Over the last week, I started experimenting with new items in the compost tumbler.
I saw a video a few months back about adding urine to compost…it’s high in nitrogen and water, which your compost wants. Right? Normally, when you add a bunch of food material all once, the pile gets super hot for a few days before chilling out a bit. Is this the same with adding urine? Let’s find out.
I had my compost tumbler about a quarter full with new material for about two weeks. I took the temperature at the start of the experiment: 70 degrees. Every day I take the temperature of the compost at 530pm.
I then added a pepsi bottle full of urine (only at beginning of the experiment).
The results were as follows:
Day 1: 70 degrees
Day 2: 68 degrees
Day 3: 67 degrees
Day 4: 68 degrees
Day 5: 70 degrees
Weird. Not really showing much going on here. Is urine not a huge kickstarter to a compost pile? My initial signs point to no. I think the real signifier would be to add the urine at the start of a fresh compost pile, but ultimately it either has a heat generating effect on compost or it doesn’t. Time to redo the experiment, I guess. Suggestions for me?
A video is in progress for this experiment as well… more to come soon!