Spreading Wood and Chicken Bone Ashes for Mineral Supplementation. 3.24.2021

 Yesterday I spread a small bucket of woodstove ashes in one of the tomato beds and one of the sweetcorn beds.  I had to pull back the leaf mulch for the tomatoes.   I hand-tilled and turned over the corn bed.  That one is in the footprint of a former raised bed.  The raised bed was one that I had built the first summer here, 2012 or 2013.  I don't know whether being where a raised bed was, is good for the soil or not.  The soil here is low in calcium, good in potassium, low in phosphorus, low in magnesium.  The wood ashes are a combination of trees that grew here that were cut and burned for firewood, and the bones that resulted from making dog food from chicken thighs.  Those will be high in calcium, phosphorus, and trace minerals.  Potassium too from the wood ashes.  It kind of averages out to a decent mineral supplement for those vegetables.  Plus, the soil here is very acidic.  The ashes are alkaline, so moderate that.  I apply a dusting of ashes, and let it mellow for two or three months before using.

Potatoes should not be given alkaline supplements, so I did not apply in potato areas.

The bone fragments are still visible, but after burning them they are soft and fragile like chalk.  They break down very quickly.

After rains, turning the soil and tilling in, the minerals will be pretty evenly dispersed.

 

Using Bone Ashes in the Garden. 12.9.18

I was thinking about what to do with the beef bones after Rufus is done with them. Most people would throw them into the trash or bury them, but I like to see if things are useful. Since I do much of the heating with a wood stove, I wondered if I could mineralize the bones and spread that in the garden along with the wood ashes. It appears the answer is yes.

First, bone ash is considered an organic fertilizer and is mostly calcium and phosphorous. In my soil tests, calcium was very low, and phosphorus was somewhat low. So at least in the small amounts that I use, these are needed mineral nutrients. The wood ashes are also mostly calcium, so it's kind of more of the same thing, similar to adding lime. Except wood ashes are also high in potassium and there are some other nutrients.

Here is a link to someone who wanted to use human ashes in their garden. I imagine those are mostly from bone, with the other parts going up in smoke. The problem with using some human ashes in gardening, is they might contain lead or mercury.  I'm not interested in getting any of those.

I added a couple of Rufus's beef leg bone chunks to the wood stove, as I fed more logs, and just let them burn along with the wood.  It turns out, the very small chunks that survived the fire were much more brittle and flaky, than the original bone.  Most of the bone had disintegrated. So I just put the intact pieces back into the woodstove for the next go-round.  As for the rest, it will just be part of the mineral supplement that I add to the gardens during this winter, to replenish what is removed in the process of growing plants and removing their products.

At an atomic level, next year when I admire the bearded irises, or eat some figs, I'll ponder these cycles of life, and imagine that some of the atoms in those flowers and fruits, last resided in some Bessie the cow, or were trees on the back woodlot, collecting sunshine for 45 years (I counted the rings), before warming my sore joints in the woodstove.  This gives me a nice feeling, about the continuous process of renewal.

Firewood and Wood Ashes. 11.12.18

Rufus keeping warm by the woodstove.  11.12.18

Over the years, we've had many trees fall on our 2-acre property.  Most have been scrubby, especially cascara trees with trunks about 1 foot thick at the base, tapering up the trees' approximately 30 foot height.  I've also collected some trimmed branches with dimensions that fit in to the woodstove.  We use the cut pieces to supplement the house's heat.  The woodstove makes a big difference, keeping the house warm on cold days.

After the wood is burned, I collect the ashes and spread on the yard and garden.  I avoid spreading ashes on areas where acidic soil is preferred, such as near chestnut trees, or near rhododendrons, or where I will plant potatoes next season.  Those plants do not appreciate alkaline conditions or wood ashes.

This is where a soil test is handy.  Our soil was quite low in calcium, then magnesium.  Wood ashes are alkaline, so can buffer an acidic soil.    Their major component is calcium carbonate - so they have an effect similar to lime, although not as strong as lime.  Wood ashes contribute calcium to soil, then potassium and phosphorus, and some magnesium.   Ed Hume recommends spreading ash around trees and shrubs.  I avoid around acid-loving plants, like chestnut trees, rhododendrons, azaleas, or evergreens, as well as where I will grow potatoes next season. Ed Hume recommends 1 gallon of dry wood ashes per square yard of garden, or 1/4 to 1/2 inch on lawns and flower beds.  Farmer's Almanac recommends 20 pounds per 1000 square feet, which would be 2 pounds per 100 square feet, or 1 pound per 50 square feet - a 5 foot by 10 foot bed.  I apply less, figuring I don't want to overdo it.  I just use a dusting on the vegetable beds for next year, and on lawn around fruit and specimen trees.  Less than the recommend 1/4 inch, so I doubt any problem will occur.

My philosophy is that the trees and garden are already goring nicely.  By adding ashes, I'm returning some of the minerals that trees and vegetables have removed from the soil.  That will help growth in future years. Our soil is high in potassium, the next ingredient that is high in wood ashes, so that aspect is not needed.  The magnesium and phosphorus content of ashes is not much, but would be helpful.as well.