Question from a gardener re: wildfire ash in CA

last year

last modified: last year

My sister in Santa Monica asked me to ask if anyone here has any experience/advice about harvesting and eating produce now. She forwarded an article that suggests things with thick rinds should be OK, but things you don't peel before consuming - like greens - wouldn't. I think there are a lot of gardeners with similar concerns.
She has an avocado tree, apple and lemons too, and a container vegetable garden.
I told her to be careful when harvesting too, to protect herself from ash fallout.

Featured Answer

plllog

last year

last modified: last year

As expected, rain arrived. Real rain. Thunder. They've sandbagged and K-railed and one can only hope, but whatever fell on the ground is making its way to the ocean…

It's been so long that it seems other worldly, on a Ridley Scott level, to have water pouring down from the sky. This is not normal.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

plllog
last year
It's not just the ash, but the can't see them particulates. Who knows what's in the soil? It's supposed to be at least half an inch of rain today, and there's still smoke in the air, making it worse. The two ways forward are to peel or wash as best one can and figure we're breathing the same schmutz anyway, or just stick to store produce from st least 100 miles away where even with certified organic, one has no real way of knowing under what conditions it was grown...

I don't know the bona fides of this site, but fwiw:

https://www.gardeninginla.net/blog/veggies-ok-to-eat-after-wildfires-and-smoke
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 thanked plllog
Sherry8aNorthAL
last year
I would just wash the fruits well. At most soak in a vinegar/water and then rinse. Use a vegetable brush. The greens, treat the way I do turnip greens, which are grown in sandy soil here. Soak in water in sink. Rinse and repeat until water runs clear.

I would replace the soil in the containers with new potting soil .
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 thanked Sherry8aNorthAL
Related Discussions
ashes, deer and potato questions
Q
Comments (9)
The minerals in hardwood ash are mostly in salt form, which means they release quickly, and is best applied to soil well built up in OM, or else apply compost also. Ash is a good source of K, and K is quickly depleted during the growing season. Even more though it has Calcium, which tends to stick around and so levels build up. The calcium in my oldest garden is consequently very high. It is the addition of calcium which raises the ph in acid soils; that's why limestone raises the ph, it is very rich in calcium. Apparently as the ph increases it requires geometrically more calcium to raise it, because even though my calcium levels are very high, the ph is not excessive. More of a problem is that high calcium makes it hard for K to exist at adequate levels in the soil. My K tested very low, even though my OM percentage is high. So my opinion based on experience is that wood ash is useful in modest amounts, and it would be best if one used additional sources of K such as well-made compost or even sul-po-mag or sulfate of potash. If your soil is heavy then you want to be all the more careful. In a year or two you will benefit from a soil test, if not earlier. A way one can continue to use ashes even after the Ca is high is to sift it through a screen; most wood stoves leave a lot of charcoal in the fly-ash (which has the salts). Take the charcoal and powder it a much as possible. This is an excellent medium to mix minerals into, like mag sulfate, manganese sulfate, sul-po-mag, Boron, etc. Charcoal stores minerals.
...See More
Quick wood ash question
Q
Comments (12)
If you add wood ash to soils that tend toward being acidic, those soils east of the Mississippi because of the amount of rainfall we usually get, because the amount of water tends to wash nutrients out of the soil you could correct a problem that does need to be corrected. However, if someone lives in an area of low rainfall that does not get nutrients washed out of the soil and that tends to be alkaline adding wood ash to that soil will not correct a problem but will instead make the problem worse. No moatter where you are it is always a good idea to have a good, reliable soil test done to see if your soil actually needs what you intend to add. One of the problems that people that simply put lots of synthetic fertilizers on their soil is lush growth that is very attractive to insects and pests which means they need to spend even more money on controls for them. If one properly applies good organic gardening practices then their soil will be good and healthy and will grow strong and healthy plants that will tend to be less attractive to insect pests and plant diseases.
...See More
ashes from wood pellet stove in compost pile/garden????
Q
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 More
CA Vacation - Which Gardens to Visit?
Q
Comments (18)
I second the Muir Woods suggestion; it's relatively close to SF and there are finally some decent places to eat in Larkspur, Tiburon and San Rafael. If you must eat Chinese food in SF, you are better off eating in the Richmond or Sunset neighborhoods, where enormous #s of Asians live (we did, for 17 yrs before moving across to the East Bay). For dim sum, Koi Palace in Daly City or Hong Kong Flower Lounge in San Mateo are cheaper and almost as good as the iconic Yank Sing, which has two locations, both OUTSIDE Chinatown: 101 Spear St. (Embarcadero) and 49 Stevenson (alley in the Financial District). Whatever you do or wherever you stay, try NOT to drive downtown! Take public transit instead. Parking is impossibly difficult; meters are now graduated rates according to time of day and accessibility. San Francisco is the pilot program for the Dept. of Transportation's new program to discourage urban drivers. Meter rates can vary from 50 cents to as high as $10/hr for the same parking space, depending on computerized availability during day and evening. Frankly, the best food in SF can be found in the smaller new bistros, such as Rich Table, State Bird Provisions, Quince/Cotogna, Benu, etc. Although if I were dining with an out-of-town foodie, I would pick Aziza, whose fusion cuisine has wandered far from its original Moroccan roots without disdaining them. Mourad Lahlou and his pastry chef Melissa Chou are both utterly brilliant, creative, and inspired. No other restaurant in Northern CA does the kind of cuisine Lahlou does. It is literally one-of-a-kind" -- never less than very good, and much of it 5-star greatness. Monterey/Carmel is a great area but there are not a lot of big public gardens. Carmel-by-the-sea has lovely courtyard gardens of beautiful container plantings hidden between buildings - check out the back courtyard of Anton & Michel's restaurant (but don't eat there, it's awful) for one of the prettiest, complete with splashing pool. Starting May 1st (tourist season officially begins) is the small-scale Secret Gardens of Old Monterey, which I linked below. Do try to reserve a tour at Tor House in Carmel, too - the little English garden is quite pretty, the setting absolutely superb, looking out over the Pacific. Website is http://www.torhouse.org/. Most people do the 17 mile drive, but don't realize that there's a coastal trail you can walk (weekdays are much less crowded than weekends!) leading to and from Asilomar State Beach, in Pacific Grove. You can actually start at the Monterey Bay Aquarium but I always find it very crowded with both tourists and locals. Almost everybody drops away after Lover's Point, where it's a level stretch to Asilomar Beach, walking along the Pacific's edge - absolutely gorgeous on a nice day! Here is a link that might be useful: May 1st: Secret Gardens of Monterey
...See More
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
Original Author
last year
Here are 2 articles she shared with me - they mostly agree:

https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/good-food/fire-soil-safety-lunar-new-year-china-dishes/eaton-palisades-fire-soil-ash-residue-fallout-danger-garden-fruit-vegetables

https://lapublicpress.org/2025/01/backyard-fruit-fire-eaton-palisade-ash/
John Liu
last year
last modified: last year
Lead went airborne and will end up in the soil downwind. I don't know if she got much smoke from the fire, which I'd think would be an indicator of where the airborne lead might have gone to. I think veg gardners downwind should test their topsoil (lead kits are cheap, though I bet you have to buy them online now) and if required dig out and discard the upper inch or so from planting areas . Until then, maybe put plastic sheet over the beds if rain is expected?
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 thanked John Liu
fawnridge (Ricky)
last year
I'm glad you're finally getting rain, but my concern would be with the soil and what that rain is washing into it. Is the fire retardant dropped from aircraft safe to eat? What about all the battery acid and lithium from those cars that were fried? To say nothing about the contaminants that make up all that ash.

It's gonna be a tough call, but I'm afraid that most of the affected area's produce is going to end up in a landfill.
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 thanked fawnridge (Ricky)
plllog
last year
last modified: last year
The fire retardant, Phos-chek, is often touted for a secondary effect as a fertilizer, but there are other chemicals in small quantity which may be considered pollutants. It can cause skin or eye irritation if you get it on you, but it's considered safe. The amount in the runoff is probably negligible compared to the ocean (unlike our famous DDT blob) but in smaller waterways some have said that it's bad for the ecosystem. So is pure fertilizer, though.

I wouldn't worry about that, but one of the things slowing down the whole entry into recovery is that the burn areas are required to be treated as toxic and debris removeal must be done correctly. The rain is washing all that, including the heavy metals, with luck, to water treatment, but probably mostly out storm drains and into the ocean,

It is pouring, though the news still is saying the real rain is coming this afternoon. I hope it's just early, and not just a pale foreshadow… If landslides can be avoided by the preparations (inc. giant tarps on the hillsides, trying to hold the soil in place), great (keep in mind that slides can happen days after the rain stops), but there's still going to be runoff, and it'll still carry the ash and particulates. And there will be mudfloes, which on their own can take down houses.

With any luck, maybe this could put out the fires.

Nobody is mentioning the earthquakes yesterday—they were very small, but another annoyance and one just hopes they weren't pre-quakes…
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 thanked plllog
plllog
last year
I don't know if this answers your questions at all, but there was a report on the local news about a meeting with the residents from the Palisades. The reporter said clearly that there are two stages of debris removal. First the EPA is clearing the toxics. After they're done, residents can sign up to have the Army Corps of Engineers remove the rest, or they can hire private contractors.

I haven't seen anything further on what toxics are flowing away with the rain. There was a long report about cars stuck in a mudfloe, from which I deduce that that's the worst so far.
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 thanked plllog
plllog
last year
So they did say on the news today that the authorities did try to keep the runoff out of the storm drains. The inevitable mud seems to have mostly stopped in the streets, and the EPA are supposed to be removing it.
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10 thanked plllog

Question from a gardener re: wildfire ash in CA

plllog

Comments (9)

plllog

Sherry8aNorthAL

Related Discussions

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
Original Author

John Liu

fawnridge (Ricky)

plllog

plllog

plllog

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Question from a gardener re: wildfire ash in CA

Comments (9)

Related Discussions

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
Original Author