Topic: Soot

[Unwashed]

Anyone plant their potatoes in soot? 

[jimtheworzel]

for what reason ? ???

[plainleaf2]

this link might explain it

http://books.google.com/books?id=Re4UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=potatoes+in+soot&source=bl&ots=g02C0xFNRa&sig=gHDyeolpe2wPUsMQxSmgWO8Emgc&hl=en&ei=X2HoSsukMJG0lAfYr5GACA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=potatoes%20in%20soot&f=false

[Unwashed]

Jim, at some time it's been recommended to me to plant potatoes with soot, but I can't for the life of me remember why.

plainleaf, that's an interesting book isn't it.  Shows that potatoes yield well in dung, but I wonder if the soot might have benefits other than yield, because it doesn't mention quality.  Lots of units I'm not familiar with too - links, bolls, ect.

What actually is soot anyway?  Yeah, i know it comes from your chimbley, I mean chemically what is it?

[plainleaf2]

a boll of potatoes is 6 bushels.
the soot also deters slugs.

[Chrispy]

I can't see the point either, OK, wood ash is high in potassium, hence potash, I would have thought that soot would not,as it would be almost pure carbon, great as a neutral growing medium or making diamonds, but anything else?????
Maybe someone with more than O level chemistry would like to correct me.

[grawrc]

Do you have a source of soot Unwashed or is it an academic enquiry?

[asbean]

Are you a chimney sweep by any chance?

I understand that in the sooty smoggy days of old before the clean air act roses never had black spot.

[davyw1]

Soot should be avoided in this day and age, unless you know the origin of it, as the modern smokeless fuels contain a lot of metals and chemicals and so should not be used.  If you can get genuine coal soot then it should stand for at least a year to let all the matals, toxic sulpher etc to dissapate. Soot has a commercial analysis of 9% N. If you intend to apply it to the garden then it should be used at a rate of 1/2 lb to a square yard. It should be aplied as a top dressing during the period of growth and hoed in.
Another method is to put it in a hesssian sack suspended in a water butt and use the mixture as a liquid feed.
It can also be used when watering tomatoes that is intended for the show bench, it gives the tomato skin a nice deep red colour.

[chriscross1966]

Slugs hate it... I was lucky enough to pick up a load of weathered soot earlier this year and have barrier lines of it around various things, not a slug has got past it yet as far as I can tell.... might try it next year with spuds as I have loads left....

chrisc

[Robert_Brenchley]

Soot is volatile material which is boiled off by the heat of a smouldering fire, plus particles of carbon. The volatiles condense up the chimney, where it builds up. It's highly inflammable; I remember chimeny fires well from when I was a kid. They were always disappointing as there were no flames (there was no excitement in a fire engine if there wasn't a dramatic fire!) but there would be great clouds of thick yellow smoke pouring out of the chimney as the stuff evaporated again. Flames on a coal fire are the hot volatiles and carbon burning off as they mix with the air. I've never seen a chemical analysis, but there must be a lot of carbon, plus hydrocarbons ('coal tar'), plus sulphur compounds, depending on how much sulphur there is in the coal, plus contaminants of all sorts. Altogether it's probably a fairly nasty mix.