after aged humonia reaches 9+ ph does it continue to produce ammonia?

[Gene Parbst]

The results of adding 1/2 tsp of some old home milled soybean flour containing urease enzymes to 32 oz of fresh urine are pretty amazing:

after one day the urease aged humonia tested ph 9+ and ammonia tested 4ppm from 2ml in 64oz of 85F well water!

Comparing this to Vlad's figures last Fri for aged humonia "It should only take about 250ml (less than 8.45oz) to get 300 gallons of water to an ammonia level of 2ppm" the equivalent for 4ppm in 64oz of water would be 0.83 ml or 2.4x stronger than the ammonia of the one day urease aged humonia.

After humonia reaches over 9ph does it continue to produce ammonia?  I hope so and will continue testing the urease aged humonia.

The rest of the story: This morning I was surprised to smell noticeable ammonia on the urease aged humonia I started yesterday.  I found Sylvia's 64oz test proceedure as a good way to determine the ppm ammonia.  First I tested 10% ammonia hydroxide as a base test.  It takes 0.1ml or 2 drops in 64oz of water to produce 4ppm ammonia.  Then I tested the urease aged humonia adding more drops until it tested 4ppm.  It was 40 drops or 2ml to test 4ppm. 

The urease enzyme in milled raw soy beans (not store bought soy flour) really does speed up the hydrolizing of urea.  But does it also lower the finished ammonia ppm?  Time will tell .

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Yeah, give it some time and keep testing.

At pH 9+ there is certainly some amount of NH3/4 in there...time will tell you weather all of it has converted to ammonia or not.

Also,keep in mind, the strength (amount of potential ammonia) of your urine shifts throughout the day. i.e morning urine (taken right after you wake up) will generally be more potent (contain more potential ammonia) than urine from later in the day. So it might not take the exact same amount to achieve a given ppm (no two bottles are exactly alike)...

And don't be afraid to use those whitish-grey "floaties" that settle towards the bottom of the humonia bottles. Those precipitates form as the pH increases. Most of those 'floaties' are precipitates of phosphates...Calcium phosphate, magnesium ammonium phosphate etc...they will become bio-avalable to the plants eventually as well...

[Gene Parbst]

Urease aged humonia day 2: ammonia is still increasing, today it was 32 drops to get 4ppm ammonia in 64oz of water.

This is the most interesting thing I've done in quite a while.  I'm 62 and feel like I'm back in school, actually I am.... self taught school!  Thanks Vlad for starting this group and all the participants who contribute good info. 

[Gene Parbst]

It will be interesting to see what the final ppm ammonia is.  I'm also wondering what the long term storage will do to the milled soybean flour in this humonia?  Maybe it will breakdown into other useful components?  I don't think it would do anything harmful, wait and see.

[Gene Parbst]

Day 3 urease aged humonia: its still making ammonia, today it was 24 drops to get 4ppm ammonia in 64oz.  Vlad's figures for ammonia in fully aged humonia are 16.6 drops to get 4ppm in 64oz of water.  Only another day or two and the urease aged humonia will have produced the same ammonia as regular aged humonia only in 1/4 to 1/3 the time!

[Safwat Zaki]

Gene this is a great experiment to convert urea to ammonia using urease enzyme from soy beans.

I got almost same results using urease produced  from Heterotrophic bacteria in my grow beds after 4 days from adding fresh urine plus other nutrients. I am excited to know your 4th day results.

I wish to find another natural ingredient to convert fast ammonia to nitrate.

Cheers! Safwat

[Gene Parbst]

Day 4 urease aged humonia: Ammonia production is still going good, slowing down a little.  Today it was 16-18 drops to get 4ppm ammonia in 64oz of water.  Looks like it will keep making ammonia for several more days! 

Safwat this looks like a good way to speed up ammonia production of urea.  After this batch peaks ammonia production I'll start a new one using twice the amount of fresh milled soy flour to see if it makes ammonia faster or the same.

Fresh milled soy flour is easy to obtain: I use my flour mill, but a coffee bean grinder also works.  It has to be refrigerated and stays good for 3 or more years!

[Vlad Jovanovic]

I'm going to make a little prediction and say that adding twice the amount of urease enzyme will not result in more total ammonia conversion. It''l be interesting to see if adding twice the amount speeds up the time frame though.

Interesting. Thanks for keeping us posted Gene!

[Gene Parbst]

Yes, I predict the same for the total amount of ammonia, there's only so much urea that can produce ammonia and that will vary from batch to batch.  I hope others can benefit from this, we all help each other!

Vlad Jovanovic said:

I'm going to make a little prediction and say that adding twice the amount of urease enzyme will not result in more total ammonia conversion. It''l be interesting to see if adding twice the amount speeds up the time frame though.

Interesting. Thanks for keeping us posted Gene!

[Safwat Zaki]

Gene what is the temperature you are maintaining for the enzyme urease? Do you also monitoring the PH?

[Gene Parbst]

Day 5 urease aged humonia: Ammonia production is about finished.  Today it was 16 drops to get 4ppm ammonia in 64oz of water.  Same as Vlad's aged humonia!  I'll test one more day, it may go a little more.  I started a 2nd batch of urease aged humonia; 32 oz of early morning urea, 70F room temp, 1.5 tablespoon of soy flour, 3x the first batch.

[Gene Parbst]

The soy flour that contains urease enzyme is kept in the frig, 40F.  The urease aged humonia is 70F.  At first I was heating the 64oz of test water to 85F, but found it makes no difference from the 45F from the tap.  The test ammonia is 7.0 PH.  The hurmonia PH is >9. 

Also I use well water for the 64oz test water that has 7.0 PH.  The soy flour in the the frig is over 3 yrs old!  I should mill some fresh soy beans and see if the urease enzyme is more potent.

 
Safwat Zaki said:

Gene what is the temperature you are maintaining for the enzyme urease? Do you also monitoring the PH?

[Safwat Zaki]

Thanks Gene for sharing your experience. This is a great achievements and makes the process faster!