produce a balanced liquid fertilizer for all kinds of plants.
Mix water and urine in the following ratios (determined by their application):
* Ten to 15 parts water to one part urine if it is to be applied on plants in the growth stage.
*Use a solution of thirty -fifty parts water to one part urine if you will be using it for potted plants. Fertilizers are more effective on potted plants.
*You may use one part urine to three parts water, in case to use urine as soil fertilizer.
* Urine may also be used as a fungicide on trees because it contains urea. In this case, you should use one part urine to three parts water. Without damaging your tree leaves or the trees themselves, this product will rid the fungus from the your trees.
Human urine is completely sterile and does not contain any bacteria. Neither the urine from a person infected with Bilharzia, Typhoid Fever or any kind of urinary tract infections, should be used to fertilize plants. The first of these, Bilharzia, rarely exists outside of tropical aquatic climates. The Typhoid Fever causing bacteria is deactivated very shortly after excretion.
The best urine to use as fertilizer is fresh having been created within the past 24 hours. If not used right away, the urea in urine will turn into ammonia, which can burn plants. In addition, you shouldn’t apply urine as fertilizer for plants that will be eaten at least two weeks prior to harvest, and remember to use it beneath fruit trees instead of on the fruit and leaves.
Urine that is a few hours old is a great activator for compost heaps.
China, Zimbabwe, and Mexico for example are several countries have and are installing urine fertilization projects. However this solution will not work only for third world countries. In Sweden and Finland researchers concluded that human urine can be a very high-quality plant fertilizer.
Some advantages of using urine as a natural liquid fertilizer are:
* Reducing sewage pollution by reducing gray water in sewer or septic systems
* Using human urine would help reduce water consumption like toilet flushing
* Some professionals believe that human urine is a more effective fertilizer than sewage compost since sewage sludge contains organic and inorganic chemical contaminants and pathogenic microorganisms.
* Human urine is absolutely free
Coffee Grounds:Though their use is usually limited to private gardens and houseplants, used coffee grounds can be used both as a plant fertilizer and as a cat and pest repellent. Before watering plants, you should put a layer of coffee grounds in the soil surrounding them. Next, the old coffee grounds will gradually break down and release nitrogen. Used coffee grounds may also be diluted in water, preferably gray water, for use as a liquid fertilizer at about pound of used grounds to five gallons of water.
Use coffee grounds about once a month to fertilize vegetable beds, houseplants and flowers. You may then mix the used and dried grounds right with your dirt.
As pest repellent, used coffee grounds can be mixed with orange peels or eggshells and scattered around vegetable or flowerbeds edges. Apparently, slugs and snails don’t like caffeine. An easy inexpensive way to kill almost all slugs and a large proportion of snails is a spray solution that contains 2% caffeine. Felines steer clear of the scent of oranges as well as coffee.
Like urine, adding used coffee grounds to compost heaps will increase their nitrogen content and hasten the breaking-down, or ripening, process.
Clearly human urine and used coffee grounds in use as a natural plant fertilizer isn’t a 21st century scientific discovery. It is just one example of the many natural methods of doing things modern man had thought to improve upon and that is now being re-discovered.