MiracleGro VS Pee: Which Fertilizer Is Better? Surprising Results!

In this video, I find out which fertilizer is better: MiracleGro fertilizer or pee! Some natural gardeners promote human urine as free homemade fertilizer, and human urine has an NPK ratio surprisingly similar to MiracleGro All Purpose (24-8-16). But how does it stack up in a controlled experiment? I designed an experiment to put human urine fertilizer to the test. In the end, we got shocking and surprising results!

With recent increases in fertilizer costs, finding ways to make homemade fertilizers and reduce costs is attractive. Using pee as fertilizer has a long history of use, but how does this free fertilizer stack up against "real" fertilizers sold at stores? This experiment was filmed over 5 weeks from design to final results. Be sure to stay until the end to see an explanation of the findings.

Please see the following high quality fertilizer PRODUCT LINKS:

The following articles were consulted:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Using Urine As Fertilizer
2:05 Setting Up The Experiment
4:05 Making The Fertilizers (Rocky Montage)
6:25 Experiment Rules And Fertilizing Plants
9:58 Follow-Up Fertilizing And Progress
10:52 Experiment Results!
12:24 My Explanation Of The Results
17:56 Adventures With Dale

If you have any questions about how to use human urine as fertilizer for plants, have questions about growing fruit trees or want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and "how to" garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!

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#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #urine #freefertilizer

[enochroot]

I've been using urine as a fertilizer on my plants for years....ever since my wife started locking the door when I come home late from the bar

[paulmcwhorter]

We live in a slum in East Africa and teach sustainable, regenerative agriculture to the locals. We have a rabbit house with 170 rabbits, and the cages are designed where all the urine from the rabbits is automatically collected in a holding tank connected to our irrigation system. When we irrigate, a fertigator mixes the urine with the irrigation water and the dilute urine is sprayed on the crops. It is a gentle, balanced foliar fertilizer, and seems to discourage all manner of pests. When we turn the sprinklers on, you can sometimes see a cloud of bugs escaping the raised beds. We use the urine primarily as a fertilizer, but it seems to handle most pests. If that is not enough, tobacco grows on our compound almost like weeds, and mixing smashed tobacco leaves and some smashed hot peppers with the urine seems to take care of any pests not taken care of by the dilute urine alone. The cages also automatically collect the rabbit poop which is an excellent manure, and can be applied directly to raised beds without composting. We dedicate some fraction of our raised beds to growing timothy hay and alfalfa to feed the rabbits, so we have virtually no input costs in keeping the rabbits, and they provide most of our nutrient and pest controls needs for the compound. This alone justifies the keeping of the rabbit project. Now, this size of rabbit colony produces a great abundance of meat, and the meat is just a free benefit of the nutrient/pest control program. We are now investigating to expand the nutrient program by adding several tilapia tanks. Rather than recirculate and filter the fish water, we will simply use the fish water as a nutrient spray for the farm. Sort of like an open loop aquaponic system. Anyway, I am learning a whole lot from your channel, and we are finally achieving some really amazing results on this farm.

[pamalamartin]

For seedlings you need to mix 1 part urine to 20 parts water. The pepper was most likely burnt. For larger plants 10 parts water to 1 part urine. You were using it way too strong. Been using urine in garden for years.

[nf]

turns out an engineer makes some of the most easily digestible and informative gardening videos out there!

[FrederickDunn]

Human urine is a good fertilizer for plants. It is a natural source of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are essential nutrients for plant growth. Urine is also a good source of other trace elements, such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.

Urine can be used as a fertilizer in a variety of ways. It can be diluted with water and applied directly to the soil, or it can be composted and then used as a fertilizer. Urine can also be used to make liquid fertilizer, which is a concentrated form of urine that can be diluted with water and applied to plants.

When using urine as a fertilizer, it is important to dilute it properly. Urine is very concentrated, and if it is not diluted, it can burn plant roots. A good rule of thumb is to dilute urine 10:1 with water.

It is also important to note that urine should not be used on plants that are sensitive to nitrogen, such as tomatoes and potatoes. These plants can be damaged by the high levels of nitrogen in urine.

Overall, human urine is a safe and effective fertilizer for plants. It is a natural source of nutrients, and it is free and easy to obtain. If you are looking for a natural way to fertilize your plants, urine is a good option.

Here are some additional tips for using urine as a fertilizer:

Collect urine in a clean container.
Dilute urine 10:1 with water.
Apply urine to the soil around the plants, not directly on the leaves.
Do not use urine on plants that are sensitive to nitrogen.
Be sure to test the soil pH before applying urine, as urine can lower the pH of the soil.
If you are using urine to make liquid fertilizer, be sure to store it in a cool, dark place.

[paulajohnson]

If you conduct this experiment again, may I suggest that you dilute the urine down 1:10 into a separate container and mix it well before you feed your plants.
In order to dilute the solution down it needs to be properly mixed with water before not after. Essentially you fed your plants full strength urine and washed it down with some water.

[didiwin]

Salt! We excrete like 90% of our excess salt through our urine, so it really depends what your diet was like when you filled that jug.

[jebstewart]

your experiment was correct with the caveat that you used a full spectrum fertilizer and a limited spectrum fertilizer.
i have used urine as a fertilizer for over 40 years. for the vegetables it should be used with compost, as it is correct that with the compost you will attain the full spectrum of nutrients. with shrubberies and flowers i mulch with grass clippings, the only reason to have a "yard" and to mow, and pour a half gallon of urine during january and february per plant and plant area, the reason is to let it "cool" and lower the salts, which is a minor concern---most people know what happens when you pee, or your dog pees, in the same place all the time: plant matter will die.
i also have the advantage of having heated with wood all those years and i pour a half gallon of urine into a five gallon steel bucket of ash. and during winter all my plants get four liberal scoops of wood ash using a garden trowel on top of the end of the season mowings---it heightens the phosphorous and potassium which the urine lacks. i also use the woodash/urine mix in my compost during the winter for the same reason.
i have had nothing but success with this and stopped using any pre made (man made) fertilizers a long, long time ago.

[breeze]

Glad you didn't delete this video. Every failure or success must be recorded and now that you've published this on YouTube your theory and results are cast in concrete. Whether your experiment is flawed is for the next YouTuber to resolve. However you've answered a lot of questions and gave us closure for this. Great experiment you handled this like a real science project thanks for putting this up!

[JanicePhillips]

I went 100% organic a couple of years ago and I've never had healthier plants than when I began fertilizing with pee! It works wonders for building soil and getting your compost...to compost! lol I do a weak application a couple of times for seedlings and then a stronger feeding or two went the plants are established and that's really all it takes. I'm raking in a massive harvest so far this year. Canning, dehydrating, and freezing my homegrown food every day for the last month or so. Shelves are stacked!

[Sabbathissaturday]

I can say that urine is all my corn needed one year. It had a few yellowing leaves and I added some of my yellow and it’s yellow disappeared and it was the best corn I’ve ever eaten. I was going to plant it for shade (high desert) and let the deer eat it, but it was so beautiful and delicious I didn’t share with them. I did give them all of my broccoli this year and most of my cabbage 😊 I’m a carnivore.

[TbirdMan]

Thanks for your thoughtful and informative experiment. I have been gardening and composting for years and I did my own experimentation by adding urine to my compost at various intervals. One result was a more rapid breakdown of the materials being composted and the end result was a robust, high nitrogen soil amendment. I used NO chemical fertilizers or pesticides and got great results. I didn't use a control along side the compost / soil mixture, but I had used Miracle Gro in previous years and the results were comparable. Gardening is the process of growing soil, not plants.

[scottmurray]

Dude, I absolutely love the part where you faked out with the garden. Hose, that was very comical that was fantastic. You had me for a split second.

[MoparRob]

This is why you have a fence around your property isn't it..

[a.scottclement]

A friend gave me some heirloom lettuce sets. I planted them in a planter. He stopped by a few days later an noticed that they were nitrogen deficient by the color of the leaves. He had some commercial fertilizer in his truck and offered me some but I told him I wanted to try diluted urine instead. I did, and in a couple of days the leaves were beautiful.

I was sold.

[nanettesage]

Take a jug. An old large Juice jug will work well. Put bits of food scraps in it. Fill it about 10% with the food scraps. Fill it with water. Close it up and put it in the sun for a week. Then put it in a place that gets light but NOT direct sunlight. Shake it up really well once a week. Leave it sit for about 3 to 4 months shaking it once a week. Now you have a super charger for your plants dirt.

If you buy Juice or other drinks and have one of these large jugs once a week or more. Then just make one every week. Keep the jugs organized so you know which is newest and which is oldest. These can go for years if not opened but once you open it, use it up.

Oh and be ready for a nasty smell.

This is like making your own MiracleGro but better.

[DanielFarrell]

Not reporting/publishing negative results is a major problem with science. Thanks for sharing regardless of the results.

[valquirsouza]

I'd like to see a part two with:
1. More Samples of seedlings
2. Fresh urine vs aged (test if there is nitrogen gased off due to N cycle)
3. Your local top Soil test instead of no nutrient test, (since is probably how most people will be using it)
4. Intensity and PPM of urine vs MG (I'd like to know if they would perform the same with more diluted more frequent feedings )

[danielvonbose]

Add the urine to compost. It helps break the cellulose from wood down to lignins. As far as testing, you could run a parallel test feeding MG to a compost. Then use the compost to grow plants for the experiment.

[PsychoticEGG]

I use urine for a fertilizer. you were burning the plants. you MUST mix the urine with water BEFORE feeding it to the plants. a stronger mixture is 5 to 1, so say you had 1 cup of urine you would need to mix it with at least 5 cups of water before feeding it to the plants. and even then, that is a strong fertilizer mixture. a more common is 10 to 1. I tend to do 5 to 1 once a month and 10 to 1 for the rest. my gardens EXPLODE. way better than they ever do with miracle grow, which even then is better than my neighbors. this includes my plants grown in coco-coir planter pots.