Talking Dirty

Soil Management: Phosphorus Collection and Extraction Mechanism

Ok, I’m going to talk dirty. You may want to stop reading. I get a bit racy.

If you do decide to read on, be prepared, you may read things that make you say ‘ewww’ or think I may be too radical for your taste. But listen up, I’m going to wax prophetic here….there will be a time in the future that you’ll be saying, ‘what a forward thinker she was’.

At least I can reassure myself with that last thought!

I just finished reading an article about the race for resources. Natural resources like gold, oil, uranium, and phosphorus. The world is running out.

That’s what happens when we use things up without replacing them.

Phosphorus is of particular importance to farmers, gardeners, and people who eat food. It’s classified as a macronutrient and plants gobble it up. It’s what makes a plant grow vigorously, mature earlier and develop healthy fruit or flowers. Without it plants don’t grow well.

Unfortunately, we are running out of phosphorus.

But wait you say, if it’s a mineral doesn’t it somehow get recycled? Yes….animals that eat the plants use some for their own body functions, then relieve themselves of excess by peeing it out. Yes you heard me right….they micturate and get rid of it.

Hmmmmm! Do you see where I’m going here!

Urine contains significant amounts of phosphorus. Plants need phosphorus to grow. So we can minimize the dangers of running out of phosphorus by … you got it…peeing in a bucket!

I have one downstairs filled with sawdust. The boys pee in it as I am on medication. Every other day or so we empty it into the compost pile or under one of the new raised beds. As the sawdust breaks down it releases the collected phosphorus. Perfect!

John asked me the other day about creating a soil management program. Well I said……if you want to talk dirty first you have to pee in the bucket.