Avoiding items that are bad for garden soil

When it comes to recycling material in the garden, two items can be detrimental to your garden soil. This first is fireplace ash. The problem with using it in the Antelope Valley is the high level of calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate will increase the pH of soil or can make the soil alkaline. The soil in the Antelope Valley already has a high pH.

We spend more time trying to lower our soil pH. This is the main reason I am not a fan of using fireplace ash. On the East Coast, where the soil pH is too low, fireplace ash can be an OK soil additive.

However, if calcium is burned, as burning wood in your fireplace, it becomes a product called quick lime. Quick lime has been used for mortar and is a main ingredient of cement. Nobody wants to add cement to their garden soil.

The chemical makeup of wood ash normally contains no nitrogen; it ranges from 0-7% phosphorus, 6-20% potassium and 2053% calcium carbonate. Also, there are small amounts of copper, zinc, manganese, iron, sodium, sulfur and boron.

The soil in the Antelope Valley typically contains very low amounts of nitrogen, but there is no nitrogen in wood ash. Plants use the phosphorus and potassium found in fireplace ash, but our soil usually has high amounts of both nutrients. The copper, zinc, manganese, iron and sulfur are typically deficient in our local soil, but the amount of each in fireplace ash is very small. Fireplace ash is not a great source of plant nutrients for the Antelope Valley.

The second recyclable material that can be very bad for your soil is spa or pool water. It is not because of the bacteria, but due to the sodium content of the water.

Sodium is very bad for the soil. When soil has excess sodium, it starts to break down. This, in turn, destroys your soil structure.

Soil structure is the arrangement of sand, silt, and clay into a small group that’s called a ped. Several peds may combine into a larger structure called an aggregate. Several aggregates may combine into a larger structure called a clod.

Most of you are familiar with clods because you have probably thrown one or two in your lifetime. The key to forming these structures is organic matter. It is often called the glue of the soil because it “glues’’ the sand silt and clay together into the different structures.

As important as the structure is for the soil, the spaces between the particles are more important. When your soil has poor structure, the spaces or pores are very small. As structure improves, the total pore space stays the same, but the size of the pores increases. The larger the pore space, the easier water and fertilizer can be absorbed by your soil.

All your hard work to improve your soil by adding organic matter can be quickly lost by using water high in sodium. Almost all the products that you put into your spa have sodium in it. Read the labels of your spa products. Usually the chlorine, pH increaser and chlorine stabilizer contain a form of sodium.

As if sodium is not bad enough, your spa water can contain toxic amounts of chlorine for your plants. Laundry detergent can also contain high amounts of sodium. Again, the sodium breaks down the organic matter. This may be great for cleaning clothes, but not for soil.

There are filters that can remove the chlorine and sodium from your spa water. These are not the filters in your spa, but a filter that you drain the spa through. They are like those used to give you clean drinking water. This will be an expensive method to reclaim your spa water.