Why you should use Potash in your garden
Potassium is an important element found in potash. It will also make fruit taste better and flowers glow fuller in colour!
Potash controls the correct absorption of nitrogen and encourages good, healthy fruit and blossom development. Too much nitrogen will cause your plants to produce mostly green growth. Potash is also an active ingredient in aiding photosynthesis which is a vital process in your plants life-cycle.
Applying Potash
Potash can be commonly found in most fertilisers including tomato food. The ashes from burning wood, is also an excellent source of potash and (of course) a totally organic solution. You must keep the ashes dry until you use them – if they get wet, the potassium will rapidly leach out rendering it useless.
To apply potash to your plants; simply sprinkle it onto the soil, as far as the reach of the root ball. Do this once a week until the first frosts.
Even better than potash is a product called Takesumi Bamboo Biochar.
It is an advanced charcoal – excellent for improving growth and reduces your carbon footprint.
Any kind of wood ash is a good source of potash. Just remember – if you have a bonfire, don’t let the ash get wet. Once this happens, the ash is fairly useless as the potassium will leach out of it on contact with water.
I use the ash from the woodburner stove in the house. No coal is ever burnt in the stove. Is it safe/advisable to scatter the ash on the garden all year or just in the fruiting season?
As long as there is no coal in it, although some seem to think that even this is OK…I’m not so sure though. Wood ash is very useful because:
7% potassium
1.5% phosphorus
21% calcium carbonate (lime)
This mix is perfect if you want to raise the alkaline levels in the soil. If you have a soil PH of about 7 or higher, then added ash will have little to no effect no matter the time of year. I can’t see sprinkling it around the garden now will cause any harm, but ash is at it’s most useful during spring, a month or so before planting. Ash is great for promting healthy root growth.