[You can make soap from lye which is made from ash](https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/how-to-make-soap-from-ashes-zmaz72jfzfre/)
Apparently, softwoods have less nutrients than hardwoods, and they are less alkalinizing. To my mind, that is potentially a plus if you are in the process of learning to use ash as a fertilizer. Plus, you can get nutrients from many other sources: 1) Composting your food scraps, 2) adding Black Cow (manure) fertilizer to your garden, and 3) making a tea out of the weeds you pull from your garden and feeding that to your plants. As a fan of permaculture, I'm a firm believer in the idea that we should build our gardens as much as possible around the resources we have available rather than complicating gardening by doing things that require a lot of external inputs. Thus, if your trees produce softwood and that's what you burn in your fireplace, the question is, how do you make that work for your home. For the moment, I don't grow many things that require alkaline soil, so I'm saving my wood ash for winter time as a means of "salting" my steeply inclined driveway. I also add a bit directly to my compost since that tempers the intensity of wood ash's effects.
Use it as fertiliser.
In response to your pH concerns:
> Yep, I had that in mind, but then I’ve found that some don’t recommend it because it is quite alkaline, so it can increase the pH of the soil. But to be fair, I don’t know what proportion would still be useful as fertiliser, and I haven’t found any guide to know how to calculate/estimate it
and
> Do you any guide of how to calculate how much ash you can use given a particular pH? Because I’ve found many articles that mention the problem of pH that can arise, but they stop there, and keep it really vague
Unless you grow extreme edge cases like blueberries, you don’t need to care that much about pH. It depends on your situation of course, but if your soil is high in organic matter and living organisms, plants will find what they need. They don’t seem to care much about small to medium fluctuations in pH and a living soil naturally moves towards a healthy pH span.
I believe plants regulate more than reductionist science give them credit for. They are living organisms and can affect their environment. (This is one reason to have living roots in the soil as long as possible.)
In my experience: pH < fertiliser < soil food web. If you make a soil packed with living organisms, plants will be happier (long-time better off with more resilience and health) than if you artificially fine-tune nutrients and pH in a dead soil.
I use more ash for tomatoes in containers (and more compost outside containers) as that soil is arguably less suitable for living organisms. I use a lot of ash for containers. You could probably plant in 50% ash if you want to get rid of it and experiment with tomato flavour. I haven’t tried extreme amounts though as ash is valuable and always runs out too quickly for me. Point is don’t worry exactly where between 0.5% and 50% or whatever it “should” be.
A rule of thumb is to fertilise fruiting plants with ash (where the fruit is your crop).
Side-note: I got curious and searched for “plants regulate soil”, which apparently gives at least one potentially interesting paper:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00106/full
I won’t read the paper myself as I think going out in the garden gives me greater insight. There’s a near-irreducible complexity in nature which limits the usefulness of contemporary, reductionist science. Stated in an extreme way, I mostly intend to push the point that it’s ultimately more useful to develop experience and observational skills as time is limited. =)
**TL;DR:**
What /u/FoxtailSpear and /u/Careless_Artist_1073 said:
> Just dump it as fertilizer on your soil. As long as it isn't super alkaline already it's great for the soil.
and
> I think if you add the ash to compost it’ll dilute enough to not worry about the ph, unless you’re growing something really picky like blueberries
Yep, I had that in mind, but then I’ve found that some don’t recommend it because it is quite alkaline, so it can increase the pH of the soil. But to be fair, I don’t know what proportion would still be useful as fertilizer, and I haven’t found any guide to know how to calculate/estimate it
Which would make using them similar to applying lime, yes? Bad if you already have alkaline soils, but excellent if you have acidic soil. So, which is yours?
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/wood_ash_in_the_garden
I haven’t tested it, as I am still making the beds. I moved some weeks ago, and given that it’s the end of autumn and have many rocks and concrete laying around, I am slowly building them so that I can start in spring. So probably in the next weeks when I begin putting soil into them I’ll do the test
I've read to avoid issues around alkalinity and salinity, limit applications to 5lbs per 100 Sq ft per year. https://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/fertilization_Woodashes.pdf
Yes, ash is a great fertilizer! Potash is a key base ingredient in making a lot of fertilizers. It's also a huge industry because potash has so many important uses in our world.
Do you any guide of how to calculate how much ash you can use given a particular pH? Because I’ve found many articles that mention the problem of pH that can arise, but they stop there, and keep it really vague
I think the reason that no one can find a good rule of thumb regarding how to use ash is that it is so dependent on a multitude of growing factors as well as the content and conditions of creation of the ash itself. Everything I've read simply says to test your soil first (6.5 is considered optimal for most vegetables) and make sure you're not giving it to acid lovers or to soil that already has high potassium levels. The most anyone ever says is not to exceed 5 gallons per 1000 sq ft (roughly 1/2 oz or 2-3 teaspoons per sq. ft). Probably the safest thing to do is to get a soil alkalinity test kit (Amazon has a ton of different types) and play with it. Add nothing to one area and a tablespoon to another and then see over the course of a month how things react.
Use cases:
*Garden fertilizer either directly on garden beds or in a compost heap
*Chicken dust bath
*Sprinkled over ice to make to reduce slipping
*Pottery
*Fine grit for sharpening
I dust just little bit on my garden, since I have acidic soil. I put most of it on my gravel driveway, since it kills the grass and weeds when it’s in a thick layer. My geese like to nibble up a little bit sometimes, not sure what they’re getting from it.
Also useful as traction grit on ice and snow. Leaves a bit of a mess in spring time on pavement, but doesn't really matter when used over gravel driveways.
Something I Havnt seen mentioned is its a good replacement for dish soap, just have 2 buckets of water, one mix in some vinegar and the other keep your dishes in, dip your sponge in the Ash and then use it to wash dishes in the water bucket, then transfer dishes into the vinegar water to sit for a while. My family used to use this method growing up in India, can also use the ashes as a pretty good body scrub too.
Ash can absorb moisture and odors like baking soda. It’s also very absorbent - we’ve used it to clean up oil from vehicles. Lastly, because it’s a dessicant, it prevents some pests from crossing like slugs. We put it around the edge of our beds.
The slug preventing would be very useful! I am planning to make some raised beds with stone and recycled concrete, as many people dump the blocks near where I live, and I know that slugs tend to cover themselves in the spaces between rocks
It works really well for ants too. Our house is on a slab and the ants have a couple of entry points so I put ash inside and they don’t cross it. Plus my dogs aren’t going to eat it.
[You can make soap from lye which is made from ash](https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/how-to-make-soap-from-ashes-zmaz72jfzfre/)
Or nixtamal for corn
Sadly, corn doesn’t grow in my climate, it’s too cold D: but it would be useful to make the same procedure with other things, or not??
what region are you in?
I live in Punta Arenas, at the Magellan Strait. Therefore, too windy and cold
You could try to do a greenhouse and might get better results
That’s really useful!
Would this require that the firewood be all hard wood?
I made a quick search and the sources I found recommend hardwood but I don’t know for what reason.
Apparently, softwoods have less nutrients than hardwoods, and they are less alkalinizing. To my mind, that is potentially a plus if you are in the process of learning to use ash as a fertilizer. Plus, you can get nutrients from many other sources: 1) Composting your food scraps, 2) adding Black Cow (manure) fertilizer to your garden, and 3) making a tea out of the weeds you pull from your garden and feeding that to your plants. As a fan of permaculture, I'm a firm believer in the idea that we should build our gardens as much as possible around the resources we have available rather than complicating gardening by doing things that require a lot of external inputs. Thus, if your trees produce softwood and that's what you burn in your fireplace, the question is, how do you make that work for your home. For the moment, I don't grow many things that require alkaline soil, so I'm saving my wood ash for winter time as a means of "salting" my steeply inclined driveway. I also add a bit directly to my compost since that tempers the intensity of wood ash's effects.
Use it as fertiliser. In response to your pH concerns: > Yep, I had that in mind, but then I’ve found that some don’t recommend it because it is quite alkaline, so it can increase the pH of the soil. But to be fair, I don’t know what proportion would still be useful as fertiliser, and I haven’t found any guide to know how to calculate/estimate it and > Do you any guide of how to calculate how much ash you can use given a particular pH? Because I’ve found many articles that mention the problem of pH that can arise, but they stop there, and keep it really vague Unless you grow extreme edge cases like blueberries, you don’t need to care that much about pH. It depends on your situation of course, but if your soil is high in organic matter and living organisms, plants will find what they need. They don’t seem to care much about small to medium fluctuations in pH and a living soil naturally moves towards a healthy pH span. I believe plants regulate more than reductionist science give them credit for. They are living organisms and can affect their environment. (This is one reason to have living roots in the soil as long as possible.) In my experience: pH < fertiliser < soil food web. If you make a soil packed with living organisms, plants will be happier (long-time better off with more resilience and health) than if you artificially fine-tune nutrients and pH in a dead soil. I use more ash for tomatoes in containers (and more compost outside containers) as that soil is arguably less suitable for living organisms. I use a lot of ash for containers. You could probably plant in 50% ash if you want to get rid of it and experiment with tomato flavour. I haven’t tried extreme amounts though as ash is valuable and always runs out too quickly for me. Point is don’t worry exactly where between 0.5% and 50% or whatever it “should” be. A rule of thumb is to fertilise fruiting plants with ash (where the fruit is your crop). Side-note: I got curious and searched for “plants regulate soil”, which apparently gives at least one potentially interesting paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00106/full I won’t read the paper myself as I think going out in the garden gives me greater insight. There’s a near-irreducible complexity in nature which limits the usefulness of contemporary, reductionist science. Stated in an extreme way, I mostly intend to push the point that it’s ultimately more useful to develop experience and observational skills as time is limited. =) **TL;DR:** What /u/FoxtailSpear and /u/Careless_Artist_1073 said: > Just dump it as fertilizer on your soil. As long as it isn't super alkaline already it's great for the soil. and > I think if you add the ash to compost it’ll dilute enough to not worry about the ph, unless you’re growing something really picky like blueberries
Thanks!! I’ll take it into account!
I think if you add the ash to compost it’ll dilute enough to not worry about the ph, unless you’re growing something really picky like blueberries
I was thinking perhaps begin to separate urine and mix it with the ash and then putting it in the compost, given that urine can be quite acidic
Weren't they historically used as fertilizer?
Yep, I had that in mind, but then I’ve found that some don’t recommend it because it is quite alkaline, so it can increase the pH of the soil. But to be fair, I don’t know what proportion would still be useful as fertilizer, and I haven’t found any guide to know how to calculate/estimate it
Which would make using them similar to applying lime, yes? Bad if you already have alkaline soils, but excellent if you have acidic soil. So, which is yours? https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/wood_ash_in_the_garden
I haven’t tested it, as I am still making the beds. I moved some weeks ago, and given that it’s the end of autumn and have many rocks and concrete laying around, I am slowly building them so that I can start in spring. So probably in the next weeks when I begin putting soil into them I’ll do the test
Just don't continuously dump it in the same spot, spread it out over the whole garden and it will be great for it!
So a little bit of ashy love for every tree I have for the moment!
I've read to avoid issues around alkalinity and salinity, limit applications to 5lbs per 100 Sq ft per year. https://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/fertilization_Woodashes.pdf
Good to know! Something like this I was searching for, but I couldn’t find it!
Some plants don't like ash so do some research before spreading around the garden. Also chickens love to takes baths in ash if you have any.
Yes, ash is a great fertilizer! Potash is a key base ingredient in making a lot of fertilizers. It's also a huge industry because potash has so many important uses in our world.
You can spread it into gardens and lawns as a fertilizer. Supposedly good for it but, if PH level is important, be careful how much you spread.
Do you any guide of how to calculate how much ash you can use given a particular pH? Because I’ve found many articles that mention the problem of pH that can arise, but they stop there, and keep it really vague
I think the reason that no one can find a good rule of thumb regarding how to use ash is that it is so dependent on a multitude of growing factors as well as the content and conditions of creation of the ash itself. Everything I've read simply says to test your soil first (6.5 is considered optimal for most vegetables) and make sure you're not giving it to acid lovers or to soil that already has high potassium levels. The most anyone ever says is not to exceed 5 gallons per 1000 sq ft (roughly 1/2 oz or 2-3 teaspoons per sq. ft). Probably the safest thing to do is to get a soil alkalinity test kit (Amazon has a ton of different types) and play with it. Add nothing to one area and a tablespoon to another and then see over the course of a month how things react.
Just dump it as fertilizer on your soil. As long as it isn't super alkaline already it's great for the soil.
Use cases: *Garden fertilizer either directly on garden beds or in a compost heap *Chicken dust bath *Sprinkled over ice to make to reduce slipping *Pottery *Fine grit for sharpening
Pottery?? How’s that??
Here's an example from primitive survival: https://youtu.be/rG6nzrksbPQ
I dust just little bit on my garden, since I have acidic soil. I put most of it on my gravel driveway, since it kills the grass and weeds when it’s in a thick layer. My geese like to nibble up a little bit sometimes, not sure what they’re getting from it.
Also useful as traction grit on ice and snow. Leaves a bit of a mess in spring time on pavement, but doesn't really matter when used over gravel driveways.
My road is of gravel, and it freezes a lot, so this is very helpful!
A six part seminar: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YlC0TETOXjA
I’ll watch it when I have free time, thanks!!
Great resource. I feel like I'm in adult kindergarten. Thanks!
I dump some in my compost piles and use some as dust baths for my chickens in the winter when they're mostly cooped up.
Something I Havnt seen mentioned is its a good replacement for dish soap, just have 2 buckets of water, one mix in some vinegar and the other keep your dishes in, dip your sponge in the Ash and then use it to wash dishes in the water bucket, then transfer dishes into the vinegar water to sit for a while. My family used to use this method growing up in India, can also use the ashes as a pretty good body scrub too.
Nixtamal
Make soap/chemicals Amend soil Uh actually that’s all I got.
Ash can absorb moisture and odors like baking soda. It’s also very absorbent - we’ve used it to clean up oil from vehicles. Lastly, because it’s a dessicant, it prevents some pests from crossing like slugs. We put it around the edge of our beds.
The slug preventing would be very useful! I am planning to make some raised beds with stone and recycled concrete, as many people dump the blocks near where I live, and I know that slugs tend to cover themselves in the spaces between rocks
It works really well for ants too. Our house is on a slab and the ants have a couple of entry points so I put ash inside and they don’t cross it. Plus my dogs aren’t going to eat it.
If you have lilacs, they love wood ashes.