what to do with bones?

[Gary350]

Different crops deplete different nutrients from the soil, decaying plant matter raises the acidic levels. Lime helps to reduce the acid. Farmers harvest their crops their equipment chops the plants and returns them to the soil to decay, every few years lime needs to be replaced as it is depleted. Home gardeners have the same problem certain plants like, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, melons, deplete the soil of lime then the plants suffer from BER = blossom end rot. Some wood has more lime than others, some hard woods have up to about 30% calcium. I am burning pine tree limbs and getting about 1 pint jar full of wood ash each time. Wood ash seems to be the perfect fertilizer for tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons, I sprinkle a little wood ash near the root every 2 weeks all summer. This small amount of calcium has very little effect on the whole garden.

Read this link about wood ash in the garden.

https://www.humeseeds.com/ashes.htm

[Gary350]

Bone experiment is interesting. I picked up this pile of bones from the yard. I built a pine wood fire in the BBQ grill that burned about 2 hours until charcoal was out. After bones cooled they were easy to break in 1/2 & not very too hard to crumble into smaller pieces. After the 2nd fire most of the bones were gone the ones that are left crumble into powder fairly easy.

The pan of wood ash is where I cleaned out the BBQ grill before I started these 2 fires. This is about 3 quarts of charcoal and ash. After removing the charcoal and throwing it on the fire with the bones I have about 1 pint mason jar full of wood ash for this years tomato plants. Pine is soft wood it does not make very much ash.

I need to remember photos always show up in reverse order according to how they were uploaded. First photo is always at the bottom of the page.

[rainbowgardener]

RE: decaying plant matter raises the acidic levels [in soil]

That is a big over-simplification:

When organic matter first begins to decay, it releases anions and cations. Plant foliage and stems generally contain more anions, so the initial decay over the first few weeks causes a soil pH increase. This initial increase in soil pH, especially from high nitrogen plant residue, could be used to reduce H+ [acidity], aluminum or manganese toxicity in the seedling rooting zone long enough for seedling establishment (21, laboratory). Soil microbes further break down the plant material to ammonium (mineralization) which temporarily increases pH. The ammonium gets converted to nitrate (nitrification) which causes pH to instead go down. If the nitrate is lost to leaching, pH drops even more. In the very long term, microbial decomposition decreases pH. The net effect of organic matter addition on soil pH depends on the rate at which all these processes occur and what happens with the nitrogen produced (e.g., nitrate plant uptake vs. leaching loss), the quality and quantity of plant material, and initial soil pH. Soil pH will likely increase with decomposition of plants growing on basic soils, and manure derived from such plants, deep rooted plants that draw anions from deep soil layers to the soil surface, and, plant residue high in nitrogen
(e.g., from field pea; 22, 23, both Australia). Higher residue amounts increase soil pH

https://landresources.montana.edu/nm/documents/NM8.pdf a very thorough exploration of soil pH and organic matter

So it is a dynamic process that goes through a number of changes as the cycle proceeds. If you are regularly adding organic matter to your soil, then you have all of that going on at once, the initial pH increase from the beginning stage of decay of newly added stuff and the the later pH decrease from the decay of previously added stuff. So it all balances out.

Personally, I would still be careful of adding too much lime or wood ash unless your soil is at least neutral if not alkaline to start with. But you are clearly right that sprinkling a little wood ash around plant roots won't affect the pH of your garden as a whole.

[rainbowgardener]

My soil is slightly acidic, around 6.8. That is nearly perfect for vegetables, but at the high end of what most of them like. But I am always working to acidify more for all the things like blueberries and other shrubs that like definitely acid soil. There is nothing I would add ash/ lime to. I do put some wood ash in my compost pile.

[rainbowgardener]

In the Mar 8 post I made, it says be careful about adding wood ash unless soil is alkaline. Clearly my brain went off track for a minute. (It was one AM) Here is how it should read:

Personally, I would still be careful of adding too much lime or wood ash unless your soil is at least slightly acidic to start with. But you are clearly right that sprinkling a little wood ash around plant roots won't affect the pH of your garden as a whole

[MaLiorzh]

All bones go into my composter and then those that come out the other end go into my shredder. Equally mussel, oyster and other shellfish shells share the same fate. I find that crushed shells are good for growing Sea Kale and Oysterleaf (Mertensia maritima). Perhaps in the composter they control the pH a little too.

[imafan26]

All my bones end up in the trash. I do soil tests every three years and my soil only needs nitrogen and it is already high in Calcium and does not need any more. I did add lime this year because my pH dropped from 6.4 to 6.0 and I did not want it to drop any lower. pH of 6.0 is considered ideal based on my soil type.

[2-Acres-NorthWest]

I don't know if it serves any purpose, but here's what I do with bones. we don't have a lot, I'm vegetarian. But, I cook my dog's food, which each week involves 5 pounds of chicken thighs, among other things.

During the winter, I let the bones dry, then throw them into the woodstove. I save the ashes to spread in garden in late winter. I have very acidic soil, so the ashes help a little to raise the pH. I like that I'm not wasting the calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and other minerals in the wood ashes and bones. Burned in the woodstove, most of the bones disappear, and the rest of the pieces are brittle like chalk.

The rest of the year, I bury the chicken bones in holes I dig in my garden, between rows. I bury about a foot deep. They seem to disappear fairly fast. I don't find bones when I did the following year.

These are from chicken that was cooked overnight in a slow cooker.

My garden is fenced with chain link to keep deer, raccoons, and rabbits out. I haven't had any animal dig the bones up.