In article ,
Phisherman wrote:
On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:42:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
Is the charcoal ash from my grill beneficial in my compost pile or
should I leave it out? The charcoal I use says it's made from 100%
oak wood.
TIA,
Mike
I tilled mine into the vegetable garden for the potash, carbon and
trace elements. I use a combination of charcoal briquettes and
hickory ash (I have three large hickory trees). You can add a small
amount of ash to a compost bin, but too much may stop the composting
process or raise pH.
I buy bagged charcoal in small irregular bits of burned wood.
Last year, Wikipedia defined briquettes as "a block of COMPRESSED COAL
dust, charcoal, or sawdust and wood chips, used for fuel and kindling."
This year, Wikipedia defined briquettes as:
Charcoal briquettes sold commercially for cooking food can include:[1][2]
? Wood charcoal (fuel),
? mineral char (fuel),
? mineral carbon (fuel),
? Limestone (ash colorant),
? Starch (binder),
? Borax (release agent),
? Sodium nitrate (accelerant),
? Sawdust.
Some briquettes are compressed and dried brown coal extruded into hard
blocks. This is a common technique for low rank coals. They are
typically dried to 12-18% moisture, and are primarily used in household
and industry.
Kingsford list the following ingredients in their briquettes.
Kingsford contains the following ingredients:
? wood char
? mineral char
? mineral carbon
? limestone
? starch
? borax
? sodium nitrate
? sawdust
I am unable to find a definition for mineral char or mineral carbon.
Until better defined, I will stick with irregular bits of real wood
charcoal.
--
- Billy
"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being
is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the
moment of conception until death." - Rachel Carson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI29wVQN8Go
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html