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Tue, Nov 2, 10 at 7:55
| An acid reacting fertilizer with alkaline ashes, would that work? If so what might be the approximate blend. P, K and Ca are all high in my rose bed.
I have a big pile of ashes and what to do with it? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| If your rose bed is high in P, K, and Ca, then you don't need to be adding ashes. People used to make soap with ashes and bacon grease. |
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| Sorry I didn't explain myself well. My idea was to use my big pile of ashes and my big bag of Ammonium Sulfate. I need to do something with both. So the question is what proportions of each and would there be any bad effects? |
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- Posted by joepyeweed 5b IL (My Page) on Tue, Nov 2, 10 at 19:56
| I've reported your post to the FBI. ;-) |
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| As was said, if you add the ashes, the P, K, and Ca will be even higher than it currently is. If you have no use for the Ammonium sulfate as a nitrogen fertilizer, contact your local agency involved with Hazardous Waste & ask where to recycle. |
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| joepyeweed Ammonium nitrate is the stuff that blows up! No real help here??? |
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| Wood ashes have an NPK content of approx. 0-1-3, so if you mix it with , say, 30-0-0, in equal proportions, you'll end up with 15-0.5-1.5. Adjust the ratios to suit the fertilizer makeup you want to achieve. Wood ashes are alkaline, and can be used instead of lime if you double the quantity. For instance, if your soil test calls for 10 lbs lime/1000 sq ft, using 20 lbs of wood ash will meet that requirement. So if you know how much NPK you want to put down, you can use the above formula to pick how much wood ash to use. Simply, meet your N need with ammonium sulfate, and the K or lime need with wood ash. I suspect that you will meet your liming need with wood ash and will need to supplement K from other sources, but I haven't seen your soil test. There's also an issue with calcium in wood ash violatilizing ammonia from ammonium sulfate, so I would suggest you wait at least two weeks between wood ash and ammonium sulfate applications, that is, don't combine them prior to application. |
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| I did what josko is recommending with ash from my corn stove. It has a lower PH than wood ash, around 7.7. It worked well in the vegetable garden. It is not recommended for lawns due to P/K levels. Curt |
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- Posted by drhorticulture_ Z3 Central Saskatche (My Page) on Thu, Nov 4, 10 at 22:55
| What josko said. The ashes will react with it and outgass ammonia, leading to partial nitrogen loss. The thing is, although ammonia itself is alkaline, you need it to stay in the soil so it can be converted to nitric acid by bacteria. |
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