Well, what with the high natural gas prices, we're burning a lot more fires to help heat our house. Today I had to clean out the fire pit, and got a bag full of ash. I'm pretty sure I can put this in my soil/compost, right? It will make it more basic (alkaline), I heard. I have a garden under a pine tree that could probably use a little de-acidifying...if that's a word. Either way, it's good for soil and plants, right?
It is recommended to keep ash in a small metal garbage can with a tight fitting lid. Wood ash is a good thing in compost, but it's recommended to be added in "small amounts" and between layers. Wood ash is a valuable source of potash. If you were to buy it bagged as fertilizer, the bag would be marked 0-1-8. Wood ash raises compost alkalinity. If you use pine straw or cones in your compost, the wood ash can be used to off set the pine's acidity. Ash may result in nitrogen loss from the pile, so you may need to add extra nitrogen. Don't apply ash directly to soil used to grow acid-loving plants. When using wood ash directly you may not need to add lime. It depends on how acidic your soil is, type of wood the ash is from, how carefully you've handles the ash (the potash etc. will leach out very easily), and other things. It's best to test. Here's a good soil test anyone can do. First get some litmus paper. Then using a clean, clear wide mouth bottle with a tight fitting lid (3 liter soda bottle works well) do the following. Get some dirt from the top 3 or 4 inchs of your garden. Fill the bottle about 1/2 full with the dirt, then add water until the level reachs about 1/2 inch from the top. Shake the bottle well enough to disolve the dirt and mix it up well. You may need to add a little water to keep its level 1/2 inch or so from the top of the bottle. Put the bottle down and let the dirt settle. After the dirt has settled, without re-mixing, inspect the bottle. Looking through the bottle, you should see layers of the dirt. This will give a good indication of the clay, sand, loam and silt content of your garden soil. Use the litmus paper to measure the pH of the water in the bottle. Peace, poor_old_dad
Ah, thank you, I'm glad I didn't rashly go out and dump it in before knowing. I have litmus paper at work (will pH test strips for fish tanks work? Is that the same thing?) so I'll try that out, but I know it's maily clay-ish soil. Er, but what is loam? is that organic stuff? Man I feel like a dumbass all of a sudden, haha
Litmus paper for fish tanks should work fine. Litmus paper comes in many ranges. What I mean is there is one that is the full range of pH (1 to 14 in whole number increments), then there are also some packs that are for smaller ranges (example - 4 to 6 or 7 to 10 with smaller[.5] increments). Technically, loam is the mixture of clay and sand with organic matter, so I'm probably using the wrong term. Maybe I should have said silt. I've been going through my library of gardening books and can't find where I learned the soil in the bottle test. Crap, this is going to drive me crazy(er). But anyway, if you try it you'll see the layers and get a good test of the pH. Really the best thing for anyone to do is check with your county agent about getting a soil test. I try to get mine done about every four years. It's wonderful to look back at the results and see that while I'm using the soil I'm also improving it - to me that's the main thing organic gardening is about. Peace, poor_old_dad
we only have smaller ranges, like, 5-9, with decimal increments I think. I haven't really looked at them in a while. Anyways, thanks for the tips. I remember my dad tested our soil once using basically this method, with a kit he bought at a gardening store. Maybe I'll give that a try.
I've used fireplace ash in my flower gardens (quite large). I got the ash from my brother who only uses hard woods; I read that was best, as opposed to fire pit ash from weed trees and pine. Hard wood ash is suppose to contain beneficial minerals. I keep it in a popcorn canister in the garage. A canister full lasts a long time, because you don't need alot. I'm sorry I don't remember all that I've read so I can quote it, but you can o.d. your garden on pot ash. My solution is to broadcast it on the garden every three years. I simply toss handfuls and let the wind help spread it around in a very very thin amount. (1/4 cup per sq yard?) Then I rake it so it doesn't blow away. I do it in the fall after I have cut everything down and just before I add the mulch. That way it hits the ground evenly, and doesn't rest up on plant leaves. You can do it in the early spring before things come up. Ash leeches down into the soil, unlike bone meal that needs to placed down near roots, so you don't need to dig it in too deep. I like to keep the compost as compost. Adding stuff to the garden as needed and where it's needed. But folks have recommended adding it to the compost U of F, Organic Vegetable Gardening .
Hey poor_old_dad, just a small correction (sorry, I'm really not that anal, and don't wanna come off as a jerk), but loam is technically a soil with equal parts of sand, mud, and silt sized particles. just fyi...
It's cool. You're right. I don't know what I was thinking (if at all - lol). Seems like my memory use to be better, but I can't really recall. May the bugs in your garden eat only the weeds. Peace, poor_old_dad
As near as I can find out, ash from incense can be added to compost without doing harm. Peace, poor_old_dad
