Potash

First year gardener, learning as i go along. My granch has said that potash gives the tomatoes their taste. I have tomato feed but was wondering if i can make my own potash and if this would be beneficial applied aswell or instead of tomato feed once the fruit starts to set.

Plan:
empty our used disposable bbq out.
burn 2 carrier bags of bracnches (dried out for most part)
cool
collect
apply

has anyone done this? to get the pottassium will old wood be enough or do i need to burn some greener wood once it gets going.

Hoping to do this over the next week if its valuable and has low winds.

smiles
adam

 

You get more pottassium from burning green wood, but you'll do no harm from adding ash from dry wood. I save up all my autumn bonfire ash and sprinkle it around my fruit trees in late spring.

 

Hi Adam.

I don't grow veg, so I can't comment on taste. But generally Potassium (K) in the form of its salts (known as Potash), is said to be good for all fruit and flowers. This is why special tomato fertiliser is produced, which is like ordinary fertiliser but with a higher concentration of Potassium. It is not just good for Tomatos, but for all fruit, veg and flowers. When a plant grows, it adsorbs Potassium from the ground. When you burn the plant all the adsorbed Potassium in the form of various salts, is left behind in the ash. So its always a good idea to return wood ash to the soil.

Personally I wouldn't bother to make Potassium salts, by burning wood, when you can buy them very cheaply in a garden centre under the name Sulphate of Potassium. I add this to MiracleGrow fertiliser, to make something identical to special Tomato feed, but at a third of the price.

I suspect that the taste comes from the Tomato variety, and how it is grown (amount of water, fertiliser and sun) rather than just from the Potash itself.

 

thank you Dave and Peter.

i was told that potash contributed to the zing or zip of the tomato taste. Have Shirleys, Romas, Gardeners Delight, a tumbling tom and money maker i think.

Roma's were from seed and didn't look likely (then got over 20 of them), Shirleys were recommended and bought as plants, think the others were reduced plugs.

So if i am having a fire anyway, use the potash but otherwise there are commercial alternatives.

If i get a day without much wind i may have the fire, i'd rather use up the dry deadfall than make a trip to the dump.

 

To get the best taste from tomatoes, don't pick them until you want to eat them. The best flavour leaves them within an hour of picking. That's why the supermarket tomatoes never compare with home grown.

 

thanks for tip larkshall