The Power of Pee

It's free, and it's made up of trees and pee. What can it be?

Yes, it is a bad rhyme. But it's also a new form of fertilizer that comes highly recommended by Surendra Pradhan, as published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a biweekly publication.

In the study, Pradhan notes that tomato plants fertilized with plain old urine produce four times more tomatoes than unfertilized plants. Add a little wood ash, and you get the same impressive result -- and the ash actually reduces acidity. The cost of this sustainable fertilizer is practically nothing, the environmental impact is minimal, and the possibilities for improving crop production are significant.

But, you may ask, isn't urine a little... um... unsanitary?

Apparently the answer is no. EurekAlert, citing the published article, says: "The results suggest that urine with or without wood ash can be used as a substitute for mineral fertilizer to increase the yields of tomato without posing any microbial or chemical risks."

The only apparent downside to this cheap, easy way to improve crop production? Only one: it's just plain nasty!

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng