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Human Urine and Hydroponics [Working Proof]

A project log for Hacking the way to growing food

Using Technology And A Hackers Mindset To Grow Food. Last Updated [16/01/2021]

michael-ratcliffeMichael Ratcliffe 09/21/2015 at 06:220 Comments

There is a lot of people hungry in the world today this could be reduced by the application of technology. Lots of the main areas of food shortages have lots of sunlight and a surprising abundance of well water [even the sahara desert] the limiting factor is poor nutrient sources and soil. Hmm I have been growing with Aquaponics for years now, problem solved?

Maybe not, in Aquaponics the food to feed the fish is relatively expensive for a person surviving on two dollars a day. What else can we use as a nutrient source instead of fish food, human pee will be a good source [its free, easily available]. It is possible, maybe considered disgusting in the west, but if you are hungry your definition of disgusting changes pretty quickly.

The problem with using urine is that a person will never output more nutrients than he eats, so we are really only reducing the nutrient cycle waste and not having a real input to it. It’s a great start but we need to add to this solution. What is a plentiful and free nutrient source? [Later blogs will cover this]

Here is a quick video showing a variate of plants growing from a fish less aquaponics unit instead dosed with pasteurised human urine, it was made as a basic proof of concept, no real scientific data here yet. The good data will be coming from the growing competition.

I was unable to have a full spectrum carried out on the proof of concept human urine test and lacked a decent standard I could compare too, but here are some basic measurements compared to a natural healthy pond:

Readout

There is little concrete data I can pull from these readings apart from:

>I really need to keep a closer eye on the PH of my system [looks like yet another broken probe, these things are making me poor]

>The carbon water Filter is working well and stopping chlorine from entering the system

For the competition grow [starting in two weeks] there will be two identical systems for comparison and access to a full spectrum analysis of the water samples. One pure human urine and the other a commercial nutrient, from this comparison we should be able to make more confident proof's.

There will be a few blogs to carry on this topic, mainly:

>What is in Human urine and why it is a good idea to use it

>How and Why to pasteurise/sterilise the urine before use

>Automated self learning Doser [also suited to general hydroponics]

>The layout for the final grow test, what we will be measuring and why

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