Fertilizer Wood Ashes

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Martin Alonzo, Mar 27, 2015.

  1. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    This is something misunderstood and forgotten the #1 patent in the US patent office was wood ashes as fertilizer [pot ash].
    What is wood ashes well it is the minerals that the tree took from the soil to make the tree when you burn it, it burns of the carbon and leaves the minerals behind. These minerals are special because they are so small they can be suspended in water because that is the way the tree sucked them up the stem. These are also the best minerals your body can use. This something that was common knowledge 200 years ago but now forgotten
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    When I lived in Idaho, I would make small fires outide just to burn the wood trash from where the property had been logged, and i always used the ashes on my garden and tilled them in. When we heated with wood, I always took the ashes outside in the winter and scattered them over the snow, and they worked into the ground as the snow melted.
    We dont have a wood stove here, and can't burn in town; but i think we can save the ashes from the BBQ, and we can use wood in that. It won't be nearly as much as if we had wood heat; but at least it would be adding some ashes to the garden.
     
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  3. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    We also use wood ashes in our garden. Along with manure and compost there is less need for commercial fertilizers.
     
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  4. Jenn Windey

    Jenn Windey Supreme Member
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    Martin is your suggestion to eat wood ash? Or are you saying that by using the ash in the ground there are benefits in the plants we eat?

    I have a wood burning fireplace, it was the one feature that sold me on buying this house. i always figured no matter what the fire would be the saving grace if things got to out of control in the world. There is a small trap door and when you clean the fire mantel all the ash goes down that door into a drawer in the basement. I always then spread that ash in the garden. I have to admit I never considered mixing it with the vegetable garden, mostly because I burn other scrap woods in there and I would think there could be some toxins. In hindsight though I guess that i could take a week of just clean tree wood and use that, in fact thats a great idea because it is getting close to garden time.

    I did find in the past I do have to screen the ash, because even in the tree's you get all sorts of weird things that have grown into the wood. I have found Bebe's, metal nails, a series of metal hinges (I have no idea how that happen it was in pine tree wood) glass, and a piece of what looked like an arrowhead, but a modern one. None of these items are obvious when you see the raw wood, but somehow they are in there. The Bebe's and nails I get... but hinges? how does that happen? All I could figure was maybe there had been a recess that a crow got into at one point. They collect all sorts of weird shiny things and put them in their nests. Maybe with time the recess just grew over. It was weird though. My point though, was I screen the ash because you dare not go over the soil with a lawn mower or tiller and have something like that fly out and hit you. Those nails were pretty serious for tetanus.
     
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  5. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    They at one time used wood ash in meals as a supplement and I have tried and found them tasteless when added.
    I usually put the wood ash through a screen to find all the old nails and that. Once you have found nails in ashes you do not have to worry about tetanus because the temperature of the fire would sterilizes everything.
    Tetanus comes from the waist [shit] of ruminants like cows and horses it is produced in the digestion system of these animals
     
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  6. Richard Paradon

    Richard Paradon Supreme Member
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    I have never seen ash being used here in Thailand. When I planted my first coconut tree, it was blessed for a couple of days by people urinating on it. I guess it worked because it is a healthy tree now. My mother would always add coffee grounds to her plants.
     
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  7. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    Where is the healthiest coconut trees by the ocean. Coffee grounds are vegetable matter as is most all compost.
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Coffee grounds make good compost. I even open up the K-cups to retrieve the coffee grounds for the compost.
     
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  9. Richard Paradon

    Richard Paradon Supreme Member
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    I have no idea, Martin, where the healthiest tress grow. Thailand has many and they are all over the place. Some are cultivated, but most are just growing in the wild.
     
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  10. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    The minerals in the soil very a lot from place to place so the mineral content in the wood will be different so if you are like me you get fire wood where you can and that might be over a large area giving you a good mix of minerals.
     
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  11. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    I put the ashes from the fireplace and bbq grill in the compost also to help enrich my soil or potted plants.
     
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