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/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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504382 No.504382 [Reply] [Original]

hey /diy/ gardening question here. I have read online quite a bit that adding ash to soil works as fertilizer for plants. My question is: Can I grow plants in nothing but ash? Either way, I'm probably going to try it but I'd like to see what you guys think first.
(Pic unrelated)

>> No.504629

>>504382
Adding ash to your soil doesn't work as well as once was thought in the old days. It does work nonetheless, even though you'll get many times better fertilization out of a $5 bottle of liquid fertilizer.

Google potash and soda ash. Especially ashes high in K (potassium) are valuable to plants, as it's one of the three most important 'building stones' for them. Google 'NPK fertilizer'. It does form KOH, a strong hydroxide, when mixed with water though. So be sure not to fuck up your soil's pH.

>> No.504667
File: 74 KB, 464x343, Phyllis2 - ECN Phyllis classification - Mozilla Firefox_2013-08-08_15-52-30.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
504667

>>504382
You cannot grow plants in only ash.

Pic related is what ash from wheat straw consists of. Have you ever heard of osmosis?

It would be like trying to grow stuff in table salt. The solute concentration in the soil/ash water is much higher than inside the plant and would draw water out of the plant cells.

Clean wood ash can, however, be a good soil amendment. But not too much.

If you want to try to grow something in other mediums than soil then look up vermiculite, rockwool or something like that. You can also use straw or hay bales. But you need to add some fertilizer to the water if you are not using soil. A lot of the commercial vegetables are grown that way. Sometimes called hydroponic systems.

>> No.505220

>>504382
I admire your spirit, OP. I've always thought it would be interesting to take a lifeless substance and watch it develop (with the addition of lichens, moss, etc).

Soil science general thread?

>> No.505240

>>504667
What this good man said. Rub some paste made with ash and water at the base of a plant's stem. You'll see that it eats away at the tissue due to its alkalinity and saltiness. Then imagine what trying to grow a plant in such a substrate will do to plant tissue.