Organic Potash?

[Stickyplant]

I am looking for some different organic sources of Potash.

Anyone know? I am looking to get somewhere between 15 & 20 without increasing Nitrogen or Potasium.

Thanks

Stickyplant Reviewed by Stickyplant on 05-07-2006. Organic Potash? I am looking for some different organic sources of Potash. Anyone know? I am looking to get somewhere between 15 & 20 without increasing Nitrogen or Potasium. Thanks Rating: 5

[Sinsemilla Jones]

...Potash...without increasing...Potasium.

So that's not going to happen.

imp:

[Stickyplant]

Hey thanks for your help... oh wait... you didnt help, and you obviously dont know.

Why would you even post? I already have a source for Potash that is organic that DOES NOT raise Nit or Potasium... so please, if you have nothing to add, dont answer.

Anyone else that may actually be able to help here?

I can get an organic source of Nitrogen without really raising Potasium or Potash.

I can get an organic source of Potasium without really raising Nit. or Potash.

I HAVE found a source for Potash (organic) that wont raise Nitro. or Potasium, but I dont like the salt/sulfer that comes with this source. I am looking for something that will do the same, but without all the salt/sulfer so my soil does not lock up or throw the PH way off.

IF you have something constructive to add, or a suggestion, I would appreciate it.

[Sinsemilla Jones]

http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dicti...arch&va=potash

potash

Main Entry: pot·ash
Pronunciation: 'pät-"ash
Function: noun
Etymology: singular of pot ashes
1 : potassium carbonate especially from wood ashes
2 : potassium or a potassium compound especially as used in agriculture or industry



imp:

[krink]

pick up some sul po mag...that'll do the trick.

cheers,

[Stickyplant]

Thanks Krink

[Stickyplant]

I forgot to mention... I am using an organic sea-weed that is supposed to be 0-0-3 But to get it to the level I want, I am also adding an aweful lot of salt/sulfer as well, I will definately check out the "sul po mag" thanks again Krink

[Sinsemilla Jones]

It's the avatar of authority.


BTW, the sul in sul po mag is sulfur and the po is potassium.

[Sinsemilla Jones]

http://cavemanchemistry.com/cavebook/chpotash2.html

If you would like to understand potash, you must realize that Lucifer has oversimplified fire considerably. Reconsidering Equation 1-1, you will notice that all of the products of combustion are gases. Where, then, do the ashes come from? You will recall that these equations are for the combustion of cellulose, and that wood is only mostly cellulose. 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, producing the 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.

You will recall, no doubt, that a mixture can be separated into two or more pure substances by recrystallization, distillation, and chromatography. You will be pleased to learn that we are discussing only recrystallization in this chapter. You have, of course, noticed that some things, like salt and sugar, are soluble in water, while others, like sand and charcoal, are not. Recrystallization separates substances which differ in their solubility. Ash, for example, is mostly insoluble in water. Only a small portion of the ash dissolves in water, and this is the substance we call potash, or potassium carbonate. To make potash, you must add your ash to a quantity of water. Any leftover charcoal will float to the top, while the insoluble minerals will sink to the bottom. The good stuff, the potash, will be dissolved in the water. You must separate the water from the charcoal above and the minerals below. Once you have done this, you will have what looks like clear, clean water. But if you boil the water away, or let it evaporate in the Sun, a white, crystalline residue will remain. This residue is potash.

Now, it is important, if you are to be successful, that your ashes have never been wet. If they have been wet before you started, then, of course, the potash will already have been washed out of them. So you must get your ashes from a fire that has been allowed to burn out, not from one which has been doused with water. But if your ashes were dry, and if you were careful to skim off the charcoal, and if you allowed the minerals to settle completely, and if you were able to collect the water without stirring up the sediment, and if, finally, you boiled away all the water, you will have nice, pure, white, crystalline potash, which is a lovely thing to behold.

This potash will look just like salt or sugar, so how will you know that it is not just salt or sugar? You will give it a taste. If your mother was as strict as mine, the taste will be reminiscent of a day when she caught you saying words you were not supposed to know yet. This is the bitter taste of alkali, or base. It would be irresponsible of me, of course, to suggest that you should go around tasting everything. Chemists have learned the hard way that tasting unknowns can get you into a world of hurt and so they have developed pH test paper to serve as a virtual tongue. Bitter things turn pH test paper blue and sour things turn it red. Salty and sweet things leave pH test paper a neutral yellow color. If you have never used pH test paper before, use a few strips to test materials whose flavors you already know. Good choices are lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda, and soap. From this experience you will be able to use pH test paper to distinguish bitter things from sour things, alkalis from acids, without risking your health.

Before we get too much farther, I should tell you that potash, or potassium carbonate, is not the only soluble component of wood ash. Depending on the soil conditions, sodium carbonate may also be present. As a matter of fact, when the ashes come from burning seaweed, there may be more sodium carbonate than potassium carbonate, and in this case we refer to the product as soda ash. Table 8-1[1] shows what happens to 1000 pounds of Beech wood when it is burned. Most of it is consumed in the fire, of course, producing gaseous water and carbon dioxide. Less than six pounds of ash remain. Most of this ash is not soluble. When the water is boiled from the soluble bit, a little over a pound of crude potash remains. As I have explained, most of this crude potash is potassium carbonate, but some of it will consist of sodium carbonate, potassium sulfate, and other soluble compounds. You may be wondering how you could remove these contaminants. I am happy you asked.

Adam, I must tell you, has considerably simplified the whole business of solubility. Solubility is not a black-and-white issue; some "soluble" compounds are more soluble than others. Table 8-2 shows that potassium carbonate has a much higher solubility than the other compounds we might expect to be present in wood ashes. If, instead of boiling away all the water, we were to boil away only most of the water, the less soluble compounds would precipitate, that is, they would sink to the bottom of the solution as solids, and the potassium carbonate would stay in solution until the last possible moment. If we were to pour off this solution and boil it to dryness, the resulting solid would have fewer contaminants than the crude potash.

Well, really, we have done the same thing to remove the sodium carbonate and potassium sulfate that we did to remove the insoluble ash. In both cases we are physically separating compounds that differ in their solubility. This process, known as recrystallization, remains the most widely-used technique for purifying solids.....

All of this was to tell you why I happened to be sitting in the ashes when we met. All living things are rather picky about their pH, most preferring something close to pH 7. If you should get some potash in your eyes, you will discover this for yourself in a rather painful way. But most of your body is well-protected by a layer of skin. Bacteria, on the other hand, have no such protection. So applying potash to a cut or boil sends the germs right around the twist. I can only wish that it had the same effect on the fellow who gave me the boils in the first place.

imp:

[Sinsemilla Jones]

You're obviously an ass.

Even if I had been wrong, I was only trying to help you.

imp: