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Union Nugget Ash ~ Use?

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  • 09-11-2019 4:43am
    #1
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭


    :) Searched all over. Boards and google. Thought I'd ask here as, while by no means a Smallholder, I do have more land than an average garden available. And horses get to eat my grass.

    So; I burn Union Nuggets, pretty well exclusively. Hate coal and only burn wood, now and then, to get rid of it. Probably producing a bucket of nugget ash per few days.

    Would it be any good, what so ever, to any sort of ground? Could I do anything with it, but sling it into my private 'landfill'?

    Thanks.
    Tagged:


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    #2
    uck51js9zml2yt
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,268 ✭✭✭✭uck51js9zml2yt


    Aren't they just coal by a different name?


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    #3
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    disgusted-oh-god-why-text.png


    I feel like Such a bloody fruit bat, now!!! :o I've just gone out and scanned a sack: " Lignite Coal " !!!

    I swear; I have a condition science hasn't spotted and named yet. I get an idea into my head and will live and die by that Given belief.

    Somewhere along the line, I've obviously taken on the notion that UN's were a blend of coal and turf. That ~ to me ~ explained the strange, pink dust / ash ..... Somehow!

    Oh, god ... No wonder everyone's been ignoring my question. Probably read is, thought; " :rolleyes: Idiot. " and moved on.

    I shall crawl away now .....


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    #4
    uck51js9zml2yt
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,268 ✭✭✭✭uck51js9zml2yt


    Thanks for the laugh


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    #5
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,125 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Stigura wrote: »
    disgusted-oh-god-why-text.png


    I feel like Such a bloody fruit bat, now!!! :o I've just gone out and scanned a sack: " Lignite Coal " !!!

    I swear; I have a condition science hasn't spotted and named yet. I get an idea into my head and will live and die by that Given belief.

    Somewhere along the line, I've obviously taken on the notion that UN's were a blend of coal and turf. That ~ to me ~ explained the strange, pink dust / ash ..... Somehow!

    Oh, god ... No wonder everyone's been ignoring my question. Probably read is, thought; " :rolleyes: Idiot. " and moved on.

    I shall crawl away now .....
    You can crawl back now!

    Lignite is brown coal or to put it another way turf and peat that's been compressed so hard underground it resembles coal.
    That's why you're getting brown ash the same as turf, briquettes.

    Use away it's fine as fertilizer.


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    #6
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    :eek: Well, I'll be ....!

    I remember reading ~ on google, as I tried to fathom if it was useable ~ that 'turf ash' lowers acidity in ground?

    If this is the case? Mine's going on my paddock! It's been rushes, out there. I cut them, and buttercups took over! Horses are out on the land now, till they come back to the stables for the winter. I'll spend that winter spreading this ash around, out there, so.

    Be interesting to see what happens. Knowing my luck? Colossal crop of buttercups! :rolleyes:


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    #7
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,125 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Stigura wrote: »
    :eek: Well, I'll be ....!

    I remember reading ~ on google, as I tried to fathom if it was useable ~ that 'turf ash' lowers acidity in ground?

    If this is the case? Mine's going on my paddock! It's been rushes, out there. I cut them, and buttercups took over! Horses are out on the land now, till they come back to the stables for the winter. I'll spend that winter spreading this ash around, out there, so.

    Be interesting to see what happens. Knowing my luck? Colossal crop of buttercups! :rolleyes:
    Yea ash raises the alkalinity of a soil.

    I couldn't tell you what'll happen, probably the same as if you spread lime.


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    #8
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    :confused: What happens, if ye spread lime?


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    #9
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,125 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Stigura wrote: »
    :confused: What happens, if ye spread lime?

    It raises the pH of the soil and wonderful things happen.. :)

    The optimal soil pH for grass growing is 6.4 to 6.8.

    If it's lower than that which is usually the case in Ireland the good nutrients are not as available as they should be. Same if you go beyond 7.0 the nutrients you want won't be available either.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=soil+nutrient+ph+chart&oq=soil+nutrient+pH&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.16708j0j7&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=S5lV_bYDYrvL3M:


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    #10
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    <Scuttles off to buy a ph test kit>


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    #11
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,125 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Stigura wrote: »
    <Scuttles off to buy a ph test kit>

    There's some posters on the main farming forum have digital pH probes and they seem to get on well with them.


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    #12
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    Tomorrow; I Go Play In The Mud! :cool:


    P-H-Probey.jpg


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    #13
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,125 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Stigura wrote: »
    Tomorrow; I Go Play In The Mud! :cool:
    ]

    You bought that very quick! :D

    Where did you get that in a garden centre?

    I had one myself with the two different alloy probes that was fairly accurate till I broke it..:p
    I've now ordered another one, a digital one this time after taking my own advice.

    Best of luck with your tester. You'll have no problem sticking it in the soil in this weather anyway. :)


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    #14
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    Twelve yo, in the creamery garden section :)

    I looked at Digital ones, on line? Anywhere from seven you, to seven Hundred yo! Christ on a bike; I want to get some level of indication just how bad a patch of ground is.

    Maybe gain some indication that it's at all better, after some months of me emptying my ash box on it. But, it's really just a bit of fun. I might have been willing to spend two, or three times as much. But, where do ye draw the line? I grabbed what was available and shall have fun digging it in the ground.

    Mentioned all this to my mate, the Butcher, today. Explained how Anthracite Coal was, apparently ~ turf, which was less compressed. He seemed to consider this for a moment. Then, he kicked off:

    " Yes. Of course. There'd be blah, blah, blah, Anthracite Coal. Then, blah, blah, blah, Lignite Coal and, blah, blah, blah ..... " Shut up! Shut up!!! Just sell me some bloody meat! :D


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    #15
    baaba maal
    Registered Users Posts: 772 ✭✭✭baaba maal


    My one concern about using lignite ash in the garden would be if you were to add it to the veg patch- the heavy metal content (cue Black Sabbath references) could accumulate over time and you don't want to be eating too much chromium, vanadium etc.:
    https://www.scientificbulletin.upb.ro/rev_docs_arhiva/full9545.pdf
    Scroll to table six and bear in mind that the article is in relation to risks using ash and slag in construction- not in food production!


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    #16
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    Naah. I don't see me having to worry about minuscule trace elements of anything in it. Smoked like a chimney, for forty odd years. Drunk like a fish most of my life. I'm done for already :(

    Paddock I'll be strewing it will account for about 1% of the horses annual intake. I reckon they, like me, will be dead anyway, long before they mutate into Strontium Dogs.

    I saw a family, up the road, always pouring theirs into a pile. Clearly had designs on putting / using it some where? :)

    Saying that? They are all dead now .....


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    #17
    baaba maal
    Registered Users Posts: 772 ✭✭✭baaba maal


    On the upside at least you will leave traces in the archaeological records!


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    #18
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,125 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    How did you get on with the pH tester?


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    #19
    Stigura
    Registered Users Posts: 3,413 ✭✭✭Stigura


    Alright, actually :) Can't remember, off hand, what the test reading was. 6.5? It was only about half a measure into acid, anyway. No where near as bad as I'd expected.

    I took that outside the back door. I'd dropped some ash on a fenced off spot nearby. But, that ash was still laying on the buttercups. It's raining, as I type, so that should wash it to the ground.

    I'm sort of mulling over the possibility of getting some sort of storage container for the ash. The paddock's not a place I'd relish trudging over, every couple of days, right now.

    Might consider emptying ask box to bucket. Leave to definitely cool off. Then store in feed sacks. Rather carry feed sacks for a bit, once.


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