[Lupin lurcher]

Hello everyone,
Today we had our chimney swept and there was alot of soot, the sweep said he had heard it was very good for plants.  Could anyone please enlighten me on if this is right and if so,  how we go about using it on our allotment.  Many thanks Mandy.

[bailey]

Hi Mandy,, this was discussed quite  a while ago and there were some different answers as such,, some had concerns with the contents of the soot as according to what you burn may have chemicals ect, i think creosote or similar is present if you burn alot of wood,,

however i use it myself as a slug/snail deterrent by placing a trail all around the edge of my garden and I don,t have too much problems with slugs, especially as next door is overgrown building site.. I don,t put it around my plants though as some suggest..

try a search it may bring the old topic up for you..

[yorky]

The old time gardeners used to allways use soot on their onion beds because it contains potash. Just how much is a bit hit and miss, as it depends very much on what you are burning to produce the soot in the first place.
In the days when every house had a coal fire tons of the stuff was put on gardens and allotments without any harm.
I would say that unless you know it to be the product of burning heavily creosoted wood etc. Then it will do more good than harm if put on your soil.

[Lupin lurcher]

Hi Bailey and Yorky,  Thank you for replying.  I have tried putting in a search but its only my thread that comes up.  I will try putting some round my cabbages as am having trouble with slugs.  I will be growing onions next year so will try some on them.  We burn coal and logs that have not had creosote on them.  Thank you both very much once again.
Mandy

[Faz]

The previous thread also talked about the blacker soil warming up quicker in the spring. I am pretty sure my grandad used to use it as his soil was jet black.

[mumofstig]

A friendly word of warning....if you put soot in your garden and it darkens the soil..........
Never garden in sandals......cos your feet get stained black

Takes quite some scrubbing to get them clean as well

[DD.]

I have tried putting in a search but its only my thread that comes up. 

Try it again.

I put "soot" in a search & there are 3 pages of results for this forum alone!

[Salmo]

Every plot used to have a soot pile. Some was used whenever there was a pest problem. It needed to be weathered before being used.

I seem to remember a sludge of soot and lime being put into holes when planting brassicas. It might well work. Stave off clubroot and deter cabbage root fly and slugs?

[richyrich7]

There's bloke on my site he swears by it for keeping slugs off his spud tubers. He puts some in with each seed potato he plants.

[New shoot]

I save all the wood ash from my open fire and use it to line the potato trench. It does seem to help with slugs.

We have a chimney sweep that dumps bags of soot on our site and loads of us use it as the allotments are on heavy clay soil. Like Salmo says you need to let it weather for about 6 months in a heap open to the elements. We all spread it over the soil and dig it in after that - works wonders on opening up the soil.

 

[Lupin lurcher]

Hi all have taken on board all your good advice thanks very much.  DD I have put soot in the search box and found all the old posts on the subject, I don`t know what I was doing before but must have been half asleep.  Leslie that for the advice on not wearing sandles,I will cover them in plastic bags . 
Thanks all once again.
Mandy

[alfman]

 All good advice, soot has to be left for 6 months or more 'cause its very acidic and needs weathering.  The old gardeners always put it on their onions and to deter snails. Ash (potash) is also good for onions as long as its wood ash.

[arugula]

We have tended not to use the soot/ashes from the fire on the garden when we have been burning coal, we only use them if it has been a wood only fire. We always felt the high tar content in the coal may not be helpful to the plants.

[hamstergbert]

I have heard form a usually reliable source that sweeps are now required to make special (and properly documented) arrangements for disposing of soot as it is classed as industrial waste.   Even from domestic premises.   They are not therefore permitted to make the stuff available to householders, gardeners or anyone else who is not registered to handle it and can be liable to a fine if found breaching the rules. 

Luckily of course, the sweep only has to document the disposal of the amount he or she records as produced.  Good job nobody would misrepresent that volume, eh.

Boggle, boggle boggle.  That's my mind, that is.
Good old UK implementation of EEC edicts.