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Ohio

I have this small little spot next to the house I kinda mess around in and been growing long gourds ,AG pumpkins (snake pattern) and tomatoes . The tomatoes grew fine in this spot somewhat I guess, it did take them along time to turn red though and I still have green tomatos on this plant from almost two months ago. But when it come to growing pumpkins or long gourds it was almost like these plants grew a inch a month. I have 2 long gourd plants side by side that I planted in May or early June that the plant, vine are only 10 inches long that had only one male flower on it all year. My pumpkin plants I was growing snake pattern both didnt produce any secondaries ,which I didnt care about because I was growing snake pattern anyway, but both pumpklin plants did produce a deformed pumpkin that grew for about a month then died. The leaves on theses plants stayed a light yellow the entire yr, At first I thought it was Nitrogen, then Calcium, but nothing I did seemed to help and it made it espically hard with out a soil sample.

So, I just found out yesterday from my neighbor there was a older house before my house on this property that his Parents used to dump their coal ashes and wood ashes for years in the exact spot Im growing in. He said its been way over 20 yrs ago that the ashes have been dumped there that he knows of. Does anyone know what coal ash has in it? I know that wood ash has potash, but what would coal ash have in it, potash also? Without a soil sample of course, what would your guess be that this little area of soil has to much of since ashes been dumped here for a good peroid of time.And what kind of signs would you see in your plants if planted in old coal ashes from a long time ago? The soil does look normal though. and the plants are all still living but they just wont grow,its weird, My gourd plants have been the exact same size since June,LOL.

Brooks

9/12/2006 9:14:19 AM

Beach Park, IL.

If I remember right, I think it also raises the ph in your soil, too. I add some to my garden, but have been limiting on it since we added a bunch of lime a couple years ago. :/. I am focusing on pine needles and gypsum now to help keep the ph down.

9/12/2006 1:48:54 PM

Beach Park, IL.

i just did a search, and many sites do not recommend coal ashes:

"178. Do not add charcoal or coal ashes to your compost pile: they may contain high amounts of sulfur or iron, which can harm plants."

Here is a link on wood ashes:

http://www.dispatch.com/garden/garden.php?story=dispatch/2005/03/27/20050327-I8-00.html

9/12/2006 1:55:11 PM

San Jose [email protected]

do soil test, its really imposibel to tell what the problem is without one

9/12/2006 6:01:39 PM

Ohio

Thanks for that link Tacotac,

Somehow I knew I was gonna get the ol ''get a soil test done'' Duh?

Brooks

9/13/2006 11:15:45 AM