Any uses for wood ash?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by smagrath, Apr 29, 2006.

  1. dewbee

    dewbee Junior Member

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    woodash

    i wash my dishes and scrub my benches with woodash... i use it because it is a fine, not too abrasive cleaner... only problem that i have encountered is blocked sinks but this is easily avoided with use of gauze plugs or washing in a basin put into the sink basin... scrubbing hard to get baked-on spots wih charcoal is just as good. A friend of mine has a design for a "coolgardie safe" that involves putting charcoal in between two ceramic boxes, one inside the other, for it's evaporaion properties.

    Also lettuce love potash.
     
  2. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    "A friend of mine has a design for a "coolgardie safe" that involves putting charcoal in between two ceramic boxes, one inside the other, for it's evaporaion properties."

    You lost me?
    How is charcoal used in coolgardie safe ?
     
  3. dewbee

    dewbee Junior Member

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    coolgardie

    he is making two ceramic boxes,
    one smaller than the other such that it is placed inside the larger one with space in between them to pack charcoal into, the charcoal is wet when you want to store perishables... he says not to seal the top off totally because the charcoal/water needs to be able to evaporate, so a wooden lid is best....
     
  4. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Cooling safe

    Thanks,
    sounds ingenious
    the charcoal would hold the water for along time
     
  5. nomoreivy

    nomoreivy Junior Member

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    wood ash

    I'm new to this, so here goes.

    I just put the cooled ashes into the compost bin for the first time. Before that I spread it out over an area where some lawn was growing and nothing went wrong, so I figured it could be useful in the compost. I'll let you know how it turns out.
     
  6. grease

    grease Junior Member

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    any uses for wood ash?

    Snails and slugs don't like crawling over woodash (for the same reason worms don't like it) so a ring around seedlings keeps them at bay for a while.
     
  7. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: coolgardie in Africa

    Someone has stolen your idea
    From:
    https://allafrica.com/stories/200606060382.html

    Uganda: Students Invent Pot Refrigerator

    New Vision

    New Vision (Kampala)

    June 5, 2006
    Posted to the web June 6, 2006

    Ronald Kalyango
    Kampala

    INSUFFICIENT power supply in rural areas has enabled students of Sir. Tito Winyi in Hoima district to improve the indigenous pot, turning it into a better cooling facility.

    The newly-invented pot refrigerator will act as a substitute for the expensive power and paraffin-run refrigerators.

    "We have gone an extra mile in improving locally-made pots through the use of indigenous knowledge," said Jackson Barigye, the school's farm manager and brain behind the technology.

    The students were recently exhibiting the pots to officials from the National Agricultural Research Organisation, Ministry of Agriculture, National Agricultural Advisory Services and local people who converged at Bulindi Agricultural and Research Development Centre. The pots are capable of cooling water and fruits.

    Barigye said Hoima is gifted with several fruits but the biggest percentage goes to waste due to lack of refrigeration services. This causes flies to roam villages during the harvesting season.

    Constructing of the pot refrigerators requires one to have enough clay, which can be used to make two pots. An outer pot is constructed first and left to dry for six hours before an inner pot is constructed but this should be elevated a bit. In between the two pots, space is left. This is filled with dry charcoal that enables proper evaporation as a mug of water is poured on it regularly.

    After construction, the pot is left inside a house to dry for two to three weeks to avoid cracks which would lower the pot's lifespan.

    "The pot should be placed either at the verandah or in any safe place, covered with a wet cloth for purposes of averting heat from the the pot," he said.

    The pot, which costs sh10,000, has a carrying capacity of quarter a crate of sodas.
    Relevant Links
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    Uganda

    "All the people in rural areas should take on the new pots," he said.

    Barigye said the demand for the pots was high among the local people engaged in the production of local brew and some small-scale traders.

    He said they are in the process of making bigger pots that would store close to two crates of sodas and more fruits.
    Copyright © 2006 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). Click here to contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material.
     
  8. Boab

    Boab Junior Member

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    The 'lye' from woodash is potassium hydrochloride and not sodium hydrochloride which is the lye you buy at the store and is otherwise known as caustic soda.

    The soapmaking procedure required for potash is therefore different from modern methods but it makes for a softer soap.

    Other purposes I've seen for woodash/potash is house building. In South America you can make strong, longstanding walls with it.
     
  9. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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    You can cure olives with it too.
    better than lye but i still preffer salt
     
  10. Boab

    Boab Junior Member

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    There is none better than lye
    for without lye
    there is no soap. :wink:
     
  11. Forest Fairy

    Forest Fairy Junior Member

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    I love the woodash. Goes straight back on the garden.
    Also dry my citrus peelings on top of the fireplace and when they are dried out they make awesome firelighters. They end up back where they started.
    Don't you just love the Circle of Life!!!

    They must grow some good stuff in Kent that is all I can say......

    Over and Out.
     
  12. carollillith

    carollillith Junior Member

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    Woodash seems such rugged stuff to throw on the gardens in anything like the volume our woodburning stove produces ... but considering our soils are acidic and quite heavy, maybe I should reconsider.

    it's also a great non-slip material for wet or frosty steps and paths, provides a good barrier around wooden posts ... and (in mere handfulls) around seedlings and gets added to the compost bins which have a tendency to get a bit gluggy :oops:
     
  13. tannsolo

    tannsolo Guest

    uses for wood ash

    This is a wonderful thread. As a new woodstove user (I don't know what the winter holds -- my furnace broke this autumn and I decided it was immoral to replace it with any other fossil-fuel-sourced heating),

    after ONE week I have about 15 pounds of ash! and some charcoal.

    So I'm very interested in uses for it. I know that potters around here use it to make glazes, but they've got plenty ash of their own. I was VERY interested in the ceramic/charcoal cooling cabinets -- did anyone make one of those? Would love to hear more.

    I don't know if by posting this the thread moves back into serice, but I hope so, as I'm very interested in more uses.

    Also, does anyone know if ash is too abrasive for use on porcelain/enameled tubs?

    Peace!
     
  14. agardenpath

    agardenpath Guest

    Woodash is excellent in the chookpen under the perches. I read in an old Grassroots magazine that it combines with the manure reducing the amonia smell. Since I have started using it in the hen houses they have lost their strong odour. I used to put it on the vege garden. Now it goes in the hen houses first and then combined with the manure goes into making compost for the garden.

    Caralyn
    A Garden Path
     
  15. tannsolo

    tannsolo Guest

    Thanks, Carolyn. Wow, some words I've never seen before: chookpen and (in this context) perches. Thank you!
     

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