Wood Ashes in the Compost?

We have a lot of wood ashes in the winter. I'm wondering if it would hurt to add them to the compost bin along with the kitchen scraps, leaves, etc...TIA -

Here's a site that lists wood ash: http://www.wasteaware.org.uk/Compost/howto.html & here is a site that deals specifically with wood ash: http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/garden/composting/woodash.html & here's another: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/johnson/hort/articles/use_ash_with_caution.htm Hope this helps!

Thank you so much dear...I'll check them out now! Stay Warm!

Thanks, Vic. I've been using wood ash as a quick fix soil sweetener for years. It's also great for melting the ice and snow off my garden in the spring. I'll have to say, though that we've never used it in the compost, and having read these articles, I can see that a certain amount of wood ash would help the bacteria work. Thanks for posing the question, since I learned something, too.

We always make a big brush pile and burn it on the garden site every year. We usually pick a different spot in the garden to do this and right before we till up the garden for the year we take a shovel and throw the ashes all over the garden so that there isn't too much all in one spot. This has really helped in building up the soil in my garden. However I have never used it in my compost pile. We usually cut brush from around the pig pen and clean up around the pecan trees and we always have some sort of pile that needs burning.

I noticed that hardwoods are better than the softwoods, too. Our cottonwood is considered hardwood, I believe. I usually get my ashes from someone with a woodstove, but I have to check first to make sure they aren't burning coal from time to time or throwing weird things into the fire. Building a fire over the garden is an interesting concept, though I wonder if you are loosing some nutrient in the soil by doing that? Anybody have any suggestions?

We do add things back in the soil before we till it up. I always like to add some fertilizer of some sort and lime and always add in some mulched leaves along with a few bags of sand and what ever else I have on hand at the time. (I guess I should have added all this to my above post) I didn't seem to make it sound like this is all we do to enrich the garden soil :) I actually got interupted by the kids and had to cut my post short...should have proof read it before I clicked on send LOL My bad!

No, you explained yourself very well. When I was a girl, my dad would often strike a match to dried grasses in the spring to make way for the new grass. Years later I was told that burning the grass off robbed the soil of nutrients.

I think that most of this is conjecture, and, as you said, you're going to be ammending the soil anyway. It's not as if you're heating up the whole garden or throwing big logs on there. It sounds like a good idea to me, and much easier than burning it elsewhere and hauling it out to the garden!

O you are sooo right it does make it sooo much easier to just pick a spot and burn a pile, then shovel it around afterwards. Most of the time we just burn dead limbs that have fallen thru the winter months. We do keep the limbs cut out around the pig pen too and usually leaves from the pecan trees(the rest of the leaves I mulch up and spread out over the garden area) plus we have a good fertilizer too when we move the pig pen around, I usually make a compost pile there and keep it going until the following year when we start all over again :) A gardener's work is never done!! :)

Yes, but being a smart gardener makes it easier. Every time you save yourself some steps, you gain a bit of extra time for something else!

Weez.....you don't want to burn any coal(toxicity), any cedar boughs, no treated wood or lumber, and no shiny paper...these are basically the rules for burning. Placing the sulphur-potash mix on the compost(just so much is ok)..and the wood ashes on the roses for the winter...Potassium regulates the water content in the plant..thus keeping the roses all round healthy for the more or less dormant season.. adding the wood ash in so much quantity, dug into the garden..raises the alkalinity factor or the pH in the soil..should mention the wood ash also lowers frost-tenderness and hardens the wood, thus counterbalancing the bloating of Nitrogen! Elaine

1601: Thanks for all that good knowledge! I suppose too much of anything is not a good idea. I once spoke to a gardener that was unhappy about the state of her lawn, but hadn't considered the wood ash she threw back there to melt the snow. That's a good idea about the roses. I'll give it a try.

A part-time farmer that I know (he helped his mother with her 1,000 acre farm for 60 years) did the burning on the acreage every year like you, Mollybee. He claims it was a common practice since the time the area was settled in the 1830's. When new land would be cleared, the litter would be hauled to a spent field and burned. The ashes would be plowed back into the soil, and it helped. Of course, this was back before chemical fertilizers were commonly available. But this man still did the same, until he quit farming in the early 1990's.

Our fireplace has a pit underneath to hold the ashes; I empty them in the fall, dig about 1/2" into the vegetable garden along with about 6" of ground leaves and 3" of fresh compost. By spring, the extra alkalinity has mostly dissipated, but adding sulphur before planting helps restore the pH. I don't make an official "compost pile" because I am unable to turn it over. The ashes really help my to loosen my heavy clay soil.

This is what I love about visiting with everybody here... I love to hear about the way other people garden and a little history. My father used to add compostible materials directly to the soil. I can remember seeing grapefruit rinds & egg shells sticking up out of the ground here and there. He spread ashes, as well. Our farm was in Indiana, so the conditions were similar to yours, Lupinelover.

Here, I have to be a bit more careful about adding uncomposted materials directly because our soil is quite cool and it takes forever to break those compostibles down. Meanwhile, the nitrogen is being robbed to do that job rather than going to the plants. Even burning leaves or brush on my garden plot is seldom an option here. Our fall weather is usually quite rainy, and adding diesel probably wouldn't be too friendly to the soil!

O how I remember having to go out after supper in the evening and dig a hole in the Azalea bed for the table scraps!! O how I hated doing that!!! At the time I had no idea why I had to do this, but when I got a little older and saw the Beautiful HUGH Azalea bed in the backyard...I figured it out! My daddy knew exactly what he was doing. I only remember that the meat scraps were givin to the dog and the rest was put in the hole! It also kept the critters from moving in the backyard too LOL. He also made us empty the stove ashes in the same bed. He was sure nuff wise when it came to his Azalea's!

Yes, I remember my mother used to save her soapy dishwater, add the old coffee grounds, then take the dishpan out the front doorand empty it out under the lilac bush. She'd done it so often, she barely stopped to look, but just opened the screen door, pitched it out, and went back in.

My husband & I married when we were 18, and we had to live with my parents for a few months. This was very difficult for my poor hubby, dealing with the in-laws and dealing with all the newly acquired responsibilities. One day, when it all became to much for him, he went out on the porch, sat down, put his face in his hands and said "Why me?"

As if an answer from above, the screen door opened, out came the dishwater, and there was my young bridegroom dripping soap and coffee grounds. It was so tragic and funny at the same time! We laughed about it for many years. The marriage hasn't survived, but the story has!

LOL Weezin! I guess that is why my mother use to use the phase "I can't hardly throw the dishwater out without hitting so and so in the face" LOL Or something about be careful not to throw the baby out with the dishwater! LOL

Sorry Vic for highjacking your thread!

I think the baby's in the "bathwater", Mollybee, unless you did things differently in your neck of the woods! Yes, I'm sorry, too, Vic.

Could have been that as babies we were given baths in the kitchen sink...That's all I can figure. LOL

Vic, we've been adding the fireplace ashes to the gardens for years along with kitchen scraps, etc. Really tills in nicely and helps to airate the ground.

I really appreciate all the input from everyone. Thanks!