As a vegan gardener, I don’t use animal based fertilizer or animal manure.

So that only leaves compost ? No.

There is humanure, I’m thinking of using it for the (vegetable) garden, but have to overcome some practical things as well as some mental things.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html

http://journeytoforever.org/compost_humanure.html

What do you think ?

I think the idea "STINKS" :)

I thought I read somewhere that it's not good to do, but Soilman is the expert - so he'll give us the 411 on it.

I did like the journeytoforever.org site though - pretty nifty articles there.

It happens all over the world. But like any compost, it has to have time and heat and space.
I put urine on my compost heaps to speed them up but we use a wc unless we are in the woods.

Made me think of this stuff....

www.milorganite.org

I don't like the idea, even if the excrement used comes only from vegans. But I don't know enough about it to make a good thorough argument against it. If it comes from non-vegans you risk accumulation of heavy metals. If it comes from vegans you still risk pathogens, unless you properly compost the feces first. How do you do that? I don't know.

Still, food plants acquire an aroma reminiscent of the medium in which they were grown. This applies to composted excrement. Food grown in well-rotted pig excrement tastes diff than food grown in well-composted cattle excrement. I don't like the idea of using human urine either.

Sewage sludge from unknown humans is a bad idea. People flush things they aren't supposed to, and they get mixed in. I would scrupulously avoid municipal sewage.

municiple sewage is used to fertilise farm fields in Kent. It smells vile for a day or two. I wouldn't use it but I've never heard of any health issues being raised about it locally.

Sewage sludge is now illegal in the US, except for golf courses and such. It is illegal for food crops. Heavy metals. Unknowns and unknowables.

There is some historical evidence that several hundred years ago farmers in Europe brought back bones from battle fields, knowing that bones were just what their soil needed to produce better crops, without knowing what exactly what it was in bones that produced better crops. The phosphorous in bones is what.

At the local County Farm in my area, which has an agricultural program for prison trustees, they grow corn for hog-feed, and raise hogs to feed the prison inmates and workers. They are self-sufficient in pork. Of course Muslim and Jewish inmates may not be too excited about this program.

Plus they use the huge amount of hog-feces they produce, to feed the corn.

I took a look at the corn fields one day -- looked like sand with pig-feces in it. No other organic matter was visible to my eye. Very unlike the soil in my garden. Smelled like pig feces, but not extremely strongly. The natural soil is tan sand. Plus the added pig feces do not change it's color much. Very fine particles, instead of the larger sand particles, was the result I noticed, of adding pig feces. Very unlike the soil in my garden, which started with very similar sandy soil, but which is now almost black from added composted veg matter. And of course my soil smells entirely different.

The corn is not fed to humans, only hogs. Strange program. Sometimes I think government officials don't have brains.

Not only don't they grow any vegetables, they don't grow a single ear of sweet corn, only corn for pig feed. Very strange.

Soil got like rock-hard when dry -- such small particles. Sand glued together by micro-pulverized pig-feces glue.

i dont know too much about it, but its prolly okay is it doesnt gross you out. I wouldn't do it if youre on antibiotics or Rx meds... you never know what harm it could cause. And um...by what method were you planning on 'harvesting' this humanure? It would be pretty gross too keep bed pans around, especially if you have young children or pets that might get into it. ;)

Eva-bo-beva "I wouldn't do it if youre on antibiotics or Rx meds.."

Why? What would that have to do with anything? Are you concerned that antibiotics or Rx Meds might affect the soil or the plants? Negligible compared to everything else in excrement, and urine. Antibiotics and most Rx meds would break down rapidly in soil.

Okay....YUCK!

I'm sorry, I just had to add that in. No way am I pooping on my tomato plants. ;)

But Milorganite is treated sewage sludge and as far as I know it is still sold. Their web site claims it is ok for veg. gardens.

http://www.milorganite.org/uses/use_res.asp#Vegetables

Imagine serving up a nice tasty dinner of home grown vegetables to your friends and family, and then they pat their bellies and declare, "How do you get your vegetables so fine, my good man?"
And you give a dramatic pause and answer, "My own sh*t."

(of course everyone is totally grossed out) :)

all i can say is

yech

Lol Thalia! ;)

i know people do it. i know you have to let it sit around for a while.. just like any other manure. i dont know any more...

janette writes:

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i know you have to let it sit around for a while.. just like any other manure.
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Inorganic manures such as ground limestone, and phosphate rock, do not need to sit around before being applied. Just as soon as you grind the limestone or the phosphate rock, into spreadable powder or granules, you can add it to your soil. You just have to know how much is too much and how much is not enough. After you work it shallowly into the soil, you can immediately plant seeds in the soil without harming the seeds.

You can also spread them around growing root plants,work them into the soil, and then immediately pick the root plants and eat them, without harm to yourself, providing you wash most, but not all, of the stuff off before eating the root plants. This is the scenario where manure made from animal excrement can be dangerous to humans, if bacterial spores have not been killed off by long-term composting.

Originally posted by Thalia
And you give a dramatic pause and answer, "My own sh*t."

(of course everyone is totally grossed out) :)

And then we could have a nice conversation about the difference between perception of human sh*t and anima sh*t.

:D

Have you used the Humanure yet? I was at the store today, and I was asking the guy what kind of organic fertilizer I could get, so he walks me down this path, he points cow and sheep manure, and the he tells me about this stuff with this name, can't remember. So, being concerned that it may be an animal derivative, I ask him what it's made of? His reply, human waste.

I really can't see the difference, **** is ****, to me anyways, and I ain’t putting it on my food, mostly for mental reasons. I don't think I could eat it knowing it was there, but if someone else did it, it wouldn't bother me as much, just like cow manure. However, it started a some thinking in my mind, on how they make sure human waste is organic?

My mother was telling me, that the septic tank at her aunts, I believe, broke one year and got in the garden, and it was the best garden they ever had.

I haven't used it yet because I still have to think out the best way to collect it. There are practical problems, but I think I'll have to overcome them because I cannot get enough compost for my garden.

There are two problems: my garden soil is sand and we need lots of compost. I could use a truck load, but the garden is not accesable for trucks (path to small).

The (certified organic) compost I can get, comes from a manufacturer that cannot garantee that there are no animal products added to the compost.

Cooperative extension says you should not use feces from animals that are not largely herbivorous, nor from humans because generally humans eat too much animal flesh, which makes their feces unsafe. 2 reasons: accumulation of heavy metals in the feces; more dangerous kinds of micro-organism spores.

The aroma and flavor that plants acquire, of the kind of feces they were grown in, is not usually due to feces particles remaining on the plant, but is due to chemicals that enter the roots and circuclate throughout the plant.

Even feces from largely herbivorous animals is not entirely safe.

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/champaign/homeowners/000513.html

In my opinion it makes no sense to use any kind of feces. It is simpler to compost plant matter in a bin, instead of using an animals digestive tract as a compost bin. And there there is never any reason to be concerned about disease or heavy-metal concentrations, if the compost is plant matter. The micro-orgranisms that live on plants won't infect animals, and vice versa.