Can Urine Be Stored?
For several years I spoke at the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, which was regularly attended by an Ohio gardener named Bob. He stayed after my talks to show me pictures of his robust food garden, personally fertilized by Bob, an expert on using urine in the garden. One year he leaned over to whisper in my ear.
“I’m saving it up,” he said.
“What?”
“You know, the urine.” I decided it was time to back out.
“I bet your wife loves that,” I said, and he told me of his stash of stored urine in milk jugs in the garage. No, Bob was not nuts. Stored urine is not as strong as fresh urine because the nitrogen degrades into ammonia, which Bob found easier to use in his garden. And, should you be concerned about strange bacteria in stored urine, recent research from the University of Michigan found that any microbes in fresh urine die after leaving the body. Urine stored for six months cannot support microbial growth.
Not being a personal expert on storing urine, here I must refer you to the good work being done in Battleboro, VT, by the Rich Earth Institute. Please visit their website to learn more about their research on stored urine.