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Does potash for fruit need to be wood ash? I was wondering if there's anything I could do with the ash left over from the barbeque with charcoal brackettes. I mean charcaol used to be wood once didn't it, so would it be ok? or into the compost bin? I hate to throw anything away!

thanks

Charcoal is used to keep some composts sweet so I would imagine it would be fine.

As far as I know Foxhillgardener it is perfectly safe to put your ash in the compost but there seems to be a school of thought that says while it does no harm it does not do a great deal of good. At least it is a place to put it.

Wood ash (and thus charcoal ash) does contain potash in varying quantities which is great for fruit and garlic etc. It is less potent than bought potash so use it freely. Another great benefit is that it really opens up the soil structure especially if you have heavy clay soil.

__________________
Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

ah good. an extra little treat for the raspberries then.

thanks for your help.

Does anyone know about ash from peat fires, whether that has the necessary nutrients too? I have a solid fuel Rayburn and burn peat in it regularly, though much less so over the summer. THere is a big heap of ash from the winter though, which I'm tipping over the wall at the moment but would be good to use if it's possible.

I would treat it as above but with a caveat that as peat is acid ergo so may the ash. Wood ash is generally alkaline so It would be prudent to do a "soil test" on it to check. I put all my wood ash around all the soft fruit (Blueberries excepted) and around my autumn sown garlic and just scatter any thats left over all overthe beds and let the winter rain draw it into the soil.

__________________
Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs