Kitchen Garden Forum

We have just swept our chimney. The soot is from a woodstove. Would it have any use in the garden please before we take it to the tip ?

I've always been told that if you save it for a year you can use it to line the trench before you plant your potatoes and it keeps away slugs. My parents do this and swear by it. I keep forgetting to keep the soot!

Hi HPYM

In the old forum Johnboy advised using soot around celery plants to deter slugs. I made a copy of this posting but seem to have misplaced it. I guess it's the same method as Chantal's parent use for potatoes. Hope JB reads this and replies.

Certainly soot used to be used as a slug deterrent. As memory serves me, it needed to be 'weathered', rather like manure. If you put it round plants too early it scorched the plants.

I would have to say, with today's central heating, soot is a rare, but valuable commodity for the gardener.

valmarg

Hi Happymouse,
The following is taken from the Amateur Gardening pocket guide.
Soot a good sample may contain as much as 6 per cent nitrogen in the form of sulphate of ammonia. Fresh soot is rather caustic and may be used as a soil fumigant to destroy insects and slugs. For use as a fertiliser it is best stored in the dry for three or four months. If exposed to rain, it quickly loses its value, as it does if mixed with lime, though this latter makes it yet more effective as a soil fumigant. Soot also darkens soil and enables it to absorb sun heat more readily. Rate of application up to 6 oz per square yard. May be used at any time of the year.

Hope this is of some help

Kevin

I think my father used to use it on the asparagus bed and onion bed.

Happymouse,

treat it almost like you are making leaf mould, just put it in bin bags and tie up the ends, stack the bags out of the way and use it the next season. Great for around spuds and as a conditioner of soil.

Thank you all. I have taken your advice. I have put it in bags and hidden it behind the shed.

The only Soot that will deter slugs is reasonably fresh Coal Soot and no other type of soot.
This is what was used to deter slugs from Trench Celery as the crop was being earthed up.
It is exceedingly effective.
Soot from a Wood Stove Chimney would not have the same effect but I can see no reason why it should not be used like Wood Ash. I really depends on what type of wood you burn. I only burn Hardwoods but if you burn Softwoods especially the Pines it should be more acidic.

I'm burning mainly coal and a little wood, is this soot OK to use? I was under the impression it was OK after storage but now I'm getting confused.

I can remember my Dad used to store it for a year in a covered heap and then put it round the rhubarb and we used to have mixed fires of coal and wood.
Carole.

Hi Carole,
Certainly your Dad was right but Soot with the temper taken out of it is not so good as a Slug deterant.
Chantal,
When you use a combination of wood and coal you normally get a kind of granulated form of soot and not the pure soot that I mean.
Pure soot has a high sulphur content and if used directly on anything would have a tendency to scorch it but with Trench Celery the Celery is wrapped in paper preventing this scorching action.

So pure soot is pure WOOD soot?

I don't grow celery but want to put it in the spud trench. Can I use my mixture?