Most people discard ashes from the hearth or fireplace without realizing that they have excellent agricultural value. For instance, spread in the garden, they act as soil conditioners replenishing the soil with nutrients such as potassium and rectify soil acidity at no extra cost.
Not only that but ash also helps keeps the pests away. It also works miracle for many insect bites. It helps relieve the itch and swelling post insect bites. Its handy, easily available in charcoal using areas and of course costs you nothing but charcoal. You can even store it in a clean airtight glass jar.
Ash has several benefits, and it works wonder to keep the miley bugs away from the plants, one of the biggest threat for indoor plants. But in city living ash is hardly available. There is a dearth of wood so even the BPL families are no more using wood for fire. Given that it is difficult to procure ash. However, if tweaks and dried plants are burnt in our locality, I collect the ash to sprinkle in my garden.
Wood ash is really good for ornamental and fruit plants. As it contains a lot of potassium it induces flowering and fruit set. I usually sprinkle it before monsoon arrives and it is easily absorbed by plant if there is enough water. But wood ash without water could also kill the plant as it is very hot. So whenever you sprinkle wood ash don't forget to spray some water also. During summer we can find a lot of dried leaves and clippings around. We usually make ash out of them even though it is not as effective as wood ash.
We cook barbecue using the traditional coal which results in ashes afterwards. The ashes are good for covering our compost bin and I think it gives the earthworms a sort of privacy. Our compost bin, by the way, is just a square pit where we throw vegetables trimmings and some leftover food that will serve as feed for the earthworms. The compost is my source of fertilizer. Another use of ashes is when I transplant a seedling from the plastic pot to the ground, the ashes can serve as part of the potting material together with coconut coir or rice husk.
Did you know that if you cut up banana peels or mash up egg shells and lay them around your plants or grass, it helps them grow even greener and healthy? Also, to stop pests from destroying your flowers and plants, you should have mint plants around them because for some reason, most bugs despise the smell of mint. There are so many uses for things we usually think is trash.
Ash contain phosphorous. If you use ash in your garden, phosphorous level will be maintained on the soil. phosphorous is good for the plants that bear underground fruits such as garlic,onion, ginger etc. If you use warm ash on the plant leaves, most of the insects will be killed.
Yes, I have heard of this but tend to forget about the benefits of many items that are beneficial but most of us consider them to be trash. Ash is great for plant growth and pest control in your garden which is enviroment friendly not like pesticides which can be harmful to our health.
Ring around the Rosie! A pocket is full of posy!!!! Ashes, ashes, they all fall down! Speaking of ashes, who remembers this old childhood chant? I guess that it speaks to the true value of ashes and their importance in certain aspects of everyday life, to some extent, anyways. I love it.
I have been teaching an elementary agriculture. I once taught this to my elementary grade pupils about the importance of using ashes to enrich the nutrients in the soil. Aside from that I also told them about preserving the water in the soil like mulching by the use of rice straws or dried weeds. I even let them use the rice bran for that. It is good indeed to use the natural way of fertilizing the soil by using those raw materials.
What a great tip! Thanks. I honestly had never thought of this possibility before, but from what I've been reading so far... It really seems to be a very good and interesting alternative. I'll start using it to see the results.
