Indoor inclosure with plants

[laura2good]

Hello everyone, looking for a bit of advice. I’m not green fingered at all and have bought organic pansy, hollyhock, navelwort and dandelion plugs to plant in 3” planting tubs which I have sunk into Sheldon/Shelby’s indoor enclosure. The dandelion roots at big so I’m going to have to get pots for them but my question is….. the little one pees and poops on the sunken box coco soil and I’m wondering as there is nowhere for the pee to go other than stay in the soil that the plants roots are in will it be bad for the plant leaves and eventually flowers making it unhealthy for my Russian to eat? In hindsight I’ve planted far too many in the tub and will probably need to move the hollyhock as I now kno how tall they grow or I’m sure they will die. Also starting to realise it’s a bad idea to do it now while the plugs are so small and young due to them constantly being trampled on but it’s more the urine I’m concerned about. The poo I pick up. Anyone with plant knowledge on here that could advise me thank you so much in advance. Laura

 

[Tom]

The urine will likely be diluted, and most tortoises seldom urinate in their enclosures anyway. If they do, it should be a relatively large area. Also, tortoise "urine" is relatively innocuous. Its not like human or mammal urine that is much more strong and concentrated with dissolved minerals and such.

Tortoise urine taken up by a plants roots will not harm anything either. Soil microbes are continually breaking it down into plant fertilizer anyway.

Also, what defines "organic" in your country? Over here it does not mean what most people think it means and there can still be certain amounts of certain toxins in the plants. Be careful. Over here all store bought decorative plants are grown with toxic systemic pesticides in the soil that is taken up into the plant's tissues and can last for months. This is done to protect the agriculture industry and also to ensure the plants are pretty and un damaged by insect when they get to market.

 

[laura2good]

The urine will likely be diluted, and most tortoises seldom urinate in their enclosures anyway. If they do, it should be a relatively large area. Also, tortoise "urine" is relatively innocuous. Its not like human or mammal urine that is much more strong and concentrated with dissolved minerals and such.

Tortoise urine taken up by a plants roots will not harm anything either. Soil microbes are continually breaking it down into plant fertilizer anyway.

Also, what defines "organic" in your country? Over here it does not mean what most people think it means and there can still be certain amounts of certain toxins in the plants. Be careful. Over here all store bought decorative plants are grown with toxic systemic pesticides in the soil that is taken up into the plant's tissues and can last for months. This is done to protect the agriculture industry and also to ensure the plants are pretty and un damaged by insect when they get to market.

Thank you so very much for your reply. Iordered them from 2 different places. The navelwort and dandelion were from a farm that said no pesticides or insecticides and listed human and pet consumption as safe and the viola pansies and hollyhock was from a nursery who didn’t specify if they did or didn’t so I messaged them before ordering and told them it was to feed my tortoise and they said they didn’t use pesticides and used “biological controls” I didn’t kno what that meant but as he knew it was to feed my tortoise I assumed it was safe the only plant that could be used at the moment is the navelwort but I won’t use them until they are much bigger as I buy a bag of mixed weeds and plants tortoise feed from a seller online. Thank you again for your great reply