wood ash uses

[Fronty Owner]

spread it over the yard and in the alley.

 

[Junkfxr]

Used to spread it over the garden but now I save it in trash cans all winter to use as insecticide on the garden during the summer. Works good, just like diatamatious earth. Runs potato beetles off in a couple days and keeps them gone. Sure beats pouring chemical insecticide on the stuff we're eating.

 

[hossthehermit]

Just curious, but just how much ash are you guys getting? I burn nearly 24/7 and I get maybe a couple small handfulls a week.

I get maybe a couple pounds/week, a little bit goes a long way

 

[Suz]

Right now I could get rid of mine and give it to the neighbors. We have a 25 mph wind blowing and that would spread the ashes very nicely! :hmm3grin2orange:
Normally I just package it up for the Garbage Man to take. (After I'm sure that there are no live coals in the ashes.)

 

[Tesen]

Steel can outside to cool, daily empty into a garbage bag once everything has cooled. I did have an opps a few years ago, I closed the lid on the can, came back in the evening to bag stuff out, still found a hot coal 12 hours later. Ironically was watching an episode of Survivor Man a few hours after that where he preserved a coal for about 12 hours by wrapping ash around it... doh childhood boyscout camp lessons went flooding back into my old brain.

Also, I find when a neighbor steals your wood, a good use of ashes is in their gas tank... but the viability of that can vary from neighbor to neighbor

Tes

 

[logbutcher]

Just curious, but just how much ash are you guys getting? I burn nearly 24/7 and I get maybe a couple small handfulls a week.

You must have one of those 95% efficient super duper stoves that they say: "...burns so effectively, that there is virtually no ash to empty ! " (quote from Rais literature) ......and I will love you in the morning dear.

When winter comes to Downeast Maine with average temps below 20 F, the 2 stoves run 24/7. The ash pans have to be emptied each morning ( not against the wind ), or they overflow into the fireboxes.

What stove and wood do you use ? Heating 'up from' a furnace set @ 65 F ?

 

[LumberjkChamp]

Used to spread it over the garden but now I save it in trash cans all winter to use as insecticide on the garden during the summer. Works good, just like diatamatious earth. Runs potato beetles off in a couple days and keeps them gone. Sure beats pouring chemical insecticide on the stuff we're eating.

I was wondering when someone was going to mention the potential for a substitute/replacement for insecticides. This year I had some trouble with aphids on my potatoes. If ashes work for beetles is there any reason they wouldn't work with aphids?

 

[Junkfxr]

I was wondering when someone was going to mention the potential for a substitute/replacement for insecticides. This year I had some trouble with aphids on my potatoes. If ashes work for beetles is there any reason they wouldn't work with aphids?

No, it works just like diatamatious earth. It's a physical kill, not a chemical kill that the bugs eventually aquire an immunity to. That's all that I can remember my grandparents using. We've got squash bugs REALLY bad around here and it works on those as well but you have to stay on top of them with heavy infestations of anything.

 

[TumblebugTaylor]

THe lod timers here use in on cabage and suas plants too. It works ood on most veggies. I store all mine in a drum I can seal off. I have a 10 foot drop spreader when the drum is full Ill screen it into the spreader and aplly to my market gardens for a lime substitute. It works great after I put it out where we put leaves and wood chips to bring the ph back to the right levels. Right now theres a bright green strip where an application was made on one side of the turnip and mustard green patch is.

 

[LumberjkChamp]

No, it works just like diatamatious earth. It's a physical kill, not a chemical kill that the bugs eventually aquire an immunity to. That's all that I can remember my grandparents using. We've got squash bugs REALLY bad around here and it works on those as well but you have to stay on top of them with heavy infestations of anything.

Thanks for the information. The last two years I've been having trouble with squash bugs as well. I'm saving up my ashes to use this coming growing season. It looks like I'll be testing it out.

 

[retired redneck]

Thanks for the information. The last two years I've been having trouble with squash bugs as well. I'm saving up my ashes to use this coming growing season. It looks like I'll be testing it out.

I use a home made hot pepper spray for squash bugs Dry pepers in the sun grind up with food prosser into powder,use two cups per gallon shake up each day for three days spray on plants after due is off in the morning spray about every ten days.....have done this for twenty years....

 

[sixgun]

We mix it with diatomaceous earth and place it in a corner of our chicken run. The birds take their "baths" in it to coat their bodies to keep mites and such at bay.

 

[Cliniford]

You must have one of those 95% efficient super duper stoves that they say: "...burns so effectively, that there is virtually no ash to empty ! " (quote from Rais literature) ......and I will love you in the morning dear.

When winter comes to Downeast Maine with average temps below 20 F, the 2 stoves run 24/7. The ash pans have to be emptied each morning ( not against the wind ), or they overflow into the fireboxes.

What stove and wood do you use ? Heating 'up from' a furnace set @ 65 F ?

Regency F1100. Mostly maple with some alder and others mixed in.

 

[LumberjkChamp]

I use a home made hot pepper spray for squash bugs Dry pepers in the sun grind up with food prosser into powder,use two cups per gallon shake up each day for three days spray on plants after due is off in the morning spray about every ten days.....have done this for twenty years....

That's another good idea. Thank you. Only trouble is I like to eat hot peppers myself. It seems the more of 'em I grow, the more culinary uses I find for them. Guess I'll just have to reserve some.

 

[artbaldoni]

Put some around the blue hydrangea plants and you'll get pink ones next year.

 

[sceneofthecrash]

throw mine in the garden hope to plant tomatoes and peppers in them in the spring

 

[zogger]

Garden

Ashes are great in the garden. For this purpose wood ashes are the po' mans way to get "potash".

Potash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was talking to some old timers up in NE and they told me during WW2 they dug huge pits and burned mass quantities of trees and the resultant ash was shipped to the UK on ships for victory gardens and farms then. I don't have a ref for that though, just that anecdotal. the wiki article though has other refs about how almost all the early eastern US settlements were burned for this trade, and all the huge trees wiped out. One quick look that was a few bushels of particular ash was enough to pay off an acre of land at the time! soaps (lye), tanning, fertilizer, etc a valuable resource.

As for watching out for nails, etc, just use a drag behind magnet nail picker upper they sell carpenters, once they are cool in the garden area or a metal detector (which is real handy cutting suspect wood in general terms). A field expedient nail finder is scrounge a broken old audio speaker of some size like the bass speaker and use that magnet. Just poke a hole through the cone and add some rope or cob a rigid broomhandle/stick on it, your choice.

 

[mizzou]

You can make lye out of hardwood ashes. It's in one of the old Foxfire books.

 

[ziggy2b]

ziggy2b

The reason I asked about wood ashes.When I started this thread is to tell about the benefits of wood ashes to promote wood rights of every american....
To many reg's, Our freedom, What's left of it is taken away?

We as a Group, On this site have a right to respect each others opion period...
We are all in this together,to keep the home fires burning,And keeping our families,warm safe and sound the way we see fit!!!
thx--------------------------------------------------------ziggy2barty:

 

[zogger]

Thanks for the tip!!

Used to spread it over the garden but now I save it in trash cans all winter to use as insecticide on the garden during the summer. Works good, just like diatamatious earth. Runs potato beetles off in a couple days and keeps them gone. Sure beats pouring chemical insecticide on the stuff we're eating.

I've been gardening a long time and always appreciate a new tip like that! I'll be sure to set aside some now and save them for the summer. Especially on them ^%$%&!! squash bugs.