I use urine a lot on the homestead, but typically I use it in a way that it’s not directly applied to plants, and if it is it’s typically because they are in pots. I mainly use it for precharging biochar and heating up the compost pile. As many here have alluded to, too much nitrogen is very detrimental to plants. Much better to let them form relationships with soil life/fungi and let nature manage nutrient uptake. They have a lot more practice.
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I planted a thousand pepper seeds, and I got this:
If this manages to produce seeds, I think I have something special. If 999 did worse than this, then maybe I got something.
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I hope it tastes great! 
Today I had a reminder that not all pollinators make it to the end of the process. White patty pan squash flower.
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My observations regarding silage tarps:
- tomatoes: tarp down in fall, remove middle of may, draw a small furrow in soil, seed, cover seeds with soil, let the rainfall the next couple of days boost growth => plenty of tomatoes
- squash with small surface area leaves (muskmelon/watermelon): need help against the weeds, a tarp next to them gives them room to grow on top
- squash with large leaves; no help needed with weeds, their large leaves and climbing behavior lets them dominate weeds and thrive
Maarten
I found this weird-looking tomato plant in my patch:
- 2 feet tall
- most of its leaves at the top of the plant (like a palm tree)
Not sure if the plant is not thriving because it is competing with other tomato plants or if it is genetics, will see how the fruit tastes before I decide if I keep this in my gene pool.
Maarten
I am thinking about making a tarp donut around the planting spots for Moschata. I don’t want to tarp the whole area because part of my breeding desire is for my squash to excel at sending down roots inside grass and competing at some level.
I don’t want to just throw seeds in grass and hope for the best because that seems to me to demand too much from the Moschata, especially in the first few generations. I am giving them maybe a 2 x 2 cultivated growing space that receives some protection from grass and weed competition. However, once the squash exceeds this area, it’s thrown to the wolves. Maybe this program will bend the genetics towards bush type or make them more scrappy and more capable of success without papering.
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My area’s weeds are more stalkier/dense, so the moschata and other big leave cucurbits can “crowd surf” on top of them, I can see that in a more grassy area, those leaves would push the grass to the ground and other grass grows over it having them not survive.
So, having your garden succeed from a grassier area to a more stalkier weed area can help moschata thrive as well.
Maarten
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I would prefer to plant some of them in an unmowed pasture area. However, I don’t currently have a place for that. I keep the grass cut twice a month. I can see how they would have no issue surfing over large weeds. The tendrils seem to function as a securing/anchoring mechanism. The challenge I believe is its ability to compete in the underground space and being able to secure enough resources on its own to reproduce in significant amounts without fertilization.