If you’re looking at ways to fertilize your houseplants, you might be wondering whether urine is a good idea, and what kind of urine you should use if you’re going to use it.
There can be some dire consequences to it, so make sure you do your homework before using urine on random plants around your home.
Urine can be good for houseplants as it has potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen in it, as well as small amounts of the other nutrients that can benefit plants. Adding urine to your plants’ water could give them a boost, but it will need to be properly diluted before you start to use it on your houseplants.
However, not all urine is good for houseplants! Luckily, we have all the answers for you:
Can Urine Kill Houseplants?
Urine is very strong, and if you use it neat on houseplants, it could burn the roots and over time, it might kill them.
Urine has a lot of ammonia in it and most plants can’t tolerate this in high quantities, so you will need to water it down to avoid harming your plants.
Houseplants live in relatively small, concentrated areas and they are unlikely to benefit from the dilution of rain or other precipitation, so it’s dangerous to over-fertilize them.
A big plant is more likely to be able to handle it, but small plants will usually die if you fertilize them too heavily.
On the whole, as long as you dilute the urine properly, it won’t do any damage to the houseplants – and will help them instead.
Can You Water Houseplants With Urine?
You can water houseplants with diluted urine, yes. You can’t water houseplants with neat urine; they will die.
Unlike the popular myth of using sugar water for houseplants, using urine can actually provide many benefits.
If you use more water, you will also have less of an issue with the smell, which could be a problem when it comes to watering indoor plants.
Watering houseplants with urine might sound unpleasant to you, but urine is sterile, and carries no germs or other nasty things that might spread bacteria around your home, and you can do it safely.
It’s a good idea to use urine straight away, because over time, it will lose its sterility and will start to attract germs.
You don’t want to be putting old urine on the plants, or trying to store urine in your house for any period of time.
Is Human Urine Good For Houseplants?
Yes, human urine is good for houseplants when diluted. It will provide your plants with nutrients that might otherwise be lacking in their soil.
It’s easy for houseplants to run out of food in their soil, especially if you don’t re-pot them on a regular basis, so giving them an occasional water with human urine is a great idea.
About 2.5 percent of urine is nutrients, and on average, a human passes about 2.5 g of potassium, 1 g of phosphorus, and 11 g of nitrogen at a time.
That’s valuable for adding to your plants, rather than just flushing down the toilets!
You should use an approximate ratio of one part urine to ten parts water.
You can add more water if you want to, but this should be enough to protect your plants from any potential damage that might be done to them otherwise.
If you plan to use this fertilizer on young plants or very sensitive ones, dilute it further.
Even up to fifty times dilution will still have an effect, and should ensure that the urine is safe to put on the plants.
It is thought that regular, weak boosts are better than infrequent strong ones.
We have never used this method for our houseplants, but it’s one that many gardeners swear by, and as we all look to reduce our water use by flushing toilets less, it becomes a more attractive option.
It also decreases the dependence on commercially made fertilizers, which have to be created, packed, shipped, etc.
All in all, if you’re looking to go green (and we all should be!), this is a great, natural, zero waste, and free way to fertilize your plants and also reduce your water use a bit.
Is Pet Urine Good For Houseplants?
You might be wondering if pet urine is as good for houseplants as human urine. Of course, it depends to some degree on the pet.
You probably aren’t going to be collecting urine from a hamster, however, so let’s look at cats and dogs. Cats and dogs are also the usual culprits of peeing on houseplants, at least mine did a few times.
On the whole, their urine will help plants, but only if diluted.
Even so, you may not want to use it – human urine might be better, here’s why:
Effects Of Dog Urine On Houseplants
Like human urine, dog urine contains a lot of nitrogen, but it also contains some alkaline salts that may not be very good for your plants.
Neat dog urine – again, like human urine – is much too strong to add to plants.
While dog urine could have a beneficial effect on your houseplant due to the nitrogen, you may want to avoid using dog urine on your plants. The main reason for this is that dogs tend to urinate in the same places repeatedly.
If your dog can smell its urine on the plants, it might decide to use them as its toilet in the future.
This is obviously not something that you want to encourage, for the sake of your plants and the sake of your home.
Dogs have highly sensitive noses, so even if you don’t think they’ll be able to smell the urine, they almost certainly will. It’s probably best to let your dog urinate outdoors, in an area where it won’t damage the plants.
If the plants are high up out of the dog’s reach, you could experiment with using very diluted urine on the plant if you want to.
See what effect it has, and wait a while before continuing use.
Effects Of Cat Urine On Houseplants
Cat urine also contains some nutrients that could be good for your plants in small, dilute quantities, but you don’t want your cats urinating in your houseplants either.
Again, they will use the same areas repeatedly, and are likely to be able to smell their urine even if you can’t.
It’s also thought that cat urine may be able to alter the pH of your soil, which could upset plants, especially if they are fussy about the acidity in which they grow.
Like other urine, if it’s strong, it will burn the roots of your plants, so it is probably best not to use undiluted cat urine on your houseplants, even if the nutrients in it could be beneficial to your plant.
Remember that cats can get almost anywhere, so they are more likely to be able to access a plant where you have used their urine than a dog is.
For this reason, overall, I wouldn’t recommend you use cat urine or let them urinate on your plants for that matter.
Using Urine As Houseplant Fertilizer
Urine is a great houseplant fertilizer, provided you dilute it carefully.
To start using urine on your plants, first you will need to urinate into a container. This should be clean and sterile so that you don’t contaminate the urine.
Don’t try to scoop urine out of the toilet; this isn’t sterile!
Next, dilute the urine to the desired amount, and water your houseplants with it. Any plant may benefit, but nitrogen-loving plants will be particularly pleased by the contribution.
Check out what your plant needs by looking up its care instructions.
How much you should add will depend on the size of the plant and how often you fertilize.
Little and often is better than lots and rarely.
A large plant will take more fertilizer, especially if it’s nitrogen hungry or flowering.
Some people recommend fertilizing indoor plants as often as every two weeks, while others say every four to six months.
That’s a big variation, so some trial and error may be in order to find what suits you and your plants.
Don’t fertilize them in the winter; most houseplants will not appreciate this.
Pros of fertilizing with urine:
- It’s free.
- It contains the same nutrients as store-bought fertilizers.
- It’s easy to do.
- It will make for happy plants and doesn’t involve mixing or dealing with chemicals.
Cons of fertilizing with urine:
- It may smell (though if you dilute it, it shouldn’t).
- If you don’t dilute it properly, it might kill your plants.
- Some people are uncomfortable with it.
- Over time, salt from the urine may build up in the soil. You need to flush this salt out with plain water on a regular basis or it will harm the plant. However, if you’re watering normally anyway, this should take care of it.
6 Urine Loving Plants
So which plants love urine? Here are a few common houseplants:
- Philodendrons
- Dumb Cane (Dieffenbachia)
- Arrow Head plant (Syngonium)
- Golden Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
- Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema)
- Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa)
If the plant has big leaves and lots of growth, there’s a good chance it will benefit from a high nitrogen fertilizer such as urine.
Final Thoughts
Using human urine on your houseplants might sound odd, but it’s a great way to ensure your plants get a boost of nutrients without having to buy plastic bottles from the store.
Urine is free, readily accessible, and very good for your plants as long as it is diluted first. You now know how to do it, try it out and see what they think!
