uses for wood stove ashes
clou13
20 years ago
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marieb
20 years agoLorettaF
20 years agoRelated Discussions
wood stove ashes?
Comments (3)Maybe. What does your soil test indicate? If your soil is deficient in the minerals that ashes are high in, and can handle the increased pH ... yes, they can help. If your soil is like mine - alkaline and salic and loaded with minerals - ashes make it worse....See MoreHow to use ashes from a pellet stove?
Comments (11)Raisemybeds, since you are not, I'm sure, throwing gazillion amounts of wood ash onto your lawn, then there is no reason to not do it. The average homeowner uses fertilizer in the spring to re-vitalize their lawns and in so doing, the nitrogen based fertilizers will acidify the lawn somewhat. It all comes down to just how much, and for how long we keep spreading such fertilizers and to what extent the acidity is raised. Many other factors contribute to this acidity....including "the rain that falls mainly on the plain". So unless you are in the business of burning wood and obtaining ashes from a forest fire, go ahead, throw them onto your lawn; it will give some alkalinity that can neutralize to a small extent what the fertilizers do. To the amount: Don't spread more than 20 lbs of ashes per 1000 square feet. I suggest there are plants that are best given such source of alkaline....and potassium. Iris, peony, clematis are some examples. But, in giving to these plants, I suggest you mix well with the soil and give when the plants are growing....thus, don't spread them ontop of your garden until late spring/early summer and water it in well. Wood ashes, as long as they don't come from treated lumber, are great additions to any compost pile. Store them in plastic bags and use whenever there is ice storms that might blanket over shrubs and trees. Wood ahses thrown over such will often have the ice removed in short order due to the sun's rays and can prevent damage occurring due to weight of the ice. The lawn or garden bed under such dusting of ashes, will often be kept bare of snowcover until such time the amount of snow overpowers what the sun is doing. Great for under the wheels to gain traction. On sidewalks, remove slippery surface. Melts snow in no time....See Moreashes from wood pellet stove in compost pile/garden????
Comments (22)I often chime in on this subject .... I live on alkaline soils, the pH varies from 7.2 to 7.8. I burn 6-8 cords of wood a year, as did the owner before me, so figure 50 years of every winter week, throwing 3 gallons of wood ash around the place. When there's snow on the ground, I just heave it out widely over the snowy lawn so that any coals go out quickly. When there's no snow, I dump it in a pit, which is 5 feet from an oak tree. In the spring, the first grass to 'green up' is where I've thrown the ash. The oak tree pit gets flooded / seeps out, flooded/ seeps out etc. with irrigation water over the course of the summer, and the ash gets washed on down the slope. Where the grass grows much better, deeper green, thicker, than anywhere else on the lawn. The only times I've had problems are when I throw a 4-6" thick clump of ash on soils that are only a few inches deep, with sandstone underneath. That will kill the grass. But even then, by the end of the summer, the dead patch is covered by the grasses encroaching from around. I throw ash in my snow-covered flower beds all the time. I've stopped throwing ash in the vegetable gardens because I pile up grass clippings and chopped leaves all over the beds in the fall, and I'd likely set that on fire. I've also gardened on acid soils for years when I lived overseas, and we often burned charcoal for cooking, and used the ash constantly. The benefits were pretty dramatic. Of course, your milage may vary. I'd suggest starting off by dumping the ash in some out-of-the-way place and see what effect you find....See MoreHow to use wood ashes?
Comments (11)I don't put woodash in my compost because I've read it's wasted there, leaches out very quickly...I read. (I also have a secret theory that two things cool my pile off---woodash and soil additions.) I apply mine lightly to gardens in the spring---one dusting. The majority of mine gets flung around the yard during the winter. It's chancy when you add stuff without soil testing, but I do just randomly apply certain things to my garden---seaweed, compost containing manure, green sand, woodash, bonemeal, I lime my beet rows. I'd like to get an annual soil test done, but I don't. I have some failures that tweaking would improve. My onions are never as big as I think they should be. I have a friend who swears by liberal woodash application. Careless handling of woodash causes annual house fires here in Maine. NEVER assume that your stove ashes are cold. Ashes should never be shoveled into anything that isn't metal....See MoreLanaN
20 years agoturnage (8a TX)
20 years agolaa_laa
20 years ago
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