Gardens will supply a large portion of our food after TSHTF. Those who already garden know that, in many cases, additional amendments and plant foods/fertilizers are necessary for a good crop. While a compost pile will help a great deal in keeping your soil in good shape, there are many other sources for fertilizers/plant foods that will be easily accessible after TSHTF. I’ll detail several of them and the manner in which to make and/or use them in this article.
The Acronym NPK stands for Nitrogen/Phosphorous/Potassium. I’ll include NPK where applicable for more experienced gardeners wondering about the values.
Human Urine:
Human urine contains nitrogen, phosphates, and potassium (NPK approximately 12/1.1/3.3, varies by individual). These are the big three that plants need to grow. It is sterile when it comes out of the body as well. Urine by itself is far too concentrated to use directly on plants. It can be used directly in a compost pile (simply pour it over the top) or it can be diluted with water and used on the plants themselves. A minimum of eight parts water should be mixed with one part urine. You may need to use more water depending on your urine. I recommend testing the mixture on a small patch or single plant to insure that your mixture is not too strong.
If the urine will not be used shortly after it comes out then it should be stored in a sealable container. While it is sterile when it first comes out it will eventually allow bacterial growth if left exposed to open air. Only urine from healthy individuals should be used and if someone is in otherwise good health but on medication then their urine should not be used either. Once diluted and in the soil, bacterial growth is no longer an issue if urine from a healthy individual was used.
If you have problems with acidic soil, wood ash can be mixed into the urine/water mixture to help alleviate the acidity.
Diluted urine is a fast acting plant food.
For those who are grossed out by, or question the idea of, using urine as a plant food consider that many of the well known plant foods contain urea (although not from humans) as a component of the mix.
Bone meal:
Bone meal contains phosphates and nitrogen ( more heavy on phosphates than nitrogen, NPK approximately 4/12/0 but will vary). It can be easily made at home by one of two methods. Only use bones from animals that you know were healthy.
The first method is to dry the bones in an open fire or an oven. First you need to boil off any remaining fat or meat, boil for about an hour to do this. Once they are completely dry from your fire or oven you crush them down to a powder, or as close as you can get. If you’ve gotten them dry enough they crush fairly easily.
The second method is to boil the bones for an extended period of time (in the vicinity of 24 hours is what I’ve been told, I’ve only used the first method myself). When they’ve boiled long enough you can simply crush them down into a mush. Allow the mush to dry if you want a powder or use as mush.
With both methods your best results will be obtained by digging the resultant bone meal into your soil.
26 Dec