Wood Ash In Compost

Put your wood ashes from the fireplace to good use in the garden.

Wood ash in compost. You may also want to wear a dust mask and a long sleeve shirt. Just as it does in humans potassium regulates plants water balance and has a part in transporting food within the plant and creating sugars and starches. You dont want to add wood ash to you compost on a windy day.

Wood ash can be a great addition to the garden. This segment is from Garden Style 13. Ash can be added to your compost pile as a brown carbon-producing material to balance out green nitrogen-producing materials such as kitchen scraps and grass clippings.

Another great thing that wood ashes will do for your garden is increasing the pH of the soil. The best way to rate the wood ashes you use on the compost is to ensure after mixing the compost pile and ashes you cant see the ashes color. As a general guide you should not be able to identify it after mixing it into the compost.

Wood ash from a fireplace woodstove or other source contains nutrients such as calcium potassium and magnesium that were present in the original wood. Ash is good on the compost heaps but when used in excess it can cause some issues. If you have a lot of vegetable waste in your compost which is very acidic adding wood ash will neutralize that.

At a minimum you should wear gloves and eye protection when applying wood ash to your compost pile. Due to its high level of calcium it can increase the pH of soil making it an ideal natural substitute for lime an amendment often used to balance soil that is too acidic. But wood ash fertilizer is best used either lightly scattered or by first being composted along with the rest of your compost.

The wind will blow a lot of the ash around. Wood ash in compost. When adding wood ash to your pile you should layer it in.