Nutrition is one of the most important factors for plant survival. Nutrient-rich soil will be the ideal environment for plants to absorb and grow quickly.
You can fertilize the soil to make it more nutrient-rich with available fertilizers. In addition, many gardeners prefer to use organic fertilizers derived from nature such as leaves, moss, or incense ash.
One of the questions about natural fertilizers that many people ask recently is related to incense ash. Can you put incense ash in plants? Does this help plants? When should you use it? All your questions will be addressed in detail in this article.
Can You Put Incense Ash In Plants? Is It Really Necessary?
As you know, incense is a popular product in many families with many different purposes. When you burn incense, it will burn and give off a fragrance, then the remaining part is called incense ash.
Usually, people will put incense ashes in the trash because it is not reusable. However, many people question the use of incense ash as a natural fertilizer for plants.
What Is The Composition Of Incense Ash?
To answer the question of whether incense ash is a good source of nutrients for plants, you need to learn about its composition. Is it 100% organic?
The main ingredients to make incense include bamboo, a mixture of wood pulp or charcoal powder, essential oils or artificial fragrances, and glue or resin to bind the ingredients together.
However, many brands will not detail these ingredients with indicators for consumers. Therefore, you need to determine the safety of incense ash before using it as an organic fertilizer for plants.
Should Or Should Not Use Incense Ash For Plants?
If you can identify the ingredients of 100% natural incense ash, you can use it as an organic fertilizer. However, if any of the ingredients contain harmful ingredients such as dyes, paints, or fragrances, your plants will be severely affected.
You might think that essential oils bring many great benefits to human health. Therefore, using scented candles or incense after burning, the ash will have a lot of nutrients for plants. However, plants don’t like essential oils, especially the vapors that come from them.
You also should not use incense ash to fertilize plants often because it does not bring much nutritional value. In addition, incense ash can also cause plants to have some problems with diseases and insects.
You should not abuse and use a large amount of incense ash to fertilize plants once. It doesn’t mean much in promoting plant growth and development.
What Kind Of Ash Is Good For Plants?
Incense ash may not be entirely good for plant growth. However, ash from natural woods will bring many great benefits to your plants.
Wood ash is the residue left over after the wood is burned in a fireplace or campfire. Hardwoods will produce more ash than softwoods. They are rich in nutrients, especially in the calcium-like composition of agricultural lime.
Wood ash is often used as a natural fertilizer with many essential minerals for plants. The calcium component accounts for up to 20% of wood ash. In addition, it also provides other nutrients such as potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium.
Wood ash is also effective in improving soil alkalinity and acidity. So, if you want to use wood ash as a natural fertilizer, you need to test the pH of your soil and determine what the pH value is.
In addition, each plant species, also have different nutritional needs. Some plants and vegetables like to be covered with wood ash such as strawberries, apples, pears, raspberries, oranges, tangerines, plums, and peaches.
Vegetables such as cabbage, cucumber, asparagus, spinach, okra, mustard, garlic, and onions also favor wood ash due to their alkalinity. In particular, wood ash is also suitable for some flowers such as lilies, lavender, borage, and orchids.
In particular, wood ash or firewood will also work in repelling pests and insects. It can repel insects such as snails, worms, bugs, aphids… Many people also often use wood ash to cover vegetables to prevent the attack of insects and pests.
Read more: Can You Put Earthworms in Potted Plants? The Pros and Cons
Conclusion
Incense ash is not the best choice for fertilizing plants. If incense ash is 100% natural, you can use it for plants. However, you should only apply incense ash occasionally, rather than daily.
If incense ash contains harmful substances such as dyes, paints, or fragrances, you should not apply them to plants because it will cause many serious consequences. Instead of applying incense ash, you should use wood ash or firewood from hardy stems to fertilize plants.
Wood ash has many nutrients necessary for plants such as calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium. In addition, wood ash is also effective in preventing insects and pests from attacking plants. Coating a layer of wood ash over vegetables, fruit trees or flowers will help prevent them from attacking insects.