[Brendankearns]

Happy New Year all,

With burning a lot of wood I have plenty of wood ash. Wondering could I be using the ash for something better than just dumping?

Thanks
Brendan

[Sive]

You could certainly be putting it into your compost heap. I heard somewhere that it's a good thing to put into the bottom of your potato drills when sowing them. We use all of our wood ash in both these ways.

[Greengage]

put around roses to deter pests
mix with compost
use for drying up spilt paint
mix with water to clean glass door on wood stove.
melts ice also supposed to prevent algae in ponds.

[Good guy]

Wood ash contains large quantities of soluble potassium salts, also sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron......... Its precise composition all depends on the species of tree burned and where the tree was growing.
Personally, I would be very chary of adding wood ash to a pond. It could destroy it. But it could be used for all the other purposes listed. My dad used to use it around his fruit bushes.
In days of yore wood ash was boiled up with animal fat (tallow?) to make soap, so there's another use for you.

[Greengage]

Good advice but don't get your Phosphorus confused with your Potassium . Phosphorus is good for roots. Potash (Potassium) is good for flowers and fruits. Wood ash is a source of Potassium therefore you can put it onto your tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and flowering plants.

[Good guy]

I also meant to say, earlier, that you could offer the ash to any potter of your acquaintance. Wood ashes make very interesting fluxes in high temperature glazes and different species yield different results. Apple ash gives a silky warm creamy grey glaze, beech, a smooth neutral grey, Hawthorne a speckled tan effect. Peat ash, depending on its iron content, can give anything from a light tan to a rich, dark brown.

[Brendankearns]

Great advice all, thank you.

[tippben]

Hi Brendan. If you do produce more wood ash than your garden can take (we certainly do), don't bin it. Put it around local flowering trees, or even along nearby hedgerows.

[medieval knievel]

just a word of warning *not* to use coal ash in the garden, especially not on veg beds.

[medieval knievel]

i was recently wondering if ash (though i suppose not stove ash given the time of year, more likely barbeque ash) could be used to dust aphid infestations? and then rinsed off a few minutes later?

[Blowin]

The 'juice' from boiled rhubarb leaves, put in a household spray bottle and sprayed on them will do the job in one.