What does everyone do with there ash?

FJLayes625 said:

I've been tossing it in the trash...

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Shame on you for putting it in landfill!
Ash is an excellent fertilizer. All of mine goes on the compost pile.
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=67125

The ash goes into 1) the garden, 2) the compost pile, or 3) the woods. If enough has gone in the garden then the ash goes to compost. If there's plenty of compost then it goes into the woods (thrown on the snow after it has already cooled).

You can use it on your lawn, garden or compost pile as a potassium source but be careful wood ash is extremely alkaline. Unless you have some plants that prefer an alkaline environment like lilacs or rose of sharon use sparingly. The pH is between 10-11 and most plants prefer the pH under 7. It also works well for ice traction if you don't mind the mess, as a fill material if you are not concerned about anything growing there and if you have an ash hopper you can make potassium hydroxide at a grade sufficient for soapmaking and questionable as a biodiesel catalyst.

Be extra careful when putting ashes outside. There was a guy here in Virginia last year who put his ashes out a little to soon. He thought they were out, but they wern't completely and the wind got it going again. That fire spread into the woods and burnt 100's of acres. Once it was out, they went back to him for some kind of compensation. The total bill was way up there, maybe like $100,000 or so but they we going to try to work with him. Even at $10,000 that would sure knock out the idea of having a wood stove. Not to mention how he felt about it too (they interviewed him on TV).

Bill

Here ya go:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/20188/

LLigetfa said:

FJLayes625 said:

I've been tossing it in the trash...

Click to expand...

Shame on you for putting it in landfill!
Ash is an excellent fertilizer. All of mine goes on the compost pile.
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=67125

Click to expand...

Apologies to the OP for being off topic here, but given that a few folks have mentioned compost piles (I will begin putting my cooled ashes into my pile instead of bagging them and sending to landfill, by the way), I wonder if pumpkins can go in compost? My boys cut up their jack-o-lanterns as they do every year. They are starting to rot out on the porch now and was going to just walk them into the woods, but would they do well in compost? They're pretty good sized, if that matters.

Again, sorry for going off topic....

Any vegetable or plant matter that contains zero animal products can go in compost.
No meat, bones, or poop from anything that eats meat or bones.

Part of my ashes go into a compost pile and the remainder get dumped in a ravine in my woods.

I save it to put around the perimeter of my greenhouses--slugs hate crawling through it. I use a little in the garden, too.

If you want to retain the potency of the ashes for summer use, keep it dry in a metal garbage can. I did that for a while but the wife never bothered to use any of it so now it just goes straight out to the big compost pile.

I use mine in the driveway. I also have a spot I'm trying to fill with dirt so I throw it there as well.

I just tossed our pumpkins to the chickens. You probably want to get your seeds out of the pumpkins before you compost them.

Chris

I cover my ash with Stocker.

Dump it on your lawn. When spring comes, removing chunks leftover is optional.
Ash also seems to be a great ice melter when you have a little sun.

Don't throw it in the trash.

Mine go in the farmer's corn/soy bean field in my backyard. Already picked of course.

I composted a store bought pumkin last year, it sprouted, I did nothing and got 2
pumpkins this year.

I throw my ashes in the trash because I burn pallets. Too many nails.

BillT said:

Be extra careful when putting ashes outside. There was a guy here in Virginia last year who put his ashes out a little to soon. He thought they were out, but they wern't completely and the wind got it going again. That fire spread into the woods and burnt 100's of acres. Once it was out, they went back to him for some kind of compensation. The total bill was way up there, maybe like $100,000 or so but they we going to try to work with him. Even at $10,000 that would sure knock out the idea of having a wood stove. Not to mention how he felt about it too (they interviewed him on TV).

Bill

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HehHeh . . . reminded me of a Thanksgiving Day a few years back when my Thanksgiving meal got a bit cold when a neighbor did something very similar. Dumped their ashes beside a hayfield thinking they were dead . . . kind of strange to see a field on fire in late-November . . . something we are more used to seeing here in Maine in the Spring.

FJLayes625 said:

Hey everyone, Just wondering what everyone does with there ash..I've been tossing it in the trash after it cools that is..But I've heard of people putting it on there lawn..not sure if thats good for it or not..just looking for ideas...thanks

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After the ash has cooled sufficiently in a covered metal can I have outside (on a non-combustible surface) I sprinkle the ash mostly in my garden . . . although lately I've been a bit lazy and sprinkling it here and there on the lawn on my way to the garden. Since I've used some pallets and scrap lumber to get some fires going I have had some nails . . . so I use a small garden trowel to weed out the nails from the ash.

Just echoing what others have said.......I plan on putting in a garden next spring, so I've been sprinkling the ash/charcoals on the area I plan to plant. Once the area is covered with snow, I'll save some more in a container, then the remainder will go out in the woods.

Ashes/coals being completely out is a given here.

I have two 20 gallon galvie garbage cans I use for ashes - fill one while the other cools, by the time I'm ready to touch the cold can, the ashes in it have been there for a month or so, cause I want to be really sure they are DEAD I have a stainless steel cooking collander that I use to spread the ashes over the garden, lawn, use as ice melt / traction aid on the walks and drive, etc... It does the double function of catching any big charcoal chunks or the occasional nail from a split, and giving a fairly thin, even distribution so that the ash won't end up overly concentrated anywhere in the soil.

Likely the next batch will end up in the compost pile, as I already have a layer on the garden...

Gooserider

With 11 acres and probably 3 acres of it spread out into 6 different gardens,I don't have a problem using the ashes up.I'm a lazy composter,have 2 landscapers constantly dumping there leaves and grass in my garden areas where I will till them in,that's why I have so many garden areas I will rotate using some why the other are being dumped on

Some goes on the gravel driveway when it's icy but most goes into the garden.

I'm also a lazy composter - I cut a small clearing area in our underbrush, and invited a couple of landscapers to dump leaves and such there - let them sit for a few months, and move the results to the garden patch in the spring. May make a second pile for next year, will have to see how far this one goes. Much easier to have someone dump other people's leaves in the pile than it is to pick up my own :coolsmirk:

Gooserider

so this ash we get is good for the veggie garden? i alway thought it was on the acid side.good for acid loving plants.

Gooserider said:

I have two 20 gallon galvie garbage cans I use for ashes - fill one while the other cools, by the time I'm ready to touch the cold can, the ashes in it have been there for a month or so, cause I want to be really sure they are DEAD

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That bears re-emphasizing. When they are buried in ash, coals can stay hot in a sort of 'suspended animation' for many many days. The coal is in a snug insulating blanket and doesn't lose much heat so it stays burning hot... the same blanket slows but does not stop a slow supply of oxygen to the coal. The coal can literally burn, very very slowly, for a surprisingly long time. (And will probably be making carbon monoxide while it does it.)

Eddy

EddyKilowatt said:

Gooserider said:

I have two 20 gallon galvie garbage cans I use for ashes - fill one while the other cools, by the time I'm ready to touch the cold can, the ashes in it have been there for a month or so, cause I want to be really sure they are DEAD

Click to expand...

That bears re-emphasizing. When they are buried in ash, coals can stay hot in a sort of 'suspended animation' for many many days. The coal is in a snug insulating blanket and doesn't lose much heat so it stays burning hot... the same blanket slows but does not stop a slow supply of oxygen to the coal. The coal can literally burn, very very slowly, for a surprisingly long time. (And will probably be making carbon monoxide while it does it.)

Eddy

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Exactly... plus it's also worth noting that using the collander to spread them with like I do, if by some freak chance there IS a live coal left, I'm probably going to see it... I should also mention that when spreading the ashes, I do wear a dust mask. I probably should when dumping my VC's ash tray, but I don't bother usually because it's a pretty minimal exposure.

One of the nice things I like about my VC (one of it's relatively few good points) is that it very completely burns the wood, so I throw out very little charcoal. With my old smoke dragon, I got a lot of large coals in my bucket, so that when I spread them, I probably got 3-5 gallons of good sized lump charcoal out of every 20 gallon can of ash. (I saved the charcoal and used it on the barbie BTW, much better than Kingsfart...) With the VC, I find that the charcoal I get is very small in quantity, and the peices are about the size of aquarium gravel, not worth saving. Besides the efficiency, the small bits of charcoal mean that you are less likely to have any long lasting embers - the smaller the coal is, the less fuel it has, and the faster it will cool down and go out.

Gooserider