David Hare-Scott wrote:
....
Do you have a pH test kit? If the charcoal contains much wood ash it will
raise the pH .

no test kit here. many areas are
downslope from tons of crushed limestone
so high pH is known. when i do a new
garden or plant things that are notorious
for pH effects i ammend accordingly. so
far few bad results.

if i were growing something notoriously
finicky i'd pick one up.

the charcoal was made in a trench that was
submerged shortly after it was burned. when i
was digging to examine it right when it was
done and as the light was fading it didn't
seem to be a lot of ashes. not like what
you would get from the bottom of a stove
or an open pit. it was good and black in
the large part. i remember being pretty happy
with the results for it being such a low tech
operation.

i was rather surprised that so much sprouted
normally only days after the charcoal being
burned. i thought for sure that it would be
too harsh to sprout or grow much for a spell.


songbird