• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Our Next Ash Drive is March 25th from 9:30 to 1pm
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Friends of the Muskoka Watershed

Friends of the Muskoka Watershed

Ensuring healthy Muskoka watersheds forever

  • Who We Are
    • About ASHMuskoka
  • What We Do
  • Citizen Science
    • Citizen Science Form
  • News & Events
    • ASHMuskoka News
  • Resources
    • ASHMuskoka Final Research Reports
    • Reports
    • Publications
    • Presentations
    • Student Research
  • Membership
  • Contact
Donate

Wood ash. Acidic? Alkaline? A quick lesson in pH values and what they mean

April 29, 2020 by pg

Wood ashes are very alkaline, with pH levels of around 9 to 11. But what is pH and what pH is too acid or too alkaline to safely handle or for ecosystem health? The “p” in pH stand for “power”, as in “raised to the power of” in mathematical notation, and the “H” stands for hydrogen. Technically pH is a measure of the strength of an acid solution, i.e. a solution of H ions. It is calculated as -log10H. Complicated, but here’s what it means. It has a negative sign, implying the lower the number the stronger the acidity, so water with a pH of 4 is much more acidic that water with a pH of 5. It’s also a log-scale, meaning a unit change represents a ten-fold change. So pH 4 is actually 10 times more acid than pH 5, and 100 times more acidic than pH 6. A pH of 7 is deemed “neutral”, neither acidic nor alkaline.

pH is a log scale. So pH 4 is actually 10 times more acid than pH 5, and 100 times more acidic than pH 6.

We are exposed to solutions of many different pH levels in our every day lives. Battery acid has a pH of 1 – take care! In the kitchen, vinegar, soda drinks, and lemon juice are quite acidic with pH levels of 2 to 3. Milk is almost neutral with a pH just under 7. Meat has a pH of 5 to 7. Baking soda in solution is alkaline with a pH of about 8.5. Among the most alkaline products in our home are cleaning agents such as Javex (pH 11), and TSP (pH of 12-14), and we know to take care when using them. Wood ashes are almost as alkaline when dissolved in water, with a pH varying from about 9 to 11. Thus adding wood ash to our soils has two distinct benefits. It is alkaline so it can neutralize soil acidity, and the source of the alkalinity is calcium minerals, so it can replenish the Ca lost to decades of acid rain.


Water – pH of 7 or ‘neutral’

If you are interested, here is an interesting interactive demonstration on pH values from the University of Colorado Boulder. Click or tap on the Macro view and select various liquids from the drop-down menu at the top. More can be added by pushing the red button on the dropper. Dragging the green ‘sensor’ to the liquid will give you the pH reading on the scale. Try adding water via the tap to see how it affects the pH value.

Category iconASHMuskoka,  Calcium,  Science,  wood ash Tag iconacidic,  alkaline,  ASHMuskoka,  hydrogen,  pH,  wood ash

Footer

Friends of the Muskoka Watershed

Charitable Business No. 815686043 RR 0002

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Explore

  • Who We Are
  • What We Do
  • Resources

Connect

  • News & Events
  • Contact Us

Give

  • Become A Member
  • Renew Membership
  • Other Ways to Give

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Disclaimer

© Copyright 2020 Friends of the Muskoka Watershed

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

FMW Logo-Wordmark
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.