Human Compost

[sewer rat]

Hi Guys
Was at our local Gardening Club last night (I am, for my sins, secretary) and one of the members asked if I would be interested in compost. Apparently, the RSBP have 5 composting toilets at one of their sites up here and the compost from these is now available for free - the member in question is attempting to find out the volume and weight available so we can organise transport.
Has anyone any experience of this type of compost - I have heard a few stories about loads of tomatoes appearing as the human digestive system cannot break these down, but other than that I have no experience of this type of compost.

[Peter]

.......I have no experience of this type of compost.

You take that name and say that!

Have seen comments that it is good and also comments about tomatoes and plastic components from ladies (ahem) persoanl hygiene items, all coming through unaffected.

[crichmond]

probably very good for the flower beds but personally I wouldnt use it on edible crops.

[-pat m]

Purely an emotional response SR but

I am not in a very good place thinking about it for the veggies, I get squeamish when my father in law flicks dog poo on to the fields on dog walks!
Up side it sounds like you tomato seed buying days are over


Regards
Pat

[Two_Sheds]

I can't understand why we will happily chuck cow, horse and chicken poop on our veggies, but not our own?
(and we are happy to flush our waste out to sea, where some of us swim in it!)

Humanure can be easily and safely composted and made completely safe to use.
I haven't done it myself, but this is the bible: The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure by Joseph Jenkins

[di]

I seem to remember hearing that humanure from veggies is O.K to use on your veggie patch but that from meat eaters it should be avoided.(don't know the science....just one of those little trinkets of info that's stuck in my grey matter!)(I guess this is why cow/chook & horses is O.K but not cats & dogs??)
Would there be implications if you use it on produce for sale?

[jacob marley]

I do not see a problem with humanure if it is composted wellyear's ago before flush toilet's the bucket's were taken out a hole dug and it was burried but it was called night soil because it was usually done at night in the dark.
Were i live there are quite a few house's without main's sewage and the council emty the cesspit's or a local farmer do's it and it is spread on the land provided it is ploughed in within 24 hour's ....jacob

[Flummery]

If you are interested in archaeology and do any field-walking (preferably with a farmer's permission!) you will often come across bits of broken crockery. This is from nightsoil or middens. All the rest breaks down but when people chucked out their rubbish it also often included broken stuff. We've all got terribly squeamish these days. As Two Sheds says, is it any better if it comes out of a cow's bum? Anyway, we all wash our veg and fruit don't we?

It's good stuff and it's free and unless there was an outbreak of plague - I'd go for it!

[krazy_krok]

It's just the thought of it i don't like. For instance i have no problem picking up my dog's poo but if a person curled one out in the middle of the street wouldn't fancy bagging that up. I know that dog poo compost can only be used for flowers because they are meat eaters. Don't know the effect if it's well rotted but i assume it still could attract rats.

[gojiberry]

Dick Strawbridge from How Green Are You built a compost loo and they intended to use it on their allotment. They were however going to compost it for at least two years. Presumably after that length of time it would not be recognisable as human poo.

Ian

[roadkill]

i think you will find that some farmers have been using humanure fo cerial crops for many years

[Two_Sheds]

. Don't know the effect if it's well rotted but i assume it still could attract rats.

Rats are horrid, but they don't eat poo

[jacob marley]

i think you will find that some farmers have been using humanure fo cerial crops for many years

If you see plain blue artic tanker's in the midland's that is what they are hauling from sewerage work's to farm's and large tipper's from same company are hauling solid's to farm's as well....jacob

[-pat m]

I m sure it is safe and do good the job (excuse the pun) but every time I was weeding and I get a little whiff of something pongy I would look at the ground rather than one of the dogs!

Pat

[burnie]

Years back Leicestershire council used to sell "the by-product" from their sewerage works as "soil conditioner".It was called "lesscost" and didn't smell at all,my Dad used it for years(it was cheap though!)