Mens wee is the best so I have heard, the men at the allotments years ago use to wee directly onto their onions.

The (male) urine helps the compost to break down more quickly. I wouldn't know how much, though!

I'm afraid I don't know about veggies!

No idea about the chalk himself regularly pees in the compost - I pee in a bucket which gets tipped into same. There was a whole piece on the BBC website recently about the N.T. encouraging their, male, gardeners to pee on a bale of straw which was then going to be composted. All the nitrogen...

You can use any human urine (except at certain times, ladies) and in particular, the morning one - its the highest in nitrogen, which is what works on your compost heap as an activator. No idea about the chalk on the runner beans.

Thank you Bamboo I knew it could'nt be bacterial as urine is sterile.
Debby Is the chalk referring to a top dressing of high nitrogen fertiliser such as Nitro Chalk?

I am an old gardner but to be honest I do not belive that the wee is any use in the compast ,wee on the onion bed yes also hen or pidgen muck on the onion bed, but in moderation as this encorages wire worm, I have heard of chalk for ground for beens though never had to use it myself,put worms in the compost and let them do their work without being peed on I'm shore they will not like it. old gardners are good at telling tales especaly when there is no were to pee.

I beg to differ, Cliffo - here's a little story that confirms the high nitrogen content of urine - one of my clients a good many years ago was a much older married couple. She retired early to bed every night, he would remain downstairs in the back room watching tv. When I returned to their garden in the spring the 2nd year I worked for them, I noticed that the grass immediately outside the patio doors was very long, very green, lush and lovely looking, where the rest of the lawn was still not yet growing anew. And I knew immediately what had been happening - Kenneth, while watching tv late at night, couldn't be bothered to go upstairs to the loo and had been nipping outside the patio doors and going out there on the grass. And that's how we caught him out....

Bamboo is right Cliffo nitrogen is in urine as urea, also phosphates and potassium, its how the body gets rid of our waste from our blood.

Female wee contains too many hormones, apparently! Damned difficult too!!

What rubbish, Volunteer - I'm not falling for that one. It's just everyone's too polite to say there is a time of the month when female urine should not be used (not rocket science, is it). Men's urine is full of testosterone and has quite a bit of oestrogen too, if they drink out of plastic bottles and drink beer - its even in the tap water here in London, where its 55% recycled (but you can't get the drugs and hormones out). And can I just say, having spent years perfecting the art, it is relatively easy to collect it, though obviously not quite so easy as a bloke's;-)))
Plus, thinking about it, a man of 60 actually has more oestrogen in his body than a woman of the same age - men need oestrogen or their brains won't work (I know it sounds facetious, but it's true!)

Not true I am afraid Bamboo how do you think pregnancy tests work its the raise in hormones excreted in female urine.
Also our fats cells convert the Testosterone in post menapausal women to oestrogen thus the higher risk of cancer in the obese.
I remember being told when I lived in london if I drank the water I wouldnt need the pill well that didnt work!

I don't know too much about all this but I do know that pregnancy tests detect the presence of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) which is only produced by the developing embryo. They don't measure any other hormones.
I would think that male and female urine would be equally as useful in the compost even at certain times of the month. Blood is also an organic product which provides carbon, nitrogen and iron when it breaks down.

Agree, Gillie - and, Drc, men have hormones too! I get fed up with women being painted as just a bundle of hormones, thus explaining the vagaries and whimsies of "wimmin", I can't be doing with it - men produce just as many hormones, they're just a different mix, that's all. We're all a bundle of hormones, male or female. And according to my latest results, I have slightly more testosterone bombing about than I do oestrogen... which might explain quite a lot about me!!

LOL, Bamboo....you and me both. :o)

This is all getting a little too...personal!!!

Sorry Volunteer.....I'm an ex-health care professional.....When you work in a hospital for years, there is no subject that is taboo....tend to forget that it makes others uncomfortable.

Yep, sorry too - must be all my testosterone ....

Me too Gilli I have to remember not to go into too much detail. It's healthy for you that way round Bamboo so dont knock it.

Is it? I'm beginning to wonder if i'm turning into a man!

he amont of hormones in any urine unless you are pregnant is so small as not to be worth considering really. the plants are unable to 'metabolise' it any way.
I had always understood that men were encouraged to add it to the compost bins purely because of the ease at which they could do it. I used to empty the girl's potty into the compost bin.

If you want a giigle then try to get a copy of 'king leek' about North East leek growers and there fisty-cuffs. up north it was the woman's wee that was the secret ingredient/component. As a girl I used to be asked along with my mum to supply it for an elderly uncle. He regularly won best in show with his leeks. [perhaps there was a joke there about taking a leak?]

any how as some one else mentioned, its all nitrogenous and gets broken down into nitrates for use by plants. all harmless eventually.

No way Bamboo your levels sound about right as our Oestrogen level needs to be lower after a certain age to help protect us from certain cancers.

Thanks Seaburn - I'm really pleased your info confirms what I'd always thought, and done, actually. Yet another myth about women debunked, hopefully;-))
thanks, Drc, I'll try not to mind about the beard and hair loss then.
And I bet you're glad you asked this question Debby, lol ;-)))

and all the gardening will help prevent osteoporsis too. less oestrogen puts us at the same risk of heart attacks as men though. :o( swings and roundabouts.

Yea, I know, Seaburn - but look on the bright side, at least we don't get prostate trouble...

all verry intresting, but if that chap you are talking about Bamboo had poured a pint of worm water in the same place every night insted, I am convinced the result would be the same, as for testosterone in a woman I thought the lie had been exposed about griting your teeth and thinking of england.

Some questions need to end??????????