[compostqueen]

I use wood ash all the time, none goes to waste either from my lotty burnings or from my log burner at home. Fruit is partial to wood ash    I add my ashes to the bit of soil I'm dealing with next as I don't dig or rotovate and anything that will help make the soil finer and more friable, free draining etc goes in. If you mix it in with the rest of the soil I can't see it causing the soil to be too acid or alkaline. Not like your adding vast quantities is it

[JayG]

My garlic is planted next to my onions.

Will wood ash harm the onions?

No.

Also, most potassium salts are quite highly soluble in water so will leach out fairly quickly from wood ash especially in light soils.

[Jeff Glanrhyd]

Great and thanks - is there anything that you wouldn't put wood ash on ?

[JayG]

It's rather alkaline so not really suitable for spuds (or any ericaceous plants you might happen to have like blueberries.)

[pink aubergine]

My father in law used to put all his wood ash from his woodburning stove round his apple trees and it caused bitterpit.

[SarahB]

Bitter pit is calcium deficiency, isn't it?  If there was a lot of ash going on (especially if it was chalky soil to begin with) then it might have got too alkaline... and I think fruit trees like conditions a bit acid anyway.

[Kristen]

It's good for brassicas (always assuming your soil isn't already alkaline) - it works like lime to help minimise the effects of clubroot, if you're unfortunate enough to have it on the plot. 

I am not sure this is correct as what I seem to remember from my feeble researches in times gone by is that wood ash nutrients wash through the soil quickly....

I think that is true of the Potash - which is less than 10% - but I think the Calcium carbonate which is 25% to 45%, and which causes the alkalinity, doesn't wash out quickly - hence the problem of using wood ash on acid-loving plants.

I've got loads of wood ash here, which has been bagged to keep it dry, planning to use it on my Toms in the greenhouse, and also the Raspberry bed (and now the Brassicas too which I didn't know about, and they haven't had any lime ... I need to open the Soil Testing Kit I bought myself a month or two back  )

[compostqueen]

I got some heavy soil in a patch on my plot today where I was planting so I used bonfire ash to help break it up, along with sand and leafmould, all put through a rotary sieve. 

[Squibbs]

On a gardeners question time a while ago they recommended it for cooking apples,so I scatter it under the trees and also on the onions - I read somewhere it was good for them