Years ago when I was still a boy my father bought a new house in a totally new development. All the neighbors bought about the same time and planted their lawns and flower gardens and most planted some trees.

An immigrant German and his wife who were in their early sixties bought the house across the street from ours. They planted three pine trees in a row in the middle of their front yard. Their trees grew rapidly and within a year had grown two to three times higher than any other trees planted in the new neighborhood.

My Dad, who could speak German crossed the street one day and asked them what the secret of their success was, and they frankly told him that they saved their urine until it had a strong ammonia smell and then poured it on the base of the three trees. That nitrate rich ammonia as well as any other nutrients in the urine appeared to greatly stimulate the growth of those three trees.