There are millions of people throughout the world who heat their homes with wood and cook with it. Half of the things that need to be done in our house involve the usage of wood.
Therefore, regular people such as you and I bring a significant quantity of wood ash into our homes on a daily basis. The following are some frequently asked questions regarding wood ash:
Should I use ash from wood-burning fireplaces in my garden?
What kind of effect, if any, does ash have on my garden?
To what extent can wood ash be utilized in the composting process?
Don’t worry about it; in this piece, I will attempt to give answers to all of these concerns. In addition, I will describe 10 ways to utilize wood ash in the garden, so that you won’t have to throw away this incredible by-product.
Take note: You should ensure that the wood you are burning is natural before adding any ash from burned wood to your garden. It is not a good idea to grow plants in painted or treated wood because the chemicals from the paint and other treatments can leach into the soil and kill the plants.
If your soil is already alkaline and has a higher pH level, you should not put wood ash in your garden soil because doing so might cause serious harm to your plants, particularly those that thrive in alkaline soil.
1: Rehabilitate Your Failing Tomato Crops
Tomato fruits frequently suffer from a condition known as blossom end rot. It has the potential to ruin the entire crop of tomatoes. The following is a guide on how to utilize wood ash to ensure the health of your plants:
To ensure healthy tomato growth, the soil should have a high calcium content. Before transplanting the seedlings of tomatoes, put some wood ash in the hole first. This will help ensure their success. It will maintain a healthy amount of calcium and keep the plants in good condition.
2. Prepare Some Tea From The Compost
Compost tea has the potential to work wonders for your plants, particularly houseplants that thrive in alkaline environments. The following ingredients are required in order to prepare compost tea using wood ash:
Ash from one pound of wood
Used bag made of cloth
10 gallons worth of water
A container or rubbish can hold one’s waste
Place one pound of wood ash in an old bag made of fabric (make sure ash is totally cold). Now, place the bag of ash in a garbage can or other container that can hold water. It is sufficient to use 10 gallons of water for every pound of wood ash.
Your wood ash compost tea will be ready to drink after about 4 to 5 days have passed. Do not offer plants that prefer acidic conditions this tea. Plants that thrive with a high pH will respond well to this tea.
3. A Low-Cost Fertilizer
As I’ve noted, wood ash is loaded with a wide variety of nutrients. These fertilizers have the potential to work miracles on your plants. Wood ash can be used to make compost or compost tea, or it can be applied directly to plants where it will have the same effect. I have already discussed the benefits of using wood ash in compost and tea made from compost.
Phosphorus, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and molybdenum are some of the elements that can be found in wood ash. New plant development can benefit tremendously from the addition of all of these nutrients. Simply sprinkle some wood ash, sometimes known as cool ash, onto the soil around young plants.
4. Keep Slugs and Snails Away From Your Vegetable Garden
Vegetables grown in a kitchen garden are susceptible to being destroyed by slugs and snails. They adore veggies like cabbage. If you have a problem with slugs and snails in your garden, the following are the steps you need to take to get rid of them once and for all:
Simply scatter some wood ash around the plants in your garden that are most likely to be attacked by slugs and snails. To protect the plants, draw a circle of ash around them.
The wood ash will discourage them from feeding on your plants. You are required to distribute ash whenever it rains.
5. Reduce The Amount Of Acidity In Your Soil
If you have recently had your soil tested and found that it has an excessively acidic pH, you can adjust it by adding wood ash to the mix. If this is not the case, you should first test your soil. There are a few different methods that can be used to analyze your soil, and one of these methods may even be done at home with baking soda and vinegar.
During the tilling process, you should incorporate wood ash into the ground if the soil is acidic. Wood ash should be used at a rate of five to ten pounds for every one hundred square feet, as shown by studies conducted at the University of California, Davis.
If you want to apply ash after planting, you should wait until the wood ash is completely cooled off before doing so; otherwise, the leaves of your plants could be damaged.
Keep Reading:
- 20 Gardening Hacks You Need To Know Now
- 14 Common Gardening Mistakes Everyone Makes
- Common Seed-Starting Mistakes To Avoid
6. Calcium Supplements for Your Home Garden Vegetables
There is a wide variety of leafy green vegetables, the proper growth of which is dependent on the presence of calcium in the soil. You can give them calcium by mixing wood ash into the soil that they are growing in.
Again, avoid being overzealous with wood ash because using too much of it in your garden might be detrimental to its health. The following is a list of vegetables that are excellent in providing a good dose of calcium.
7: Best Alternative Of Lime
This is something that I’ve already covered in the first point. To put it simply, lime is added to garden soil in order to raise the pH level of the soil and make it more conducive to the growth of the majority of plant species. Instead of lime, you should make use of wood ash for the following reasons:
A similar effect can be achieved with wood ash in addition to lime.
The cost of obtaining wood ash is minimal. And by doing so, you are helping the environment by recycling the scraps from the kitchen or the grill.
When compared to lime, wood ash decomposes much more quickly and helps reduce the acidity of the soil. It is sufficient to use 25 pounds of wood ash for every 1000 square feet of soil. You are free to compute it in accordance with your requirements.
8: Assistance With Composting
The ash from wood burnt includes a significant amount of various nutrients. These nutrients will be beneficial to your plants in the end, and the ash will assist microbes in the process of decomposition. You can use wood ash to remedy the situation if your compost pile has an acidic pH and is not functioning properly as a result of this.
Do not add a significant amount of ash all at once, since this might cause the pH level of the compost pile to rise, which may have an effect on the bacteria and other microbes present. Therefore, only a very thin layer of ash should be applied all at once.
9: Fertilizer For Lawn
The use of wood ash as a fertilizer is a wonderful way to change the color of your lawn from light to green. The process of applying wood ash to your lawn is a relatively straightforward one. To properly fertilize your grass, you must first accomplish the following:
Simply distribute a thin layer of cool wood ash over the surface of your grass.
It is important to provide a sufficient amount of water in order for the moisture to penetrate the soil. Adding wood ash to the soil of the grass will increase its capacity to absorb water.
Your grass will benefit tremendously from the use of wood ash as a fertilizer source.
10. Preserve the Health of Your Plants by Keeping Frost Away
This is a trick that I picked up from my mother. In order to prevent the frost from damaging winter crops like garlic grown in our vegetable garden, my mother always applies wood ash on the plants. Frost can quickly put an end to the life of your plants.
Simply dust the tops of plants with some cold wood ash and water thoroughly. Just sprinkle your plants. During the colder months, your plants won’t perish thanks to this measure. Because ash will not be sufficient in the event that there is excessive frost, you may need to make use of cold frames in the event that there is excessive frost.
Keep Reading:
- 20 Gardening Hacks You Need To Know Now
- 14 Common Gardening Mistakes Everyone Makes
- Common Seed-Starting Mistakes To Avoid
When Is It Not Appropriate To Use Wood Ash?
The use of wood ash in landscaping is highly beneficial, but like with anything else, too much of it can be detrimental. Before you start utilizing ash from wood in your garden, keep these things in mind:
You should not use wood ash that is still hot when it is first produced. It has the potential to cause damage to the leaves of your plants as well as the microorganisms that live in the soil.
If the pH of your soil is more than 7, the soil’s pH will rise due to the addition of wood ash, and plants with higher pH levels struggle more to draw nutrients from the soil.
Blueberries and other plants that thrive in acidic environments should not be fertilized with wood ash. Wood ash is not a good companion for plants that thrive in acidic environments.