Anyone that had a huge basement wood furnace like we did the ash piles could be rather large.
Our 100 + free range chickens use it to dust off in.
There was always a few so called dusting pits in the ash pile with Rhode Island Reds and various other breeds dusting in it.
The ash buckets with a few hot coals were always left to cool on the back porch before taking to the ash pile.
The giant rag weeds grew rather well a few feet away but nothing in the ashes or in the soil with only a little bit of ash on top.
Wood ash is high in potassium hence the name potash from whence it was discovered.
In ashes from potted plants.
The combustion temperature of the wood plays a great role in the composition of wood ash.
It will contain trace mineral elements in the wood from the natural growth of the tree in the area it is grown in.
If your soil is already suffering from alkali wood ash is not the best way to add what little fertilizer it contains and you may very well be putting too much potassium in the soil.
I would recommend a light dusting at most and check for results and use controls to see/prove what the results are.
I really do wish I had some of that lovely olive wood to work with.
