Milorganite fertilizer is real popular with the lawn keepers and is readily available near you. I have noticed ads for some other "makers" here and there. I understand it is hard to sell enough volume to break even and small operations get canceled due to losses over time.
Even in Roman times human waste was used as fertiliser. I have built and used composting toilets in the past.
I understand the Roman method would be the equivalent to a 5 gallon bucket fermentation before application in our world?
We are on a septic system. I don't know how much of what goes into that survives into the drainage field. The grass is greener over that. Downhill from that we have fruit trees. They seem OK. In early summer, we spread Milorganite to repel deer from sweetcorn and provide nitrogen. When it's taller, deer don't bother those plants. Also around squash plants.
Have you seen the heavy metals report? I think its Washington State that produced the overall fertilizer study.
Dirtmechanic, Im aware of the heavy metals analysis for Milorganite. They kind of downplay it as lower than most soils have anyway. I don't use it as a major fertilizer, so I hope it doesn't hurt. My soil test was negative for toxic heavy metals, even though this is former orchard land and also once had a dusting of Mount St. Helens ash.
I recognize that among some other things it is soil acidity that plays into whether a metal is in an inert state or not. Acids dissolve metals. Here we have an abundance of natural aluminum and a 5 pH so it can show aluminum toxicity pretty easy on its own. But it gets complex fast so I have chosen another path. It is a newish awareness in some ways. While the UK has banned copper fungicides for fear of buildup, the USA calls them organic. I think the idea of the buildip has yet to be addressed, but I dearly love the idea of using dead bacteria or whatnot as a renewable resource. Its probably gonna work out like my country cousins eating a Opossum. Sure they can eat it,but they will feed it clean food for a month first. Maybe the milorganite copycats will try a pathway like that one. I have seen similiar products being offered at Lowes.
