Human poop and urine, perfect nutriment?

MustGro

Well-Known Member
Well @Icu420 you've sure stirred up a "shit" storm here. I didn't read all the posts but I'm sure they're very funny.
Brett L. Markham (I think his name is) has a series on farming. some of the titles are "Mini Farming on 1/4 acre, mini farming on blah, blah, blah. He also has one of the only compost books out there beside Stu Campbell. I'm pretty sure Mr. Markham recommends human urine be cut 8 to 1 with water before being used on your outside crops. He doesn't go so far as to recommend human feces but he does mention that by the rules of OMRI or some other US based organic farming regulating entity that 4 months is the time required for animal excrement to decompose. So theoretically if you were to collect your shit and add it to your compost pile and put it on your outside plants in 4 months time it would be as safe as cow, chicken or any other animals excrement. Plus it would heat the compost pile and help with the decomposition. Human urine is also supposed to be a great compost activator (Mr. Markham again). Just sayin.....
Oh there's also the humanure handbook for free on the net....
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
if we could do things with our own shit and piss we already would. we can't even recycle plastic and paper much less our excrement. I hope you eat organic only and don't use pharmaceuticals. But I will still pass on your produce if I know what you fed it.
That is a good point. If you are sick, or taking medications, do not use your pee for growing. As we all know, rivers below big cities always have tons of drug residue from the waste water.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
I'm so used to using privies on the trail I didn't even think to mention this before. Do not to pee in the privy. Composting toilets work with dry leaves or shavings. Pee will ruin the compost.
 

Kassiopeija

Well-Known Member
Yeah but do you want to smoke shit?
no, and it's not happening anyway, as plants do filter the food before intake. So only very tiny basic building blocks can enter. It's not like with humans, our gut isn't that selective/fine - lots of shit can enter our bloodstream.

Take alcohol for example, it'll processed by the liver into formaldehyd, acetone etc and be excreted back, then destroying gut tissue - then, fecal bacteria can enter, causing mild sepsis.
 

insomnia65

Well-Known Member
no, and it's not happening anyway, as plants do filter the food before intake. So only very tiny basic building blocks can enter. It's not like with humans, our gut isn't that selective/fine - lots of shit can enter our bloodstream.

Take alcohol for example, it'll processed by the liver into formaldehyd, acetone etc and be excreted back, then destroying gut tissue - then, fecal bacteria can enter, causing mild sepsis.
Yes I understand this, watched a video of human compost left for a long while the smell had gone. I lived up near a tip, the biggest tomatoes I've ever seen grew there.

Anyways gottya, still wondering about goat shit though, I've had goat cheese was delicious.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
no, and it's not happening anyway, as plants do filter the food before intake. So only very tiny basic building blocks can enter. It's not like with humans, our gut isn't that selective/fine - lots of shit can enter our bloodstream.

Take alcohol for example, it'll processed by the liver into formaldehyd, acetone etc and be excreted back, then destroying gut tissue - then, fecal bacteria can enter, causing mild sepsis.
Exactly, the plants don't actually eat the shit. The microbes break it down into nutrients, that the roots can then absorb. Whether it's cow, chicken, fish, or bat shit, we would still be smokin shit, but human shit? I don't think I could live with myself.
 

rockethoe

Well-Known Member
Poop needs to be properly composted in order to remove pathogens. Personally I wouldn't grow a food crop in it, as it is too close in terms of nutrient cycle. I would consider growing smoke in it though - like I said so long as it is properly composted. We use a compost toilet here, and spread the result on the land (not food production areas), we leave it to compost for 18 months before spreading, what comes out looks like high quality soil, to be honest.
 
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