Do you feel there is a lack of nitrogen in your soil, Bart? Urea is really quite potent. I do use it...in my compost because I struggle to maintain a good balance between green foliage and brown woody plant stems...so a cupful per tonne of urea works as a decent compost accelerant. I would not use it on the garden beds as it is highly unlikely that I have a nitrogen deficient soil.

Cheers Campanula

It can be used on roses but it should be used very lightly (no more than a half pound per 100 square feet), incorporated gently into the top inch of soil and watered in thoroughly immediately after application.

Personally, it is not a product I would use for that purpose..........much too strong.

I wouldn't rely on rainfall. If you cannot irrigate thoroughly immediately after applying, then don't use it. Too much of a risk.

My go-to for roses (and many other plants) in need of nitrogen is alfalfa meal. I use it on all heavy feeders and it encourages basal stemming as well.

My personal belief is that roses and other landscape plants do not require that high a level of N, especially if you mulch at all. Urea sold be saved for cropped soils (farmland) or lawns.

Bart, every comment so far has pointed to one characteristic of urea: it's VERY potent. The only way I've ever used it (other than as lawn fertilizer) is as an additive to my compost pile like Campanula, or mixed very thoroughly into compost just before spreading it. Either way, it is much diluted by organic matter, of which it will continue to contribute to the breakdown (nitrogen feeds the microbes that break down organic matter).

Kim also has some great advice. Watering before and after not only helps distribute the urea through the soil, it also dilutes it, and prevents burning both through that action and by hydrating the roots. My recommendation is to never use urea in its pure form except in tiny amounts and during a monsoon, lol. It's just too apt to burn.

I wouldn't mess with it. So many dependable fertilizers out there that are safe if used according to directions, that fertilizing to get lush growth and lots of blooms is a snap. Can you get Osmocote Plus 6 month feed? Couldn't be easier to apply, and the results are great. It's a little pricey, but in the long run, money saving if time spent is a factor.

Moses

Thank you all so much. The fact is that we've been blessed with absolutely GREAT rain recently; the river is full,and it's been like this since September. So I figured that if I'm ever going to use this stuff, now could be a possible opportunity. I also wondered if maybe a bit of extra nitrogen might be appreciated by plants, given all this rain. Moses, I have far too many roses, my garden is huge, there is no way I can afford to give them all Osmocote. Campanula, I think my soil does tend to be low on nitrogen. Naturally I do my best to keep adding organic matter -and yes, gardengal, I'm a big fan of alfalfa, too. I just brewed some alfalfa tea, but have not been able to use it because it's been raining so much I haven't been able to get out there.But with such a large garden and so many plants and poor soil...and as I said, I already have this bag of urea that's been sitting around for a couple of years.

Several of you have stated that you've used it as a lawn fertilizer. How do you do so without burning the grass? Fig, how do you mix it into compost; I mean, how much urea to how much compost?

Thank you for your good wishes, Kim. Might it be safer to dissolve the urea into water first? As I said before, we ARE getting a lot of rain-much more than usual, I think.

I have known it to be used as a (very dilute) foliage feed but having had one bad experience with fertilsers, I am very circumspect these days and wouldn't go there myself. The smalles mistake in measuring or incorrect use can be disastrous...even in soluble form, the lack of useful buffering makes me very reluctant to use urea.

So, here's my horror story: I bought some expensive and highly recommended slow-release granular fertilser for my containerised plants. Slow-release fertilsers are triggered to release their nutrient load across a season, activated by increasing temperatures...but my plants were actually being grown under sodium halide growlights...which raises the temperature to around 38C. The Osmacote deposited 4months of nutrients in around 3 days...with the inevitable death of my poor shrivelled, plants. This was almost up there with the switched spray container mistake...where I sprayed my entire garden with 24.D instead of the mild fungicide I was expecting.

I wept. Copiously. And posted on here in utter despairing misery Tiny sequoia seedlings, lovingly raised from seed (in fact my entire seedling collection was totalled)..along with 2/3rds of every plant in my garden. I got some great advice...bin everything, and buy a shedload of scarlet begonias and pelargoniums (it was July...the plants cost pennies).

You never, ever forget a nightmare of those proportions. I have been wary of using any strong chemicals (superphosphates, epsom salts, lime or sulphur)...preferring the slower, gentler compost teas, nettle and comfrey mulches, even zeolites and terra preta (biochar). Please think carefully about this, Bart. The risks, I think, do outnumber the benefits unless you are very experienced and comfortable with such direct and potent additives.

Bart, once dissolved, how much should you give each plant? It's going to be a huge guess. Your probable best chance is to make good use of your blessed rains and just sprinkle it LIGHTLY around the drip zones of the plants. Right now, the soil is soaked. The plants are turgid with water. That extra nitrogen "salt" can be absorbed as safely as possible. Rains provide the best possible timing for most fertilizers, transplanting, etc. because the plants are maxed out with water. The air is "close" with humidity. The sun is likely not bright and hot so swapping salts with pure water is far less likely to harm the plants. Leaving it granular allows you to more accurately measure how much is being applied in an area. Nitrogen follows water so it's going to spread out with the water as it dissolves. Keeping it far away from the trunks of plants and out in the drip zones should allow you to feed them without burning any. Thank heavens for RAIN. Congratulations!

Bart, there's nothing scientific about the way I add urea to my compost, though I probably err on the side of too little, than too much. I use a compost tumbler, which is a great thing in itself, and add probably two scant hands full of urea, sprinkled in and tumbled thoroughly. If I've added it early to aid in composting, I might add another handful before I put it on the garden. My tumbler is 52 gallons, so it's about 1/4 of a cubic yard. So when it's completely full, I'm adding probably a 1/4 to1/2 a pound of urea to 50-ish gallons of compost.

As for using it as a lawn fertilizer, it is the standard source of nitrogen in all granular (non-organic) fertilizers. If you read the label it will usually even say "nitogen x% from urea". Again the secret is to not overdo it and to water it in. As a matter of fact, urea applied to a lawn rapidly loses its nitrogen to the air if it's not watered in. I use an adjustable broadcast spreader to assure even coverage, then turn on my sprinkler. Since I don't have in ground irrigation, I just apply the urea to small areas that I can use an overhead sprinkler to cover. I just checked to make sure, and the instructions on my bags of urea say to apply at the rate of 1/2 an ounce per square yard (17g per square meter, I think), which is very little, indeed. I just mix it with equal parts sand and use my spreader on its lowest setting. The lawn loves it. Too much, actually. The instructions call for fertilizing three times a year. If I did that, I'd never get anything done other than mow, lol.

EDIT: the instructions on the bag are actually 3.5 pounds per 1000 square feet. So check my math, lol

Once again, thanks to all. At this point I'm leaning towards not applying it to the ground and maybe just add a pinch to composting stuff, unless it happens that we get a heavy rain, then a non-rainy day (in which I can go out to my land and apply the urea), followed by another heavy rain. For now, the forecast is for rain until Monday, then a week or so of no rain. I have an idea that most granular non-organic fertilizers do contain urea, but the companies that make them do the dosing. Even with the Osmocote that I bought for the new implants I used a very small dose, maybe too small,but better safe than sorry.

Do you get snow? I've sometimes applied amendments to the snow on a garden bed. I use a sifter, and apply like dusting a cake with powdered sugar :) Most things show up real well on snow, and it gets a bit slower into the bed as the snow melts. Blood meal shows great on it's own, but bone meal not so much. I've mixed it with coffee grounds or fine sand from out back to color it up. I've not used urea, but looking it up it seems it comes in a couple forms. If it's powdery or small granular, you could mix it with color and sift it out. If it's the small pellet stuff

@User the urea provides the nitrogen the bacteria and fungi need in addition to temps above 70F, water and oxygen to digest the organics into "compost". That's why horse manure is such a great addition to compost. All that urea from horse pee and the digestive bacteria from their digestive tract break down organics FAST. I used to be able to lay down 3" of fresh horse manure in triple digits and soak it thoroughly, keeping it consistently wet and have about a quarter of an inch of earth worm castings in a bit less than 90 days in the old Newhall garden, back in the "good old days" of cheap, plentiful water. The urine/urea is what people mean when they speak of something being "too hot" for mulch. The cure is to keep watering the material and leave it to the soil organisms and daily heat and water to fully flush through any remaining extra nitrogen and/or use it to feed the bacteria to digest all the "green stuff". Using less of it in the compost may reduce the speed at which it is digested, so it maybe useful faster. Adding more usually makes the stuff get "eaten" quickly.

Alas, we have not had snow for several years now; it's too warm.But I do like the idea of mixing it with something else.

Kim, I'm going to have to play around with the idea some more. It must be usable somehow, because it's infert mixes and in manure. Sad to say, I have to rely on bagged manure; I don't have the energy, strength or time any more to shovel it out,bag it up, and lug it out to the car,etc. from a horse farm near me. At least with the bought stuff, the man from the store does the lifting it up into the car; all I have to do is lift it down from the car and into the wheelbarrow. I've GOT to stop hurting myself so much. But this is another reason why I'm asking about this. Sprinkling pinches of urea granuales is much easier on shoulders, back, etc than lugging bags of organics! though naturally I have absolutely no intention of stopping the use of the precious organics! I'm just wondering about little extra boosts that I might be able to provide...