Fire pits are a great way to remove woody material and hedges from your yard or garden. The resulting ash is an excellent homemade fertilizer for many plants because it contains potassium, phosphorus, calcium and other minerals that are needed in certain amounts for healthy plants. However, there are many people who want to know the benefits of ashes for roses they have in the garden.
Therefore, in this article, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about the various benefits of ash for roses.
Contents
ashes for roses
Due to its calcium content, wood ash has a very alkaline pH, while roses thrive in slightly acidic soils with a pH between 6 and 7 and an optimum soil acidity of 6.5. Therefore, do not immediately add large amounts of wood ash to the soil surrounding established rose bushes.
However, roses benefit from an occasional watering of wood ash during the growing season before they bloom. Wood ash contains high amounts of potassium, an essential nutrient that roses need to thrive and produce high quality blooms.
It is important to understand soil pH and how to properly apply wood ash to minimize the effects of alkalinity while utilizing potassium and other nutrients and minerals.
If the soil you want to grow new roses in has an acidity below 6, add half a pound of wood ash to the surface of the soil and water it in to restore the soil to optimal levels. When planting new roses, it is always a good idea to test the soil with a soil test kit to measure soil pH before planting. Even in a small area, the pH of your garden soil can vary widely. If the soil is particularly acidic (pH 5 or less), the roots of the rose will be affected and the rose may die.
However, this is easy to fix. You can improve the soil by adding wood ash (one cup at a time) and retesting the soil after four weeks. It is recommended to drive the wood ash into the ground with a pitchfork or centrifuge to change the profile of the ground.
Use only one cup of ash at a time in acid soils. Too much ash at once will result in an alkaline soil pHthen you will need to add paraffin fertilizer to rebalance the effects of the ash.
Wood ash also has the advantage of being free of seeds and roots that could become weeds. The intense heat of the fire renders all seeds, roots and rhizomes of annual and perennial weeds inert. While other composts or mulches from garden or kitchen waste may hold seeds and roots for a long time, which will sprout and grow once the compost has been spread throughout the garden. This means that you may need to spend more time weeding than necessary.
Plus, most compost heaps don’t contain anywhere near the potassium level of wood ash, so it’s a great way to use compost as ash mulch and dramatically boost the potassium levels your roses need to bloom during the growing season.
when it applies
If the roses contain composted wood ash, the best time to use wood ash is during the growing season, which It is the beginning of spring in April and May. The potassium content of wood ash promotes flower growth, so your roses will bloom best for as long as possible.
Application in early spring or earlier allows the water-soluble potassium to reach the rose’s roots at the right time to stimulate flowering. Like all fertilizers, adding wood ash compost in late summer (after August 15) is not recommended, as it may encourage the growth of new roses later in the season in the summer. approach of winter. The new growth is obviously more vulnerable to cold damageand the fragile new shoots will die as soon as the first frosts arrive.
If you have excess ash, it is recommended that you keep it dry for the next season or spread it elsewhere in the garden, as other plants will appreciate the potassium content. Lawns in particular can benefit from the addition of wood ash.
How to Apply Ashes to Rose Bushes
There are only two recommended application methods when fertilizing roses:
- In early spring, before flowering, you can sprinkle a small amount of wood ash around the base of the rose, but be careful of the alkalinity. Aim for about half a cup of ash per rose bush. There is no need to rake or dig, as this will disturb the roots of the rose and unnecessarily disturb the ecology of the soil. The main nutrient in wood ash that benefits roses (potassium) is water soluble, so flushing the ashes with about two gallons of water should help bring the potassium to the roots quickly. That is why it is important to apply wood ash to roses before or during flowering.
- Second, I think the best option is to add wood ash to your compost pile at the start of the year and spread the compost around the rose bushes as mulch.
This depends on keeping the compost pile indoors or at least avoiding too much rain, as this can wash useful potash out of the compost pile as it is a water soluble mineral. As the bottom layer of cardboard rots, it adds valuable carbon to the pile, helping to balance nitrogen levels for more fertile compost.
But mainly the cardboard is used after adding wood ash to maintain the water balance and maintain the potassium concentration to be able to fertilize the roses. Mixing the ashes with compost also provides potash and other minerals that roses love without altering the pH of the rose bed.
Compost made up of grass clippings, leaves, and kitchen scraps will break down into a pH-neutral or slightly acidic mulch. This is useful because it has the best pH for roses and neutralizes the alkalizing effects of wood ash.
It should be remembered that wood ash contains potassium, phosphorus and calcium, all of which are beneficial for rose growth, and minerals that are difficult to obtain from standard compost in organic gardening.
The benefit of adding rose ash to a compost pile and then spreading it around the base of the roses is that compost made from leaf mold, grass clippings and kitchen scraps help improve soil structure. Roses love organic matter because it absorbs water and drains well. This allows the roots of the rose bushes to absorb water when they need it without overloading the soil. This makes the plant more resilient in dry climates.
Hopefully with this information you can learn more about the benefits of ash for roses.