Wood ash as fertilizer

[morlogs]

Mornin' folks,
Saw a thread a while back stating that wood ash was a good fertilizer for tomatoes. Does anyone use it to fertilize other veggies? I heat my home with wood during the winter and have a great supply of the stuff in the spring.(or whenever I get around to cleaning out the stoves) I currently grow tomatoes, lettuce, summer squash, green and yellow beans, peppers, cucumbers and peas. Would this stuff benefit any of those? How about the roses? Thanx!
Morlogs

 

[zigs]

It's got potassium in it but only about 3% as far as I know, still very good for a lot of plants.

Its water soluble so re new after rain. Very good for making strong growth that is less palatable to slugs, as opposed to a nitrogen feed which makes the sappy growth that they love. Also slugs won't cross it when its dry so a ring around a young plant will protect it while making it stronger.

 

[morlogs]

It's got potassium in it but only about 3% as far as I know, still very good for a lot of plants.

Its water soluble so re new after rain. Very good for making strong growth that is less palatable to slugs, as opposed to a nitrogen feed which makes the sappy growth that they love. Also slugs won't cross it when its dry so a ring around a young plant will protect it while making it stronger.

Thanx Zigs. Since it's water soluble I assume that one would want to renew often since daily watering would do the same thing as rain. The part about the slugs not liking it was music to my ears!

 

[zigs]

I've used it around Chard, Beans and Courgettes this year as the slugs take out the growing points usually, most have done well, still a few holes in the Chard leaves, but they are not eating the whole plants.

Don't use any ash from treated timber though, the heavy metals will still be in it.

 

[headfullofbees]

No! NO!
Sorry Zigs, but I respectfully beg to differ.
There is a background slow release of potash which plants seem to love, even if it's been kept for years.
If you renew every time it rains, it is likely to get too strong and affect the roots.
It will also raise the pH of your growing medium, as it's alkaline.

Another use for woodash is for bulbing onions, as, when they reach the bulbing stage, they want potash but no nitrogen.
There are many other uses too; in fact I've read more than once, that all your garden really needs is woodash and urine.

 

[zigs]

None taken

I just got told it was water soluble, mind you, the bloke that told me was wrong about a few other things too. I mainly use it to keep the slugs off, haven't renewed it since the plants got big enough to look after themselves.

Raising the ph is good for most veg so I don't have a problem with that

I put fish offal in a bucket with woodash & wee wee, meant to break the fish down quicker & make it more easily available to the plants.
Smells great too

 

[headfullofbees]

None taken

I just got told it was water soluble, mind you, the bloke that told me was wrong about a few other things too. I mainly use it to keep the slugs off, haven't renewed it since the plants got big enough to look after themselves.

Raising the ph is good for most veg so I don't have a problem with that

I put fish offal in a bucket with woodash & wee wee, meant to break the fish down quicker & make it more easily available to the plants.
Smells great too

As bad as my homemade seaweed extract?

 

[zigs]

Yep, imagine that with a dead fish & rancid wee wee Neighbours love me.

 

[morlogs]

Thanx all. I'll stick with the wood ash. With all the stray cats in the garden at night I'm sure the other will take care of itself.

 

[headfullofbees]

Yep, imagine that with a dead fish & rancid wee wee Neighbours love me.

The house next door to mine is for sale; if I haven't liked the look of prospective buyers, I've taken the lid off and given it a stir...

 

[Millenia]

I recently learned of this miracle fertilizer called wee wee. LOL I told my husband and sons they now have permission to...ahem...wee wee on my compost pile. I got some strange looks but I think they are complying.

We also have a wood stove. I plan to start adding the ashes to my compost next winter.

 

[claudine]

I've never heard about this wee wee fertilizer Does it really work or you are just joking? I probably won't try it anyway, but I still want to know.
As for using ash, I heard that it's really good for plants.

 

[zigs]

It's true Claudine, contains Nitrogen and Potash. Makes a good starter for compost heaps like Millenia says

If you want to mess with your partners head, cook them Beetroot on one day and Asparagus the next on and off for a week.

Beetroot makes wee wee go pink, and Asparagus makes it go green. They won't know whats going on

 

[claudine]

Zigs, this is an evil plan
But even if I wanted to, I couldn't do it because I'm a terrible cook and my boyfriend refuses to eat food prepared by me

 

[zigs]