Fertilizer value of urine in pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima L.) cultivation

Abstract

The fertilizer value of human urine was compared with mineral fertilizer in pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) cultivation at a dose of 113 kg N ha -1 with no-fertilization used as control. The growth of the vine was better in urine fertilized pumpkins than in mineral fertilized and non-fertilized pumpkins. Total fruit biomass was higher in mineral fertilized plants compared to urine fertilized and non-fertilized pumpkins. Urine fertilized pumpkins may have suffered from lower potassium or higher chloride, thus they produced fewer flowers and fruits. However, total fruit biomass and the number of fruits were slightly higher in urine fertilized plants than in their non-fertilized counterparts, i.e. 17.2 t ha -1 more pumpkin could be produced with urine fertilizer. The microbial hygiene quality as well as the contents of soluble sugars, protein and taste quality were similar in all treatments, but lower nitrate and higher chloride contents were recorded in urine fertilized pumpkins than other treatments. In conclusion, our study shows that the production rate of urine fertilized pumpkins was somewhat lower than mineral fertilized pumpkins but it was higher than non-fertilized pumpkins. The hygienic quality was equally good with all treatments.

Sustainable Sanitation—A Cost-Effective Tool to Improve Plant Yields and the Environment

“…Pumpkin outdoors [23] and tomato grown in a greenhouse [29] fertilized with urine led to clearly higher yields than those grown without fertilisation, but less than those produced with mineral fertiliser. The taste and chemical content of cucumber, cabbage, pumpkin, tomato or red beet are very similar compared to those treated with mineral fertiliser.…”

“…Pure, undiluted urine formed in Finnish separating eco-toilets and preserved for several months contained 8.56 g L -1 nitrogen as ammonium and 2 g L -1 phosphorus as phosphate [23]. If some water is used, then the urine fraction is more diluted and its nitrogen concentration can be even less than 1 g L -1 [13].…”

“…Table 1 describes some experiments, which show that human urine can give as good or better yields than mineral fertiliser when the same amount of nitrogen is applied. Pumpkin [23] and red beet [28] cultivated without fertilisation produced such small fruits or root that they were difficult to use in the kitchen and the red beet roots would not survive storage in the same way as the normal size roots. One must remember that it is important to remove phosphorus from this effluent since it has been assumed that phosphorus resources will be exhausted after about 100 years [40].…”

Accumulation pattern of trace metals in Spinacia oleracea harvested from soil treated with urine in comparison with other soil amendments in Pretoria, South Africa

“…There has been broad research carried out to compare the effectiveness of urine in fertilisation of crop in comparison of commercial fertilizers on a wide variety of cereals and vegetables such as cucumber (Heinonen-Tanski et al 2007), pumpkin (Pradhan et al 2009a), tomato (Pradhan et al 2009b), red beet (Pradhan et al 2010a), radish, potato, cauliflower (Pradhan et al 2010b), cabbage (Mnkeni et al 2005), spinach (Mnkeni et al 2005), carrot (Mnkeni et al 2008), beetroot (Mnkeni et al 2008) and maize (Guzha et al 2005). From all the research human urine was found to have compared equally favourable with the chemical fertilizers when both amendments were utilized at equal doses (Mnkeni et al 2008).…”

Quality of Human Urine Used as Fertilizer: Case of an Ecological Sanitation System in Ouagadougou Peri-Urban Areas-Burkina Faso

“…Human urine contains nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Its nutrient contribution is also important that mineral fertilizers [5] [6]. Nevertheless, micropollutants such as heavy metals, hormones, pharmaceutical residues and pathogens can be excreted in urine [4] [7].…”