Another problem with fine powders is absorption of humidity causing them to clump.

The ash does pretty well stored in a plastic bag out of the weather. If it gets rained on, forget it, but if kept in the barn it's fine. I'm actually devising a rotary drum sifter that can sift out the charcoal and any nails or other debris so it's a nice fine powder.

Your problem is not the powder but the clinkers, the unburned bits in with the ash. I never had trouble spreading lime with a drop spreader.

My method of spreading wood ash was to use a short handled ash shovel and fling it down wind. Some of it will go 50 feet or more. You need to give the neighbors due consideration. I assume your getting the ashes out of your wood stove so you don't have to cover the acre in any one day. With luck the wind will blow in different directions each time you spread another load. And you'll eventually get it all covered.

Wait a few days after burning to make sure there's no hot ashes. I used an old metal refrigerator pan with a sheet of metal to cover and a piece of concrete block to weigh it down. It'll stay nice and fluffy for at least 6 months like the pan full I have now.

There are no clinkers in this ash, it's been sifted through window screen to remove anything over 1/8". It bridges, or gets compacted into a claylike cake in the mechanism.

Have you used actual powdered lime, or just crushed, which is more like sand in consistency? I could see that stuff spreading fine, but this is like the finest powder you've ever seen.

BTW I use a metal 5-gal can from some former product, with a metal lid, to empty my ash into. The stove runs 24/7 so I generate about 5 gal per week. That's 75-100 gal per season. When one can gets full, I start on the second, so the first one has plenty of time to cool before I dump it into a plastic trash bag.

I really don't want to have to spread all this by flinging it. I've tried some of that, and I can't keep up. I need mechanical assistance.

Someone on another forum said they had no problem with a drop spreader. My old Scotts was pretty rusty, and got junked after that, so maybe it's not a good example. If a typical pull-behind drop spreader is likely to work as long as the ash is dry and sifted, maybe I should get a new one.

Tox... your soil needs the alkalinity along with the other stuff.

Regardless... I had gotten a a few bags of bone meal for my lawn. I was trying it out for the phosphorus which is lacking in my soil. Anyway... it was in a fine powder form and I was in the same predicament as you.

What I ended up doing was buying some cheap distillers grain in 50lb bags. I mixed it with the powdered bone meal in a wheel barrow first (being upwind from it). The powder quickly bonded to the meal and it spread just fine through my cheapo Scotts spreader.

Now you are talking a much larger area vs my .5 acre of lawn... but I am sure there is some other cheap feed or the like that you could get that would serve the same purpose.

Interesting idea. I do occasionally have some sawdust from the sawmill, but it may be fine enough that it will do the same thing. Cracked corn maybe, they sell that in big bags at the farm supply.

Not sure what you mean by 'your soil needs the alkalinity along with the other stuff.' It actually doesn't need alkalinity, it's fairly neutral, at least in the suburban yard. It's slightly acidic at the forested shop building property where most of it would go. The idea is to be able to spread it thin enough, in fall or winter, that the pH effect is easily absorbed by spring.

Also got a reply back from one manufacturer of a pull-behind drop spreader who said their (fairly standard design) spreader should work find on powders. I will probably have to just buy one and find out.

Since ashes have a pH of 10-14…. its similar to just liming your soil…. though i think ashes are more water soluble. id just be careful

on reapplications over time. It could overcome the buffering ability of the area and you end ip with a high pH soil.

I would think a drop spreader would work. Must get cleaned up after use and dry I'd think.

I think one with as much smooth shiny plastic as possible is a good idea for something this corrosive. And yeah, good cleaning. Maybe even a diluted vinegar rinse, followed by another water rinse.

Nevermore: Yes I'm familiar with the high pH. Previously read up on what lawns can tolerate, and given my pH and soil type, a layer of 1/16 - 1/8" per year during the dormant season is supposed to be well tolerated.