Ash fertilizer

[Worth1]

Anyone that had a huge basement wood furnace like we did the ash piles could be rather large.
Our 100 + free range chickens use it to dust off in.
There was always a few so called dusting pits in the ash pile with Rhode Island Reds and various other breeds dusting in it.
The ash buckets with a few hot coals were always left to cool on the back porch before taking to the ash pile.

The giant rag weeds grew rather well a few feet away but nothing in the ashes or in the soil with only a little bit of ash on top.

Wood ash is high in potassium hence the name potash from whence it was discovered.
In ashes from potted plants.
The combustion temperature of the wood plays a great role in the composition of wood ash.
It will contain trace mineral elements in the wood from the natural growth of the tree in the area it is grown in.

If your soil is already suffering from alkali wood ash is not the best way to add what little fertilizer it contains and you may very well be putting too much potassium in the soil.
I would recommend a light dusting at most and check for results and use controls to see/prove what the results are.


I really do wish I had some of that lovely olive wood to work with.

[NicolasGarcia]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Anyone that had a huge basement wood furnace like we did the ash piles could be rather large.
Our 100 + free range chickens use it to dust off in.
There was always a few so called dusting pits in the ash pile with Rhode Island Reds and various other breeds dusting in it.
The ash buckets with a few hot coals were always left to cool on the back porch before taking to the ash pile.

The giant rag weeds grew rather well a few feet away but nothing in the ashes or in the soil with only a little bit of ash on top.

Wood ash is high in potassium hence the name potash from whence it was discovered.
In ashes from potted plants.
The combustion temperature of the wood plays a great role in the composition of wood ash.
It will contain trace mineral elements in the wood from the natural growth of the tree in the area it is grown in.

If your soil is already suffering from alkali wood ash is not the best way to add what little fertilizer it contains and you may very well be putting too much potassium in the soil.
I would recommend a light dusting at most and check for results and use controls to see/prove what the results are.


I really do wish I had some of that lovely olive wood to work with.

Thank you very much for your reply.
I have enough olive wood to spend the winter, you just have to pass by my house and I give you all the wood you want:retorcido:
What work do you do with wood? sculpture or carved?
Nico

[NicolasGarcia]

Originally Posted by bower

I know that ash is popularly used just by sprinkling around your plants to deter slugs and snails. I'm not sure if it works but haven't heard of it causing harm to the plants - obviously in small amounts. Ashes in compost are also purported to deter rats - maybe it masks the smell of the things that attract them.
Coincidentally I was reading about the use of ashes in natural dyeing, as a means of raising pH, where it was reported that the pH dropped steadily over several days and sometimes unexpectedly when (ash water) was left in a container for several days.

To my mind it confirms that the pH effects are fairly unstable (certainly to heat, maybe also to ?? oxygen? re pH declining in a container of 'lye water'. ) but of course in soil the interactions are different. I do think that rain and watering can change those pH effects pretty quickly.


The recipe given was 1 kilo of birch ashes to which 8-10 liters of boiling water is added, then left to stand for 24 hours - the liquid becomes yellow and was measured to have pH 10 after one day. So it can certainly be a strong alkali in the short term.

Thank you very much for your reply.
The truth is that I have enough wood ash, and I love to recycle.
Every year I add a bit of ash in one part of my garden and I do not notice the difference with regard to the side of the garden that has no ash.
Nico

[Worth1]

Nico I would use the wood to make cooking utensils and handles.
The wood is beautiful.
Worth

[NicolasGarcia]

Ok very interesting

[NicolasGarcia]

Today the soil test has arrived for my garden, now I can not do the test since it is raining a lot and according to the instructions, for its optimal analysis I need the dry land. I hope it is reliable, there are not many purchase options.