All that ash!

[LFRJ]

We heat by wood stove and this year, switched from fur to apple. Burns real hot and clean! Very happy with it, but gosh - lots more ash. We're filling a five gallon bucket once a week! Besides burying it in the 'back forty' (*yards that is) is it good for anything? What do you do with yours?

We're in the rainy PacNW btw, if that matters. Thus, we're cautious about what we bury. Anything toxic can easilly leech into the soil and head downstream to salmon runs.

(on the other hand, if it can be made into a mold repellent - I could package it up and sell it for a mint!)

Thanks in advance.

LF

[no1cowboy]

Ash can be used in the garden as a soil additive

Wood ashes contain potassium, some phosphorus and magnesium. Nutritional value varies according to the species of wood, according to Dr. Gary F. Griffin, an agronomist with the University of Connecticut Extension Service (6/6/81). For example, ashes from such hardwoods as maple, elm, oak and beech contain a third more calcium plus more potash than the ashes from softwoods.
Wood ash especially would be beneficial in areas where you have deciduous trees and shrubs, including fruit trees, vegetables (root crops), bulbs, annuals, perennials and deciduous vines. Avoid using any wood ash around such acid loving plants as rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas, junipers and conifers.

Wood ashes can be used very successfully in the vegetable garden (except in the area where you plan to grow potatoes). Mix the ash thoroughly with your soil. Tomatoes seem to benefit especially from soil that has been mixed with a small quantity of wood ash.

[Rock]

You can use it to render down lye and make soap, or just spread it onto the garden.
Rock

[Chinquapin]

You might not need it often where you live, but ash can give you traction on ice or packed snow. The main drawback is tracking it into the house.

[Common Tator]

We have an apple orchard and we burn it, BBQ with it. Hubby spreads the ash around the base of the trees to neutralize the soil, and puts it in the compost, calling it poor man's lime.

In the BBQ it is wonderful for the flavor it imparts to the food.

[MELOC]

i don't see how it is making more ash...pound for pound. i bet you are getting the same heat per quantity of ash.

it's not really toxic. it is a ph changer and a source of potassium. if you make one BIG heap right next to a stream bank all at once, and you get a lot of rain all at once, you may have some minor effect briefly in a small portion of a stream. you should be able to spread about 5 gallons per 100 square feet in any lawn or garden annually and have no ill effects.

[Harry Chickpea]

"i don't see how it is making more ash...pound for pound. i bet you are getting the same heat per quantity of ash."

Fascinating stuff. I've burned a lot of wood, and FWIW found that bark makes more ash than wood, and different trees make different amounts of ash. Why, I don't know.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by LFRJ

We heat by wood stove and this year, switched from fur to apple. Burns real hot and clean! Very happy with it, but gosh - lots more ash. We're filling a five gallon bucket once a week! Besides burying it in the 'back forty' (*yards that is) is it good for anything? What do you do with yours?

We're in the rainy PacNW btw, if that matters. Thus, we're cautious about what we bury. Anything toxic can easilly leech into the soil and head downstream to salmon runs.

(on the other hand, if it can be made into a mold repellent - I could package it up and sell it for a mint!)

Thanks in advance.

LF

Wood ash has several uses that I know of, and am sure there are others. By dripping water through them you can extract lye, which is great for lots of goodies around the homestead. Its good for making soap, making hominy, excellent drain cleaner, and degreaser. The ashes also contain numerous minerals and is good to mix in with compost for the garden. Dry wood ash can be used in the garden for insect control. It also can be used in mortar for laying up stone, or chinking twixt logs in a log house. Its good for "flushing" a composting toilet too. I am sure there are lots of other good things ashes can be used for, but cant think of them at the moment.

P.S. just thought of something else..... wood ashes and salt, mixed with water is a good fur remover when preparing an animal hide for tanning.

[MELOC]

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

"i don't see how it is making more ash...pound for pound. i bet you are getting the same heat per quantity of ash."

Fascinating stuff. I've burned a lot of wood, and FWIW found that bark makes more ash than wood, and different trees make different amounts of ash. Why, I don't know.

my first thought was that the pine should be making more ash than the apple. the difference is that apple is heavier wood and if you burn the same number of logs, i assume you have more ash. wood is supposed to have the same amount of cellulose per pound, but some woods are denser than others.

that's why i said what i did.

[Ravenlost]

http://www.greenlivingtips.com/artic...ood-ashes.html

[Ken Scharabok]

Consider buying a push-type lawn spreader and spreading it over your lawn as a fertilizer.

[artificer]

On a per pound of wood basis, most wood has similar ash contents. Its around 1%. Bark, on the other hand, can be as high as 6% ash.

If you burn hardwood from nice big rounds, where the bark has fallen off/been removed, it will be low in ash. If you burn with the bark on your ash content will increase.

The larger the diameter, the less bark there is per pound of wood, assuming the same bark thickness. Was the fir larger in diameter than the apple?

Some wood can't be separated from the bark very easily. Did the bark of the fir fall off, but the apple's bark stay on?

If you go from no bark to all of the bark with smaller diameters, I can easily see double or triple the ash production.

This will not solve the ash problem, but hopefully at least explain a possible reason for the increase.

Michael

[Harry Chickpea]

Michael, that makes a lot of sense. Now I'm wondering what is it about the bark that makes more ash? Obviously, it has more stuff that doesn't burn, but is that wind blown dust, or what?

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

Michael, that makes a lot of sense. Now I'm wondering what is it about the bark that makes more ash? Obviously, it has more stuff that doesn't burn, but is that wind blown dust, or what?

Bark contains more nutrients (ie, minerals) than wood. Minerals do not burn, hence they become ash.

[postroad]

They used to save all the bones together in large containers, cover in wood ash and moisten with water. After several months the bones would be all crumbly. The mixture was then spread as fertilizer.

[Bonnie L]

Ash is good for keeping the odors down in the outhouse. Just make sure the ashes are cold when you dump them in. Smoke pouring out all the cracks sure is scary.

[Jan Doling]

We use a post hole digger to fill a 5 gallon bucket with dirt which we fill the ruts in the drive way with. Then we fill the same bucket with ash from the fire pit to fill the hole we dug the dirt out of. Of course the ash settles, but we just keep adding to it until the hole is no more. Eventually we can use filling from the ash hole (bite your tongues) for compost for the garden as needed.

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by postroad

They used to save all the bones together in large containers, cover in wood ash and moisten with water. After several months the bones would be all crumbly. The mixture was then spread as fertilizer.

Sounds like a great half-ash fertilizer!

[LFRJ]

These are great suggestions! Thanks so much. Glad I asked. I'm particularly interested in using it for tanning and as lawn fertilizer. Also, possibly making lye for - oh, I don't know what - but I do enjoy learning about all of the different potentials of materials most people would overlook and take for garbage.

As for the diameters....yes the apple logs are much smaller, hence more bark. The fir came from our own property - big rounds axed down into wedges. Often the bark peels off. In contrast, the 2 cords of apple we had trucked in over the mountains from Apple Country in the dry areas of Eastern Washington. I was skeptical at first since we were told that the biggest pieces were all of 5 - 8 inches in diameter. It's also twisted, knotty, knarly stuff, but thankfully it catches well, and is good and dry.

What I learned was this. The apple burns SO HOT, that the smaller 3" and 4" pieces are perfect! and make the fire much easier to regulate! That is - (unlike the fir) - if we packed the stove with a bunch of large pieces, we'd run the risk of melting the flue! That hot! So the variety of smaller sizes works well - particurlarly in combo with the fir.

Very happy with this wood.

[bluetick]

I have a heavy plastic container in the barn where I put cold wood ashes for the chickens to use as a dust bath in winter.