Wood ash is an organic gardening fertilizer but use it carefully and be sure you know your soil pH before using it. If you’re already dealing with alkaline soil, spread the wood ashes outside where they won’t change the soil pH around plants you like or your vegetables. They can raise soil pH rapidly. Wood ashes add potassium, calcium and phosphorous back into the soil – great for tomatoes.
Footer
November Gardening Tips
Tidying Up, Winding Down, and Looking Ahead Here in central Virginia, the first hints of fall show up in October, and by the end of the month cool nights are the norm. By November, frost is a given, the leaves have all turned, and most of the trees stand bare. November is a month for…
How to Grow Coleus from Cuttings
I have a confession: I never expected this to work as well as it did. A few weeks ago I snipped some stems from a healthy coleus, popped them in water, and waited. In just two to four weeks, I had four brand new plants ready to pot up. If you have a coleus you…
How to Compost Fall Leaves: Turn Autumn Leaves Into Garden Gold
Every October, the big sugar maple near our garden shed drops its leaves in what feels like a single weekend. One day the yard is green, and the next I’m scrunching through ankle-deep gold and wondering where I left the rake. I used to see that pile as a chore. Now I see it as…
October Gardening: Tasks and Tips
October is the time of year for pumpkins, squash, scrunching through piles of fall leaves, and enjoying the last of the lovely weather before winter sets in. Here in Virginia, October can go either way — sometimes it stays warm, and sometimes the first frosts move in and finish off the summer vegetables. At this…
Wood ash can be a great help. I’ve had people ask me why they burn rainforests when they’re clearing the land for farming. The answer is that rainforest soil is pretty baren of nutrients – it’s all up in the canopies of trees. There is so much forestation that the plants have sucked up much of the available nutrients. Burning the forest creates the ash, and that is easily plowed back into the soil, creating fertile soil for growing crops. Plant and Garden Blog
Interesting Ann and thanks for leaving a comment. I thought the rainforests were burned because it was easier than clearing away timber, except for special hardwoods like mahogany that can be sold. But adding the ash back into the soil makes sense.
Wood Ash really is great for tomatoes and in this part of Virginia the soil wants to go back to acid really quickly so adding wood ash can be great. In the many years we have raised tomatoes one year stands out as having the absolute best tasting tomatoes and that was 1998. (Sounds like wine doesn’t it!) We had put wood ashes out on our garden spot and our pH was up pretty high (closer to 7) in that area. I am convinced that the higher pH helped create those great tasting tomatoes. Was not a year with excess rain so some watering was necessary and that may have helped too. We did soil samples that year and VA Tech’s soils lab said pH too high for vegetables. I just laughed. I have in the years since then seen many sources that say tomatoes like the soil a little closer to neutral than some other things. Never have trouble with blossom end rot either.
Enjoy your blog.
Liz
Hi Liz, yes in our part of Virginia too, we need to do anything and everything to raise the soil pH. When I had ours tested before we moved in the pH was around 4. The lab actually called me to ask where the heck the soil was from (the lab was in NY where we lived). They had never seen soil like it thanks to all the pines grown here which just turned the soil to acid. Wood ash is great to raise pH quickly.