TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
I have a burn pile of tree branches out back. I set it ablaze a couple weeks ago and I have a couple more plants to stick in the ground.
Will that soil be dead?
Will that soil be dead?
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Planting after a fire
- Thread starter TychoMonolyth
- Start date
TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
Thanks folks. I'll give it a shot.
I'mback
Comfortably numb!
NO! We raze softwood lumber forests here is NS. We grow blueberries
That sucker is just waiting to grow something 
It should work fine, just remove as much of the ash as possible. If the soil got real hot, some of its microbes could be depleted, but just mix it up, they will come back. Watch they will be super-plants! I bet it will help keep weeds down around it! Love little experimetns like this. 
You want to think of ash as similar to lime, lots of calcium and very alkaline. Works best if your soil is a bit acidic. I know you aren't adding the ash as fertilizer to your soil, it's there because of a burn, but he're a link to a paper about using wood ash in a garden.
https://web.extension.illinois.edu/state/newsdetail.cfm?NewsID=12505
One other thing, the ash changes the composition of the microbes in the soil, dependent on the amount of ash present.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5532396/
https://web.extension.illinois.edu/state/newsdetail.cfm?NewsID=12505
One other thing, the ash changes the composition of the microbes in the soil, dependent on the amount of ash present.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5532396/
Hi Tycho
I would use a pitchfork to turn over the soil.
As others have said, the burnt plant matter will add nutes, but I like to have relatively neutral top soil for the first foot deep or so. That way the roots of the seedling or clones don't go directly into "hot" soil, if you will pardon the unintended pun.
I would use a pitchfork to turn over the soil.
As others have said, the burnt plant matter will add nutes, but I like to have relatively neutral top soil for the first foot deep or so. That way the roots of the seedling or clones don't go directly into "hot" soil, if you will pardon the unintended pun.
I burn off all my garden areas every winter... including my veggie raised beds and the area surrounding them.
Not only is it not detrimental to your soil, it is actually good for it.
For one thing, you kill lots or most of harmful plant diseases and bad fungal spores, which reside in the diseased dead leaves which would normally just lie there all winter.
You also destroy lots of "bad insect" eggs, which are just waiting to hatch in the Springtime..
..
Not only is it not detrimental to your soil, it is actually good for it.
For one thing, you kill lots or most of harmful plant diseases and bad fungal spores, which reside in the diseased dead leaves which would normally just lie there all winter.
You also destroy lots of "bad insect" eggs, which are just waiting to hatch in the Springtime..
..
TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
Well I put my last 3 plants in it. Strawberry Cough, Trainwreck and a GG4xNL auto.
I have 6 back there now. Only supposed to have 4 at home.
I have 6 back there now. Only supposed to have 4 at home.
Bio Char! is good!!!
TychoMonolyth
Boreal Curing
Put as much as you have on your garden area..Up to a couple inches thick if you have it...
With a garden fork or garden rake, mix it in with your top 4 or 5 inches of soil...
Doesn't have to be perfect...
Don't use all of the ash... Rake up the char, leaving 75% of the fly ash behind...The ash will help raise the pH of acidic soil.
PDX Dopesmoker
Active member
A wildfire has to burn very hot to sterilize the soil, the local fire bosses say that sterilization from fires in only tends to happen when dense stands of young trees burn.
Hookahhead
Active member
Ok so you hear a lot about wood ash being good for plants via the web and organic circles. However, it's really not that great for the soil.
As therev said, wood ash is mostly calcium carbonate, with around 10% potassium and 1% phosphorous. It's basically lime, and although a little is good for buffering the soil, too much will make it alkaline. Sadly all of the nitrogen, and most of the P is volitized off during combustion. Furthermore, the heavy metals don't vapor off and are therefore concentrated in the ash. The soil would be much healthier if that organic material was mixed in and decomposed naturally instead of burnt.
Soil is a great insulator, and as long as you didn't have a ripping hot forest fire raging above, I doubt the microbes an inch below the surface even noticed.
I would also like to point out that biochar or charcoal is much different than ash. Ash is generated from normal fires, and most of the carbon is released as CO2. Charcoal on the other hand is generated when woody material is pyrolysised. This just means the wood is heated to high temperature in an inert atmosphere (without oxygen). This prevents the material from combusting in a normal fashion. Therefore the two materials have much different physical and chemical characteristics.
This post has been brought to you by science.
As therev said, wood ash is mostly calcium carbonate, with around 10% potassium and 1% phosphorous. It's basically lime, and although a little is good for buffering the soil, too much will make it alkaline. Sadly all of the nitrogen, and most of the P is volitized off during combustion. Furthermore, the heavy metals don't vapor off and are therefore concentrated in the ash. The soil would be much healthier if that organic material was mixed in and decomposed naturally instead of burnt.
Soil is a great insulator, and as long as you didn't have a ripping hot forest fire raging above, I doubt the microbes an inch below the surface even noticed.
I would also like to point out that biochar or charcoal is much different than ash. Ash is generated from normal fires, and most of the carbon is released as CO2. Charcoal on the other hand is generated when woody material is pyrolysised. This just means the wood is heated to high temperature in an inert atmosphere (without oxygen). This prevents the material from combusting in a normal fashion. Therefore the two materials have much different physical and chemical characteristics.
This post has been brought to you by science.
