Copy and pasted a post of mine from another section...this should help with ash confusion
Though it may also be confusing out of context and spliced
"When wood is heated anaerobically, it turns black as the water is driven off, leaving charcoal, or carbon, behind. When charcoal burns in air, the carbon combines with oxygen, producingthe gas, carbon dioxide. But if you have ever used a charcoal grill,you may have noticed that charcoal turns white as it burns. This white ash is what remains of the non-flammable minerals which were present in the wood to begin with. You don't really notice them until the carbon has burned away. These ashes have a composition which varies according to the kind of wood and the soil in which it grew, and it is this variable composition which marks ash as a mixture rather than a pure substance. Hope that helps with the color of ash confusion
Also you can now laugh in peoples face when they say their ash didn't burn white cause it wasn't flushed properly lol....that white is either potash or sodium carbonate..if it only burns black it simply still has moisture in it
Man sometimes Isurprise even myself..I should write a book for stoners, I'm slangin gold over here folks
Since I'm bored and on the subject, that anaerobic burning is what causes butane lighters to produce soot or that black stuff if you put the flame under something, propane burns wonderfully clean but as you add carbon it needs more oxygen, as you go up it won't burn properly unless you add an oxidizer.. this is also why BIC lighters are only about 500 degrees instead of 3500 or whatever butane likes to burn at.."
If for whatever reason you didn't get it....white ash is nutes....black ash is carbon...I wonder which is better

or if it just has moisture from a lame ass cure giving it a bad name