While you may end up tracking some of it back inside the house, the ash will be less harmful to the ground under the ice and snow than chemical de-icers. Wood ash contains potassium salts, or “potash” which is a natural de-icer.

Traction control - Spread wood ash on your driveway or walkway to melt winter ice. One tablespoon of ash per 1,000 gallons of water will add enough potassium to the pond to boost the aquatic plants that compete with algae, thus slowing the algae growth. In liquid or dry form, wood ash applications need to be replaced every day or two, and after any rain to protect your crops.Īlgae control - If you have a lot of ashes and are seeing increased algae in your farm pond, This Old House online recommends tossing some ashes into the water. Crawling bugs and slugs do not like ashes and placing a circle of ashes around a plot or around individual plants will help deter pests like cutworms, slugs and snails. Spray this liquid onto the tops and bottoms of the foliage. To keep leaf-eating pests away from your plants, combine one cup of wood ashes and 1 cup of hydrated lime in two gallons of water. Tomatoes, on the other hand, love calcium and a quarter cup of ashes added into a hole before planting a tomato seedling can give it quite the boost.īlock pests - Wood ash can make an effective non-chemical pest deterrent, according to an online article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Making compost with ash is a better option than adding ash directly to a garden plot because it can cause damage to acid-loving plants like blueberries or rhododendrons.

Assuming your soil is already in the proper pH range, this is a good annual treatment and your garden won’t require any additional lime or potassium.Īdding it to your compost as brown matter, it breaks down with green materials like grass clippings or food scraps, to create a more balanced garden fertilizer. They recommend spreading wood ash in an application of 20 pounds per 1,000-square-feet - which works out to a five-gallon bucket of ash. Wood ash changes the soil’s pH very quickly, according to the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension. A liming agent that can help raise the pH levels and neutralize acidic soils. If you don’t want to just dump your ashes on the snow or ground, there are some useful things you can use them for around your homestead.Īdd them to your compost - According to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Office, wood ash contains has a high calcium content, so it makes an excellent liming agent along with containing potassium and other trace elements that boost the nutrient value of your compost. “Even in a metal bucket, if you don’t have time to dump put the bucket at least 10-feet from a building.” What can you do with ashes? “Never store ashes inside your house, on your deck or near a building,” Endee said. To be safe, Endee recommends taking the metal buckets of ashes out of the house immediately after collecting them and disposing of them in a secure location, such as on top of a snowbank in the winter or in a moist area in warmer months away from dry grass or weeds. “Once they get stirred up and air hits them, they can ignite and cause potentially deadly structure fires.” “Even when ashes appear dead there can still be a tiny spark or ember in them,” Endee said. Improperly disposed wood stove ashes can spark house fires, something Endee has seen many times in his 56 years as a firefighter. “Never use a cardboard or plastic container for your ashes.”

“Always use a metal bucket or container,” said Fort Kent, Maine, Fire Chief Ed Endee. Use a small metal shovel to scoop out the ashes into a metal bucket. For people who heat with wood, the best time for this is first thing in the morning, before the first fire of day is started or rekindled. You are going to want to wait until the fire has gone out and the ashes have cooled to the point you feel comfortable handling them. How do you remove and properly dispose ashes? If it is your primary source of heat, the ash bin should be inspected and cleaned out - leaving that one-inch layer on the bottom - every week. The time to clean out the ashes depends on how often there is a fire in your woodstove. Keeping at least a 1-inch layer of ashes in the bottom of a firebox during the heating season helps protect the bottom of your firebox as the ashes are a buffer between actively burning wood which can damage or weaken the bottom of your firebox over time. When the ash level gets to the point it’s spilling over the wood stove door, it’s time to clean it out.

Fire dogs for buck stove