Wood Ash

[DorothyJ]

Can anyone suggest where to put the considerable amount of wood ash collected from our two Villager stoves please? I believe it has a use in the garden around plants but in what quantities and which plants?  Also we occasionally burn a small amount of smokeless coal, can this ash be used in the same way? Thanks for any help.

Dorothy

[andyh4]

Wood ash - best put in small qualtities areond the base of flowering plants - roses love it.  Failing that add to the compost heap.

Coal ash - smokeless or not - is better not put on the garden unless you have extremely heavy clay and want to use it to help break up the structure.   Others may disagree on this.

A mix of the two - provided it is mainly wood ash, treat as wood ash.

[Pierre ZFP]

Well I've always put the residue from coal fires (I've always known it as 'Clinkers') on the flower beds with no harmful effects,  the soil is a bit heavy (to say the least) and does break it up quite a bit

[andyh4]

The problem with coal ashes is not so much what it does to the plants but what it contains.

Because of the way coal has formed, it contains not only the residue of plants (the bit that burns) but also the residues of a lot of other substances.  These other materials do not usually burn and remain in the clinker or ashes.  Typical analysis will show not insubstantial levels of things like arsenic, antimony, lead etc..  The burning processs concentrates these in the ashes.

On you flowers this may not be a problem provided you do not overdose the flower bed, but if you grow vegetables or herbs, then some of these materials will dissolve in rain water and be absorbed by the plants.  As far as I am aware no one has ever died through eating vegetables in this way, but as an extreme example on the Mendip Hills of Somerset, there used to be a lot of lead mining and smelting from Roman times on.  The clinker from the smelters was often just spread around the land.  In the 1970's when lead was beginning to get a really bad press someone did a chemical analysis on the local allotments and found that the cabbages had lead levels well over any permitted value for foodstuff.

[Hoddy]

Just to endorse what andyh4 says about wood ash for flowers. My wisterias in particular seem to love it.

Hoddy

[Chris Head]

What about using quite large amounts of sawdust rotovated into soil proir to seeding for grass. Green Oak sawdust is high in tannic acid and I wonder if it would drastically affect the ph of the soil?

[DorothyJ]

Thank you for the replies. As it is very little coal I shall treat it all as wood ash and treat my roses and other shrubs!

[andyh4]

Chris

the big problem with sawdust is that it takes a lot of nitrogen to rot down so that it can then release its nitrogen.  If you dig it in you will end up with a nitrogen deficient soil and your lawn/grass is nitrogen hungry, so I would not do it.  Better to put it on the compost heap - good for breaking up those clumps of lawn cuttings and it will improve the soil once it has rotted.

Most plants are acidic as they break down, not sure whether Oak sawdust is worse or better than other things but in any case an occasional dose of lime to balance the soil acidity is recommended for all but a few acid loving plants - camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas, tea etc..

 

 

[Chris Head]

Thanks for that Andy, I'll leave it where it is then.

[Meg]

My MIL uses coal ash around plants for deterring slugs and snails, i assume wood ash would do the same??

[Danny]

Wood ash is a good slug/snail deterrent and I use it around the veggie patches - a bit pants if it's raining though as it apparently only works when it's dry. And slugs and snails love the rain... I also use our extra ash around the bottom of recently planted trees and around the bottom of anything I have planted further away from the house near the woods, as apparently it is meant to deter wild boar. Having seen the size of some of them I doubt it would have much of an effect but they do knacker everything they walk across so it's worth a go. The rest I put in the compost (make sure it's really cooled down - it stays hot for ages if you keep it in a metal bucket and it would melt a plastc composter nicely!).

Regards,

Jane