Mumbai, May 5 (PTI): Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that he uses his own urine to water some plants in the garden at his official bungalow in Delhi and claimed that the plants which "were given urine instead of water grew one-and-half times bigger".

"I have started an experiment in Delhi... I have started storing my urine in a 50 litre can at my official residence in Delhi. It's a big government house which earlier belonged to (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi," Gadkari said, speaking at an event in Nagpur yesterday.

The human urine contains a lot of urea and nitrogen compounds, and it could be an alternative to fertilisers, he said.

"An acre of organic farming is possible on the bungalow premises, which even has trees. I instructed my gardener to try urine for one tree and plain water for others. Urine is a manure which has urea and nitrogen," he said, urging the audience to try out the experiment.

"If you water an orange tree with this, you observe its growth rate. The plants which were given urine instead of water grew one and half times bigger than those which were given water," he said.