North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Bruce Hansen" <brucedhansen@sbcglobal.net>]

I think it is a carbonate (from old memory storage) since a sulfate would create h2so3 in the soil? The 'potash' thing is interesting. I had not perceived that. Potassium is of great value to plants and we humans (nerve firing, perhaps). The word potash seems like Old English. If so it is pretty ancient implying that the 'old folk' new a thing or two before the folk down the street at the fertilizer store found out. When bashing the ancients, walk carefully and carry a humble stick. And, isn't it true that scads of fertilizer around any plant will not just fruit trees will kill the bloody thing?  

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Doc Lisenby
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 12:39 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Re: Hardwood Ashes

Seems like I have heard that "potash" got the name from leached wood ashes.  I believe it is Potassium Sulfate or Potassium Carbonate which is found in commercial fertilizers but I've heard "potash" used for several different potassium compounds.   I have also been told that different woods yield different amounts of desired horticultural nutrients  when they are burned which is plausible.  We used to use leached wood ash water to make hominy and "grandma's lye soap" back in the '30s.  Ashes seem to make lilacs bloom profusely, but so does emptying the slop jar/pee pot on them.

Doc Lisenby