Wood ash

[Alberto]

Twice a year I burn a lot od dead or sick tree branches,cuttings, dead fronds etc. I put it for 2 years around some Sabal mexicanum and they greened up nicely with this ash! I´m wondering for which palms it will be a good fertilizer and which palms will hate it? Probably palms that see fires in habitat like Serenoa, Allagoptera campestris,Brahea?etc will like it or palms that grow in alkaline soils..... What are your experiences with ash and palms?

[Austinpalm]

I always heard that ash was to be used on acidic soils. I've never thought of using it on my alkaline soils.

[Walt]

I've been using wood ash for about two years now (I do a lot of burning). I burn downed tree limbs/branches, pine cones, pine needles, leaves, palm fronds, etc., and almost all dead vegetative matter.

Wood ash has mostly calcium in it but is a good source of potassium, magnesium and other elements. However, wood ash has little or no nitrogen.

I have very acidic soil (pH less than 4) and use wood ash as a lime substitute to raise the pH, as it has a calcium carbonate equivalency close to 50%, depending on wood. (If your soil has a high pH, then I wouldn't recommend you use wood ash, as it will just raise your pH even higher.)

With the high cost of fertilizer I've been using lots of wood ash on all of my palms, plus other plantings, although I do fertilize my palms with a good palm special fertilizer, but not near as much now.

At the below link is some useful information concerning wood ash.

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~blpprt/bestwoodash.html