[Jeanieblue]

We've a bucketful of wood ash here, from burning waste wood in the chiminea. I know parsnips like ash, but is there anything else I can do with the stuff. Don't want to bin it if it's useful to put heart in the soil or whatever. Thanks for your help.

[shaun]

onions

[woodburner]

Brassicas benefit from lime so I reckon they should like (wood) ash too.

[mashbintater]

My onion seedlings & chives are surrounding my lettuce & chinese cabbage mini plot, can I use them around those seedlings? I've other onion & spring onion seedlings too, they ok?

[shaun]

I would rather dig into the soil before planting the plants out

[Brambles]

Thank you for info on woodash, I have LOADS of the stuff, and have been desperate to find a 'home' for it.  Know you said dig in before planting, but if I am careful---- digging in between plants?
Will give it a go and dig in around onions, and give a tad to my brassicas.
Reminds me - I saw THREE cabbage whites today, hovering around my veggies!!!  Love the hot weather, don't like the cabbage whites!!!

[compostqueen]

leave patches of nettles for the cabbage whites to lay their eggs, say at the edges of the plot. Better there than on your brassicas

wood ash is good for stone fruit apparently.  I always put it on the garden.

[Jeanieblue]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Will hoe some in the onion and brassica beds for now. Happy sowing & reaping!  Jena

[chrissie B]

a big list of stuff that like the wood ash would be nice as i am knee deep in the stuff having asked my local taverna for it mines mainly pine and olive wood , are different trees better than others ?i know what you mean about brassicas liking the lime you should see my cabbage and broccoli the plants are huge and the heads are forming but there are a lot of leaves could i pinch a few lower ones off /
sorry to go off track , and now back to wood ash  :oops:
Chrissie b

[Trillium]

Try this one. It's the last paragraph, about potassium fertilizer in the Truly Trucs article. I'm making loads this year (saved all our plastic OJ containers).

http://www.frenchgardening.com/tech.html

[garddwr bach]

I've been scattering wood ash from the wood burner around the soft fruit and hoeing carefully. Our tutor at local gardening club said the potash was good for them. They've thrived this year !! - loads of flower buds on rasps and flowers on strawbs.

[lincspoacher]

Wood Ash contain potassium and sodium. If you 'wash' it with rain water, using the same water several times,   the resulting liquid is known as 'Lye', and is very alkaline. If you heat Lye with waste fats and oils from the kitchen, you get very crude, basic soap!!

[Dabhand]

Very true Steve, I am a soap maker but have never tried the wood ash method myself as it's not easy to measure the saponification levels.  One way to test if the solution is 'strong' enough is to put an egg in and if it floats it is (apparently)