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Re: Urine in compost heaps.

Square Foot Gardening List - http://myweb.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Both links work John, I checked them first. But sure, here's what they say.

Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
Handmade Projects
Tokyo
http://journeytoforever.org/

 
>Keith
>
>Sorry could not open the sites you mentioned, would welcome a precis of
>answer to my quaetion.
>
>
>Many thanks,
>
>
>John
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Keith Addison <keith@journeytoforever.org>
>To: Square Foot Gardening List <sqft@listbot.com>
>Sent: 12 October 2000 02:18
>Subject: Re: Urine in compost heaps.
>
>
> > >In some books one sees the use of urine recommended as an activator on
> > >compost heaps.
> > >
> > >Does anyone follow this practice and if so, what quantities are
>considered
> > >adequate
> > >
> > >John Harris


Making compost - Adding liquids (scroll down):
http://journeytoforever.org/compost_make.html

Adding liquids

The best form of liquid addition for compost is what some composters 
primly call Household Compost Activator. Other people call it urine. 
Don't be coy about it -- this is what should happen to urine rather 
than wasting it by flushing it down the toilet. Develop a 
self-righteous attitude about not wasting it -- but don't shout about 
it too loud, modern city people like neighbours and so on can be 
funny about these things, what they don't know won't hurt them.

First, urine is sterile. Second, it contains the drainage of every 
cell in the body -- it's crammed with minerals and vitamins. Third, 
it contains a lot of nitrogen -- that's one reason that it's silly to 
buy nitrogen (there are others).

It shouldn't prove too difficult to arrange to have a few litres of 
Household Compost Activator set by when it's time to make the 
compost. You can use it neat, or mix it 50-50 with water, and add a 
capful of seaweed emulsion while you're at it. Use a sprinkling can.

For further information and reassurance on this matter:
http://gate.gtz.de/gate_mag/gate_95_3/texte/focus_7.html#noframes



See Container Farming - Organic food production in slums of Mexico 
City by Rodrigo A. Medellín Erdmann
http://gate.gtz.de/gate_mag/gate_95_3/texte/focus_7.html#noframes

Container Farming

Organic food production in slums of Mexico City
by Rodrigo A. Medellín Erdmann

By the middle of the 1990s, forty million Mexicans - nearly half the 
total population - fell below the poverty line. And of these at least 
15 million live in extreme poverty - above all in urban marginal 
areas like the slums of Mexico City. Some seven years ago ANADEGES a 
group of some 20 autonomous NGOs launched a project to help the 
people there to develop their own autonomous capacity to produce food 
organically in small backyards or patios, balconies, roof tops - as a 
way to partially counteract the poverty being imposed upon them.

The technology had to address four constraints: little or no land, 
little or no investment in infrastructure, no purchase of chemical 
inputs and be light weight for roof top cultivation.

Three years were spent in a quasi-experimental stage. It is important 
to point out that these experiments were actually a trial and error 
process by an amateur with no agronomic training. An expert would 
have probably taken a much shorter time. On the other hand, an expert 
agronomist would probably not have dared to experiment with such 
lowly technology. During the last four years, the project has been 
introduced to several hundred families in six different slum areas of 
the city.

The starting point was a cultivation technology developed by Dr. 
Barbara Daniels in California, USA, in a nutshell: vegetables are 
grown in drainless containers ideally with 18 to 20 liters capacity - 
stuffed with deciduous tree leaves or grass clippings up to 4/5ths of 
their capacity, topped by a three to five centimeter layer of good 
soil, where seeds are planted, or seedlings are transplanted. On the 
wall of the container, five to ten centimeters from the bottom, a 
hole is bored for drainage the container thus maintains a water 
reservoir at the bottom. Finally, a stick is inserted right down to 
the bottom, that is used to measure the containers humidity as you 
would the oil in a car. A container thus prepared, weighs far less 
than one filled with regular soil.

The best organic fertilizer: urine

The key to this technology is fertilization. While chemical 
fertilizers can be used, Dr.Daniels suggests a much better 
alternative: an organic, domestically produced high power fertilizer. 
Regarding fertilizer, considering the expense of commercially 
prepared fertilizers, the amount needed for a full-size deck garden 
and the fact that many of them dont work well, I have found that 
urine is the best fertilizer for this system. The decaying leaf 
medium breaks it down almost instantly so that there is never any 
odor, and germ survival in material such as this has been shown to be 
practically nil. We call this liquid organic fertilizer (LOF).

The LOF, a key element in this technology, is abundant, with no cost, 
and easy to manufacture.

For several years the aim was to obtain empirical results in terms of 
low cost organic production of vegetables. During this time no 
thought was given to scientific experimentation. Consequently the 
results were gradually observed and understood in a merely empirical 
fashion, with little quantified data. We arrived at five main 
findings:

1.	Plants grew more rapidly, bigger and healthier than those 
grown with conventional agricultural techniques. Less water was 
needed.
2.	In the case of plants that produce edible leaves lettuce, 
spinach, Swiss chard, chives, parsley, quintoniles (Amaranthus 
hybridus), quelites (Chenoponium album), verdolagas (Portulaca 
oleracea) and all types of herbs - the produce was outstanding. 
Leaves were big and bright dark green in color. Particularly 
remarkable was the nopal (Opuntia sp.), a cactus with big, green, 
prickly, pallet-like edible leaves actually transformed stems, tender 
and fleshy (pencas in Spanish) very much appreciated in Mexico. It 
has excellent nutritious value it has been called the Aztec beefsteak 
and serves as a natural medicine for example, for diabetes.
3.	Some fruit bearing plants, specially hot peppers essential in 
the Mexican diet grew well and produced abundantly; but were not as 
hot as those conventionally grown.
4.	Other fruit-bearing plants did beautifully in their early 
stages, but rather poorly in terms of fruits. Such was the case of 
tomatoes, green tomatoes (Physalis pubescens), squash, beans, 
cauliflower, cucumber.
5.	Some experimentation was made with root plants, but not much, 
since the containers being used had a relatively small diameter, and 
could accommodate too few plants. There were good results with 
rad-ishes. However, people would certainly be interested in onion and 
garlic. Carrots are usually so inexpensive in the market, it is not 
cost effective to cultivate them.


Other intriguing features: all plants did particularly well in their 
early stages; they proved remarkably resistant to insects, pests and 
diseases.

A warm bed for the plants

The next stage was to understand these first results, and to look for 
ways of improving them. In short:

*	LOF was an excellent source of nitrogen (N), readily 
absorbable by the plant. This was why the leaves did so well.
*	In this technology there was a deficiency of phosphorus (P) 
and potassium (K); no idea about minor nutrients;
*	The initial process inside the container was a very intensive 
anaerobic composting, which raises temperatures this acted as a warm 
bed that helped plants in their early growing stages.


More puzzling was the resistance of plants to pests and diseases. In 
one instance, a set of tomato plants was growing near a tree heavily 
infested with the white fly. Many of these insects would fly around 
the plants ordinarily so prone to being attacked by them but not one 
landed on the leaves. They simply flew back to the tree. Eventually, 
an article in a German scientific journal gave us the clue. The 
composting process taking place inside the container produced 
substances that helped the plants become not only stronger, but also 
resistant to pests. An added bonus.

At the end of a year, the composted leaves had turned into a 
beautiful, rich soil. Each container produced enough soil to supply 
the top five centimeter layer in ten new containers, or for any other 
use.

If the technology was to be really useful to people, the missing 
elements had to befound. What was needed was a cheap, abundant, 
readily available, organic source of P and K, like we already had of 
N. Furthermore, these two major nutrients had to be immediately 
absorbable by plants, since their life cycle was so short: three or 
four months. It was not the case of some organic matter that could be 
mixed with soil to be decomposed over several months or years.

As is usually the case, the solution was found by chance, to a 
certain extent. For other reasons Anadeges began to experiment with 
worm raising, the type that process organic waste red worms (Eisenia 
foetida). Eventually we realized their castings were exactly what we 
were looking for. They contain the P and K the plants need, readily 
absorbable, and can be produced abundantly and at no cost by the 
families themselves. Between LOF, worm castings and decaying leaves, 
plants also have enough minor nutrients. An additional environmental 
bonus: kitchen refuse could be recycled, instead of thrown into the 
garbage.

The aim of the project was to benefit families. Consequently, it was 
proposed to them once results were sufficiently satisfactory, without 
waiting for perfection. The lack of organic P and K was temporarily 
supplied with chemical fertilizers. It was important to checkup on 
their acceptance specially of LOF. In the last four years, the 
project was implemented among several hundred families in six slum 
areas of Mexico City.

For this stage, the project received partial financial support from 
GATE-ISAT in Germany and the St. Nikolaus Foundation in Sweden. A 
Mexican chain of supermarkets agreed to give the project all their 
used containers we had to collect them and clean them which was a 
great boost. We tried, but could not get any support from local 
Mexican government agencies at that time.

The projects lessons
 

LOF was easily accepted, even though it was a conclusion reached 
through a quasi-maieutic dialogue: "We can make an agreement with 
mother earth, to give her what we no longer need, and ask her to 
provide us with what we need. What is it that we no longer need? 
etc"; along with a medical explanation confirming that urine is a 
clean and pure substance, and properly fermented is harmless.

To be constant in the care of a vegetable garden specially to 
overcome the difficulties in the early stages - people need to have 
more than one of the following motivations, amongst others:

*	availability of food to improve nutrition,
*	economic savings
*	a nice hobby for the whole family
*	healthier, fresher organic food
*	recuperation of agricultural skills - most elders come from 
rural communities
*	closer contact with nature
*	increased political independence from government assistance
*	ecological concerns: recycling of garbage, containers
*	plants as house ornaments
*	relaxation from urban stress
*	friendship and meetings with other women raising plants.


People were willing to pay a price equivalent to costs for the 
implementing agency. In turn, during the first year families should 
harvest produce at least equivalent to the price they paid. This 
would eventually make the project self-financing.

It was mostly women that were interested in container vegetable 
gardening. And it is always a community activity. Besides food 
plants, women from slum areas began to request ornamental flowers and 
trees. We readily complied.

It is important to work in an organized context, so the implementing 
agency does not need to bear the burden of organizing people.

There should be relative tranquillity in the community, for people to 
dedicate enough time to their gardens. If there is political or other 
kind of unrest, people tend to be distracted and disregard their 
plants.

Conclusions

Further experimentation with the more complete fertilization system 
is necessary. In this context, soil pH is a variable that has to be 
better understood. We also plan more experimentation with worm feed 
to include substances that could increase the percentage of P and K 
in the castings.

The project will expand to many more families and slum areas. At this 
stage some form of government support is likely, to open new areas, 
and to tackle other aspects of the project such as:

*	Utilization of discarded tires turned inside out, to be used 
as wide mouth containers with greater capacity excellent for root 
plants. This would also address a staggering ecological problem in a 
city like Mexico with literally mountains of used tires.
*	A shift from an artisan to an industrial production system 
with several production lines: plants, containers, worms, tires. A 
drive to reach the financial break-even point, and achieve 
self-financing for the whole operation.
*	Start experimenting with backyard animals.


The project has been successful in perfecting a technology to 
cultivate vegetables in containers organically, with no industrial 
external inputs - by utilizing readily available, zero-cost waste 
matter and discarded containers. It is a sustainable urban 
agriculture system easy to expand, that can help people recover their 
autonomous capacity to reach a certain degree of self-sufficiency in 
food production. But much more needs to be done.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:

Barbara Daniels, Growing Plants in Containers: new guidelines for a 
deck garden. Multicopied. Fairfax, Ca., 1981. On several occasions 
the project tried to get in touch with Dr. Daniels, but could never 
locate her.

Tränkner, Andreas, Kompostextrakte kontra Schadenpilze, in Garten 
Organisch, 4/1990, pp. 13-15.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rodrigo A. Medellín Erdmann is a sociologist who has been working 
with campesino and Indian communities and organizations in Mexico 
since 1974. He is a co-worker of ANADEGES - "Autonomy, 
Dezentralization and Self-management" - created in 1982. One of the 
institutions of the group, Cedicar, manages the project described 
here.


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