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Re: OT-ish Re: Fungi - A Primer

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

At 09:26 PM 3/29/00 -0700, Lorri wrote:

>Hey Square Footers.  Is potash the same as wood ash?

Nope, potash = a slang term for potassium.  Not an ash at all.

If you're buying a fertilizer product, whether organic or synthetic, the 
label will show a numeric value (percent of total volume, I believe) for 
each of the three main ingredients, N, P, and K, in that order.

N = nitrogen, P = phosphorus, and K = potassium.

Different N-P-K ratios work to promote different aspects of plant 
growth--some encourage flowering and fruiting; others encourage leaf 
formation, etc.

The organic ferts tend to have really low numerical ratios like 3-1-1 or 
even 1-1-1 (the ratio for at least one brand of bagged composted manure I 
saw at a nursery).

The synthetic ferts have much higher ratios like 5-10-10 and wildly high 
ones like the tomato formulas where the three elements are nowhere near in 
balance.

>   Could I use it in place of wood ash in
>Mel's soil recipe?

Nope.  And while we're on the subject of "ash," don't use the fireplace 
ashes from those store-bought packaged firelogs in the garden.  Those 
firelogs are loaded with chemicals some of which are unsafe in the garden.

Now ashes from real logs burned in a home fireplace are fine in the compost 
pile or the garden soil.  I'm not sure if they supply any potassium, though.

--Janet Wintermute
[grew up in Zone 5, Lorri's environment, but now gardening in 7]


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