permaculture

[john norton <johnnnz@yahoo.com>]

Hi
Be careful if using wood ash as a soil amendment. The
burning can form polycyclic aromatiic hydrocarboms
PAHs in the ash, which can be acutely toxic to plants
and people and they can be carcinogenic.
John
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 12:07:45 -0500
> From: lbsaltzman@aol.com
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Wood Ashes as a soil
> amendment
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID:
> <8C8EF4BD718CB1C-1458-EAF9@MBLK-M42.sysops.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I suppose many variables come into play, but if wood
> ash killed worms California would be worm free. The
> native Californian Indians burned massively and
> regularly generating a significant amount of ash. 
> Many areas were burned yearly and few areas went
> beyond five years.  I just finished a brilliant book
> by an ethno-ecologist a woman named M. Kat Anderson
> from U.C. Davis. The book is called Tending the
> Wild.  It is an in depth look at the horticultural
> and animal management practices of the native
> peoples of California.  Burning was one of the their
> favorite techniques for interrupting succession and
> increasing the biodiversity of plants that were
> useful to them and to  the animals that were also
> useful to the people. Can't recommend this book to
> highly.



                
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