From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Cologne / Germany

My neighbours say that would be the best way to give your soil what it needs for spring. Basic stuff is potassium related. When there were no fertilzers decades ago, the snow had been black from wood ash before melting.
Tales or truth, what do you think?

12/12/2004 7:44:06 PM

Mill Creek West by god Virginia

floh i burn coal and i use this as a fertilizer for my potato crop boy it does wonders i get huge potatoes from just the ash piles nothing else sweet peppers also likes em just my to sents worth on coal ashes

12/12/2004 11:18:23 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Truth.

Fertilizing onto snow provides the benefit of clearly seeing the material is spread evenly. This was important before the days of modern (accurate) application equipment. But many of the growers I know still spread by hand. I find it is easier & more accurate to use a wheeled rotary spreader with oversized pneumatic tires.

The other benefit to applying to snow is that as the snow melts, the materials are gradually moved into the soil profile. Of course applying the material accurately *before* a snow or rain event works even better. Nitrogen containing ingredients would have no chance to volatilize under snow, though Nitrogen containg elements often melt snow too so this is of little concern anyway.

Go easy with ashes if no soil test is available to guide it's use. The potash it supplies is good. But it raises the soils pH & can push too far.

12/13/2004 7:12:38 AM

Cologne / Germany

Thanks for your answers. I don´t have ash but will try it with my granular fertilizer that is proposed to be used in winter (basically 20 % CaO and 15 % K2O). Can´t have a soil test before spring this time.

12/13/2004 9:33:31 AM