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Sun, Jun 10, 12 at 6:18
| Yesterday my husband decided to 'help' with the yardwork by dumping our 100L can of wood ash in our 600L compost bin, then mixed it up quite thoroughly. Is my compost completely ruined? Is there anything I can do to fix it?
We live in the Auvergne region of France, in the Parc National des Volcans. I haven't tested our soil, but I know it to be very dark brown and very moist. Roses do exceptionally well and my hydrangeas are a bright blue. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| The compost is not completely ruined, or even a little bit. The highly alkaline nature of the wood ash may slow the digestion process down some, but will not be of major concern. Although adding wood ash to compost is not necessary, and is strongly discouraged, people have done so for many years under the mistaken notion that it was necessary to make near neutral pH compost. |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Mon, Jun 11, 12 at 11:59
| That's a lot of ash though. Not only is it highly alkaline but there are other soluble salts in the ash too. I have never tried to use that much at once so I can't tell you what will happen. I would keep adding compostable material to that pile and mix it in, and see what happens over the summer. |
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| I wouldn't worry about it, I routinely add wood ash to my compost - last week we brushed out the stove pipe and I added whatever that dried residue is as well as the last ashes from the season onto the pile, and hosed it down so it mixed in well with the rest. |
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| You should NOT add wood ash to compost. It increases the pH and causes loss of nitrogen fertility. The ammonium cation, NH4+, is converted to ammonia gas, NH3, and is lost as the the pH increases. Your compost is not ruined but it will not have the fertility it could have had. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Ammonium --- Ammonia
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Tue, Jun 12, 12 at 14:57
| A little is OK, but 1/6 of the compost pile is too much, IMHO. |
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- Posted by wahinegirr none (My Page) on Wed, Jun 13, 12 at 1:24
| Thanks, everyone for the responses! It's one of those things - I almost wanted to cry when I saw what he had done but on the other hand, he was trying to be 'helpful'. We have a great deal of nettle in & around our property. I wonder if culling a good bit of that and throwing it in with the compost will help. I hear it has almost 'magical' properties as fertilizer. Normally we just put yard waste and table scraps in the bin. Thanks again for all the help! |
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| While many get all hyper about adding what are classified as "weeds" in the compost you need to remember that those "weeds" have been growing in your soil and extracting nutrients form it. Composting those "weeds" adds nutrients to your compost that otherwise would get trhown away if not composted. As long as those plants do not have viable seeds there shouild be no problem with compsoting them. |
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- Posted by realyrosey 6a (My Page) on Mon, Jun 18, 12 at 11:34
| I've been looking around for an answer to this question to no avail and this is as close to the topic as I've found. I use a smoker box when I grill and was wondering if the charred wood can be added to my compost. We're not talking a ton of it since I don't have that much time to grill. Maybe the amount of one small smoke box a week. Thanks. |
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