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O.T. Wood Ash; safe uses of

B

Billy NY

Well-known Member
I was wondering, what does everyone do with their wood ash, specifically related to your vegetable garden, I realize there is a ton of info to look at and you need to know what a particular plants needs are, thought I saw it stated do not use on potato ground, in short, can you coat your soil with dusting, till in and benefit from it. I've got a steel garbage can full I'd like to use up.

I've heard it is similar to lime, neutralizing acidic soil, and have seen that stated here, but was wondering what people have used it for successfully with plants.
 
Not so good for potatoes because of its "liming effect". About 40-50% equivalent of Aglime. Can make potatoes scabby. Excellent for most other crops with an estimated average NPK value of about 0-1-3. Wood ashes were widely used for fertilzer 150 years or so ago when wood was a primary fuel. This is assuming the ashes you have came from natural growth and the wood was not treated with preservatives, creosote or glued plywood, etc.
 

Is it a good idea to spill Wood Ashes on the areas that grow Morel Mushrooms..???
Seems I heard it was...

Ron..
 
All my fireplace ash and duckhouse poop/straw go in the garden. 8 years ago the garden was mostly clay, now I its a very nice soil and everything grows great.

I don't fertilize at all.

Rick
 
I put some in the garden, and compost pile, I also use alot on the ice on the driveways, and areas were I have to walk the horses in and out of the barn,
 
Have a friend who trains show horses...he used to tell us that if we had a horse that tended to stay "wooly" in the spring and not shed the thick winter hair very quickly, to add some sifted wood ash to his sweet feed and it would take care of the problem.

Of course, that was over 40 years ago, so I've forgotten the proportions...
 
Working on a patch like that now, was lawn, not much top soil, hard underneath, but from working it, and recently added some barrels full of organic fines from firewood scraps, (I burn formerly ant infested and partially decayed wood after I harvest the dry loose material, usually black cherry cause the heartwood is usually intact) Oddly enough, I have a couple of voles or meadow mice as pets, mostly for their used bedding/manure which is sawdust from the table saw, chain saw-black cherry and thats been going in there too, at least one barrel per year, the whole time everything seems to grow well, hopefully it gets better. My bell peppers seem to stunt for awhile then grow well, I'd like to eliminate that down time for a quicker and better harvest. Onions need less dense compacted soil, taters seemed well enough, want to increase what I plant on those and harvest.
 
According to your question and heading - I'd say wood ash is 'safe' for just about anything. Coal or oil firebox ash, not safe for anything. That is why it used to end up on railroad tracks and dirt roads. A weed killer that lasts for years.
 
Depends on what's in the ashes I suppose.

I've heard that burning CCA treated lumber will leave a residue of copper and arsenic which can hurt the ground water.


It's in my head that ash was good for corn. I'm not even sure where I heard that.

I heard potash was good for gardens and isn't that stuff from ashes?
 
The paper mill in International Falls burns a lot of biomass in their boilers, hence a lot of ash. This ash is delivered to surrounding farmers that want it, and spread, for free, I understand. One 30 acre field has about 3-4 semi loads to be spread. One farmer that I know said it dramatically increased hay production, I am not sure about other crops.
 
I try to get all the ash I can dumped on the driveway in the winter because whatever I don't get dumped, my Dad will spread on my hay fields in the spring. The pH on my fields is already approaching 7.5 so the amount of K and P in the ash isn't worth making the soil even more alkaline, but I can't get the old man to believe a single word of that :)

If you have any fields (or your garden) with a pH below 7, wood ash is a good fertilizer just as long as it isn't spread too thick.
 
To make fire brick, mix wood ashes and portland cement 50-50 with water.
11/4 inch does not warm up with a rose bud torch, and is fairly durable.
 
I haul mine to a ditch bank and along a railroad right of way and dump them down ground hog holes. They must love em. Bon apetite!
 
I ran my two bottom plow through the area to flip it over, added more ash, etc. Then rototill it. Worked out to be a good garden area once the clay got broke down. Now every fall I run my subsoiler across it at 20 inches.

The area is now almost like a heavy black soil. I do have to keep an eye on it to water now and then. When I first gardened there I had to water almost non stop the first two years. Could have made bricks out the the ground.

Rick
 
I would do a soil test before adding wood ashes to a garden plot--ashes might hinder future plantings if that was not what your soil was lacking.

We always used ashes to help with traction on icy driveways. Ashes work about the best of anything I ever tried to get a vehicle unstuck. You do need to be concerned about possible nails or other dangers to tires in the ashes.

When I was a kid, we burned some coal in our kitchen range. Those ashes could never go on the garden, but we used them on the driveway. If we had coal ashes when we didn"t need them for traction, I spread them in weed patches, and nothing grew there for a couple of years after that.
 
(quoted from post at 20:24:12 03/13/12)
11/4 inch does not warm up with a rose bud torch, and is fairly durable.
Click to expand...

Pardon my ignorance, but is that one and a quarter inch you're referring to?

By the way, I'm interested in making some molded fire brick for our fire ring. I brought home some West Texas white rock and they are all breaking up from burning mesquite in the pit.
 
Been spreading wood ash on pasture and hay land since 2001. We have a wood burning power plant and 2 more about to come on line.

2.5 tons of wood ash = 1 ton of lime for PH. There's a tiny bit of nitrogen in it and 4-6% potash depending on the type of wood. Lots of trace minerals too. I've spread as much as 7 tons per acre. Wood ash and chicken litter together are a good combination.

Some use it on fields for soybeans and seem to make them grow very well. Best part is the ash is free. get about 23 tons per load and it's piled right out of the trailer. They use walking live bottoms. Can't think of one farm in 20 miles that hasn't used it.
 
So far it sounds like its ok to use, but I will get the soil tested. '09 I coated my older garden patch with it, tilled in, that patch sat idle for 10 years, it was moldboard plowed last fall, want to to most of that in sweetcorn, its a nice plot but kind over the leach field, which is deeper,I don't plant any root type like taters or similar in there anyway, always produced, was a garden for 20 years or more, soil is nice deep top, that percolates well.
 
My old neighbor always had a garden across the lane here, and when he passed, that was it, it then sat idle and weeds took over 'cept the horseradish. It was a little rough and so many weeds, I moldboard plowed it for the neighbor, to seed new grass, did a bunch of work in their yard, demo'd an old pool, so I got a sample of what the soils were like, that old garden was so deep of dark/black soil, no rocks the plow wanted to keep going deeper, well it was not the best adjusted or condition either, ole Joe sure made a nice seed bed, I'd love to plant it again, perfect spot, he used to haul in pond water, grew really nice veggies.

Go to other places and you get into whats under the topsoil, its rocky clay, but enough gravel to drain well, just borderline on the clay, rough to work in with any ground engaging tools !
 
Ive been putting wood ash in the garden and and under fruit trees for 45 years.Some of the old bits of hardware I find indicates the garden spot has been in use since 1806 when the house was built.The lime content is high, that benifits many vegetables.
 
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