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Ash and coal in the mountain area (Cape Town)


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Hey guys, I wondered if any you thought of collecting ash and coal among other decomposed matter after this fire that took place a few days ago?

I’m planning on building a soil bed for summer and just dug up the hole, removed the dirt, and was about to fill it up with soil until I had the idea that I should collect as much ash/coal/organic matter and lay that under my bed of soil.

It’s seems like the perfect time to start preparing your garden summer and there’s so much organic matter that can be used to fertilise your beds 

Edited by Stefan
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15 minutes ago, Prom said:

If you braai with wood... or in winter heat... no need to drive around for wood ash 😁  

think I’m just looking for an outing😅

wouldn’t that coal be charged with beneficial and diverse microbes now a few days after the fire which would benefit your soil much better than regular coal? 

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2 hours ago, Stefan said:

 

think I’m just looking for an outing😅

wouldn’t that coal be charged with beneficial and diverse microbes now a few days after the fire which would benefit your soil much better than regular coal? 

Just do it bud.. Have a fatty and go get n bakkie load..😎👌🌱

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12 hours ago, Stefan said:

 

think I’m just looking for an outing😅

wouldn’t that coal be charged with beneficial and diverse microbes now a few days after the fire which would benefit your soil much better than regular coal? 

Not to my knowing. Ash is rather dry and the fire sterilized all... elements more broken down, easier to absorb... good fertilizer. I dump all my wood ash on the compost heap 😊

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14 hours ago, Stefan said:

Hey guys, I wondered if any you thought of collecting ash and coal among other decomposed matter after this fire that took place a few days ago?

I’m planning on building a soil bed for summer and just dug up the hole, removed the dirt, and was about to fill it up with soil until I had the idea that I should collect as much ash/coal/organic matter and lay that under my bed of soil.

It’s seems like the perfect time to start preparing your garden summer and there’s so much organic matter that can be used to fertilise your beds 

Its not a bad Idea to do that, but you can over do it easily with pot ash when amending a soil and that will cause your PH to go through the roof, I wouldn't go over 2% of the volume of soil. 

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2 hours ago, ORGANinc. said:

Its not a bad Idea to do that, but you can over do it easily with pot ash when amending a soil and that will cause your PH to go through the roof, I wouldn't go over 2% of the volume of soil. 

yea i wanted to say just that as well... so laying a bed of ash isnt the best way either, definitely mix it into the soil you wanna use

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1 hour ago, CG420za said:

I wonder if they'll open that part of the berg to the public. Ususally when there's a fire, they close it up to prevent more erosion.

Couldn’t go today, so not sure either, was worried about that but definitely going through tomorrow morning so will see how it goes

2 hours ago, CreX said:

yea i wanted to say just that as well... so laying a bed of ash isnt the best way either, definitely mix it into the soil you wanna use

Will do, thanks for the suggestion. Don’t think I’ll be able to get any ash as it’s almost a week and guessing it would have been blown away by winds and/or found it’s way into the soil but definitely will grab enough coal to incorporate into my soil as per your and @ORGANinc. recommendations. Should I add some extra lime to balance out the ph should I accidentally go over the recommended amount. 

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I would actually only use the stuff when planting directly into the earth and then also not laying it down but mixing it in as it drastically changes the ph. it causes lime build up and over time it turns to magnesium. it can very quickly become too much in a pot situation. 

if you wanted to use in a pot, wait till repot before flower only, take some of the finest ash dust, sift if you must, and sprinkle a flat table spoon (around 5ml in a measure cup) over a 30L bag of soil, don't add more, less is more with this stuff.

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On 4/23/2021 at 3:50 PM, CG420za said:

@Stefan if you do go for a walk tomorrow, leave the ash and just grab a little soil from the berg. You can topdress with that or even brew a tea with it.

I would say rather brew a tea and then dilute that tea with some fresh spring water. 1:10

the top spoil would have spent a few days by now covered in a layer of ash and a lot of the compounds have leached into the soil, I would say the top soil is more rich in terms of diversity looking at the macro, micro and trace elements, but by now the thick layer of ashes has gotten wet and leached out an abundance of lime into the soil.

VERY IMPORTANT if you do brew a tea with the soil be 100% sure to check the PH & PPM of that tea before going all willy nilly with it!!! lime can cause big kak in that regard

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey everyone, forgot to update this thread but went last week Saturday and collected some coal and added about 10% to my soil.

thanks for all your feedback, grabbed some soil as well to do a compost tea with probably this weekend. 

planted some butternut and going to adding broccoli and spinach this weekend as well
 

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