In autumn it’s time not only to harvest, but also to prepare the soil for next year. This stage should not be missed, since the depleted soil must be re-saturated with useful substances. This process is carried out before plowing. During the winter, the substances have time to be processed. Ash is often used as a fertilizer, as it is a source of potassium and phosphorus.
What kind of ash is there and what does it contain?
This organic fertilizer contains the following elements:
- potassium;
- phosphorus;
- calcium;
- boron;
- copper;
- molybdenum;
- manganese.
But different ash contains different amounts of microelements. For example, straw or vegetable contains 40% potassium, wood - 30% of the same substance. And coniferous trees contain 10% phosphorus.
The advantage of ash is that it contains all trace elements in an accessible form for plants. As a result of treatment, the roots of the plant easily absorb these substances, and this, in turn, has a beneficial effect on its growth and flowering. In addition, it does not contain chlorine, as, for example, in store-bought mixtures, which negatively affects the growth and development of the plant.
How to properly fertilize the soil
As noted above, it is necessary to apply fertilizer before digging the soil. Initially, it is necessary to determine the type of soil: sandy, loamy, peat, sod-podzolic.This must be done in order to determine the dosage of the substance, since it directly depends on the soil, as well as on what will be planted on a particular piece of land. Light soil must be fed in the spring, since beneficial microelements are washed out of it by melt water.
Different crops will benefit from different ash: wood ash for bushes and trees, straw ash for strawberries and cucumbers, herbal ash for nightshade crops. It is necessary to observe the proportion: per 1 sq. m - 1 kg of ash, but if the soil is fertile, then its amount can be reduced to 500 grams. Poor soil needs to be fertilized twice as much.
In addition to containing many microelements, this mixture disinfects the soil. Thanks to the alkaline reaction, various microorganisms, pests, and bacteria die.
It should be taken into account that stone ash is not used as a fertilizer, since it does not contain useful substances. However, it is used as a leavening agent and drying agent on clay soils.
What needs to be fertilized with ash in the fall
Some crops especially need feeding with ash. These include:
- Grapes - maintain a ratio of 1:10, water after harvesting.
- Strawberries - half a glass for each bush, pour dry.
- Cherry, plum - fertilize once every 3 years, bury 100 grams of ash in a hole 10 cm deep at the base of the tree.
- Currants, gooseberries, raspberries - water in the fall in the same proportion as grapes.
- Cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin - maintain a 1:1 ratio.
Ash is an excellent natural fertilizer that has many benefits. In addition, getting it will not be a big effort or investment. As a result, the gardener will receive a high-quality harvest.
1:1 - WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
I believe that fertilizing with ash in the fall is not effective. By scattering ash in the fall for digging, the only thing that can be achieved is to deoxidize the soil. It is most effective to add ash in the spring during planting into each hole. Ash is also used as a fungicide and insecticide. But that's a completely different story!
I add a mixture of chicken manure and ash to the raspberries three times a year in the fall, spring and summer (after pruning the fruit-bearing bushes), the harvest satisfies me
Dry ash will cause worms to scatter in different directions. They have delicate skin and (ash) burns them. There are no worms where I sprinkle ash. Unfortunately….
The house is gasified. But I have two boilers: - gas, wall-mounted and floor-standing, wood-burning.Connected in parallel. I prepare quite a lot of firewood, about fifty cubic meters, so I have a backup gas boiler, it automatically switches on when the wood boiler is not heating due to my absence or busyness with household chores. Plus, the bathhouse is heated by wood. What, there is a ton of firewood at the dump! And free! Over the winter, forty to fifty buckets of ash accumulate. I scatter it around the garden in the fall before plowing, and in the spring I add it to the holes for some crops. The garden is six or eight hundred square meters, who will measure it? There is plenty of empty land after the transition to the “good” capitalist system and the destruction of the “bad”, socialist one. So there will be no ash overdose. New