Easy fertilization of cacti and green plants
My cigarette ash wanders twice a week in my cacti and green plants. I collect the ashes of the day and then distribute them, about half a teaspoon.
Sounds stupid, but it is not! My flowers are thriving! There is no smell there! But not on orchids and cyclamen!
kahalla: Ashes, any ash is a mineral concentrate of the contents of the burned material. At very high temperatures, all organic compounds burn. Remain minerals.This explains this fertilizing effect.
Since cigarettes do not burn so hot, some organic compounds are also retained. Nicotine, the addictive substance in cigarettes, has been incorporated into the tobacco plant as a poison against predators. Many insects and creepy-crawlies still recognize the smell of this poison in the cigarette ash and avoid "prepared" bird's nests.
As far as fingernails are concerned as fertilizers: passionate gardeners know horn shavings as fertilizers. These are nothing more than parts of hooves that chopped off long-term release the minerals in the surrounding soil. Our fingernails are made of exactly the same material. I have been distributing my cut fingernails for years on the flowerpots in the house.
Nature works in cycles. Any material that is in a living being is "recycled" afterwards and used again elsewhere. Only then can life exist on a planet that is a limited resource.
We humans constantly produce materials that can not be recycled, and thus bring this recycling system out of step. If we were to operate sustainably, there would be no scarcity of raw materials. However, we would also have what today is called growth, in only a small extent.
