Help me understand this - composting oak leaves, fire place ash and their ph

[Renthead Mommy]

I'm not sure I've got this correct. I know oak leaves take much longer to compost. I also think they are more acidic on the ph levels. I need to clean out the fireplace. Is adding the fireplace ash going to make the compost pile even more acidic? Or help neutralize it? And will it speed up or slow down the composting?

 

My biggest concern is less the time, and more that my yard is already covered in acorns and acorn bits. They are in basically every bit of soil you'd try to dig up and are in my compost bin. Even in the very broken down parts of my compost, there are still fairly unbroken down acorns. Which means acrons are constantly getting added to my gardening space with my compost.

 

So are the acorns and oak leaves driving the ph down/more acidic? And will adding the fireplace ash make that better or worse?

 

I need to clean out the fireplace. As long as it won't make the compost pile or later the garden areas when the compost is spread more acid/worse, I'll just dump it in the compost. I don't care so much about if it will or won't speed it up, I just don't want to make the garden soil more acid than it already is being full of oak leaves and half composted acorns.

[NCMom]

Ash is very basic. I don't usually compost it, I just dump it in the garden (or in the forest:001_smile:) where it temporarily raises the pH. By spring the pH has returned to its (awful) original levels. (It's getting better though, lol.)

 

If you want your compost to speed up the make sure it is wet, but not too wet and add greens. Temperature makes a difference too. My leaves are always mostly composted by spring, but I add manure and it is not super cold here.

 

hth,

Georgia