Use wood ash as flower booster and ph up?

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blaze131

Member
I know wood ash can be added when mixing soil, but what about making a solution out of it and using as ph up for my water/nutes. I use maxibloom and am looking for a better way to raise the ph while added a little extra calcium bc I use rainwater. Has anyone tried this befor?

best breakdown of wood ash I could find-
When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace element compounds remain. The remaining carbonates and oxides are valuable liming agents, raising pH, thus neutralizing acid soils. Soils that are acid and low in potassium benefit from wood ash.


Wood ash has a very fine particle size, so it reacts rapidly and completely in the soil. Although small amounts of nutrients are applied with wood ash, the main effect is that it is a liming agent. The average ash is equivalent to a 0-1-3 (N-P-K). The chemical
 
Jimdamick

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
The little that I know about wood ash is that is very soluble, so it will mix well with water. Unlike lime with maintains a neutral 7, ash will push past that and make your soil alkaline. Very potent stuff, so watch your meter when using it.
 
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blaze131

Member
So I mixed it up then strained threw a coffee filter. There is still some sediment but it is very fine so didn't think it would matter. I didn't mix it very strong just a few table spoons, I put a drop in a vile with water and ph indicater and it didn't move a bit after a couple hours. Took a couple splashes of it to raise a gallon of 1/4 strength nutes from below 6 to 6.6. My drops only go from 6-7 need to get new ones. But we will see tomorrow if the water/nutes holds its ph or not
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
You can just use potassium hydroxide. If you want calcium, you can use calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide.

I don't see why using wood ashes would be a "better way" to raise the pH. It would work and is a good organic solution, but less precise and probably more expensive.

blaze131 said:
I know wood ash can be added when mixing soil, but what about making a solution out of it and using as ph up for my water/nutes. I use maxibloom and am looking for a better way to raise the ph while added a little extra calcium bc I use rainwater. Has anyone tried this befor?

best breakdown of wood ash I could find-
When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace element compounds remain. The remaining carbonates and oxides are valuable liming agents, raising pH, thus neutralizing acid soils. Soils that are acid and low in potassium benefit from wood ash.


Wood ash has a very fine particle size, so it reacts rapidly and completely in the soil. Although small amounts of nutrients are applied with wood ash, the main effect is that it is a liming agent. The average ash is equivalent to a 0-1-3 (N-P-K). The chemical
Click to expand...
 
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blaze131

Member
I was using sodium hydroxide and it led to ph issues at the end of flowering and have lot of hardwood ash from the winter. Trying to find a diy ph down with things I have around and the wood ash seemed like a good idea. It adds extra calcium micros and p/k.
Making a tea with it that I've been using the past couple days and it seems to work great so far


churchhaze said:
You can just use potassium hydroxide. If you want calcium, you can use calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide.

I don't see why using wood ashes would be a "better way" to raise the pH. It would work and is a good organic solution, but less precise and probably more expensive.
Click to expand...
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Sodium hydroxide and Potassium hydroxide are 2 different things...

One is KOH and the other is NaOH.

I'm glad the ashes are working for you. Potassium was named after pot ash.
 
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