# What the hell is "Potash?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 26, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436 "2025-01-26T16:25:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/21 "2025-01-26T18:16:57Z")
Potash production led to the discovery of iodine. Potash was being made from kelp and sulfuric acid was used to clean the metal vessels being used and a chemist noticed that excess acid would produce a cloud of purple vapors that would eventually be identified by other chemists as a newly found element, iodine.
Kelp was being used at the time to make potash because of a shortage of wood ashes which were being consumed by French and English to make gunpowder in addition to other industrial uses that had developed. Iodine was a precursor to the development of photography used to create early photographic plates.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/22 "2025-01-26T18:24:16Z")
Every gardener should already know about potash. It is part of the N-P-K fertilizer nomenclature.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/23 "2025-01-26T18:25:13Z")
It’s a very important substance, apparently.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/24 "2025-01-26T18:33:45Z")
It’s important enough to name a whole town after, at least.
> **[Potaschberg](https://maps.app.goo.gl/zd8sAzBoL1hdQyiB7)**
>
> Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
I drive past it regularly. Very cute, charming little area, situated, as expected, in an agricultural area. It’s no longer a potash source, but the name remains.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/25 "2025-01-26T18:35:20Z")
> [@blondebear](#):
>
> It takes you right past the [Cane Creek Potash Mine](https://clui.org/ludb/site/intrepid-potash-cane-creek-mine).
That lead photo looks so-o-o Photoshopped. (I know it isn’t)
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/26 "2025-01-26T20:02:04Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> Thanks. Shows how much I know. I was thinking it was some sort of dish made out of fish guts.
No, that’s percha gutta. More formally called percha gutta chimichanga, it’s a deep-fried burrito stuffed with discarded fish guts, usually perch, and which is not only inedible but stinks something fierce. In rural Mexico, it’s traditionally served to one’s enemies as a mark of disdain. 😉
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/27 "2025-01-26T20:13:34Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> _gutta percha points_, what do you mean to _play with_?
I was just curious. I don’t have a plan. They feel like a typical plastic, like nylon or polyethylene. I can certainly bend them. I wonder if getting them about as hot as I can handle will turn them into stiff putty that I can mold into plastic parts (this feels optimistic). I’ve certainly tinkered with epoxy, clay, body putty, plaster, cement, wood, plastics, and metal to make things with; maybe I can add Gutta percha to my bag of tricks. Just for example, I might customize the ear pieces on my glasses to fit better.
I’ve heard of this stuff for I bet 60 years and it got me to wondering.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/28 "2025-01-26T20:25:34Z")
Now that we know about potash, the next mystery substance from the 1800s to discuss is Borax. After which the town of Borax, California is named.
Yes I’m kidding about discussing. But the town is real as is the stuff.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/29 "2025-01-26T20:27:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Now that we know about potash, the next mystery substance from the 1800s to discuss is Borax.
I had always assumed that you had to boil down twenty mules to make borax.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/30 "2025-01-26T21:11:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Now that we know about potash, the next mystery substance from the 1800s to discuss is Borax. After which the town of Borax, California is named.
[Borax](https://www.marthastewart.com/what-is-borax-8430570) is a compound used in detergents and cleaning agents. People used to buy it seperately and add to laundry detergent to help whiten clothes before detergent makers started adding borate and phosphorous ‘whitening’ compounds directly to their products.
The town you are thinking of is [Boron. CA](https://la-explorer.com/visiting-boron-ca-and-the-borax-visitor-center/) (east of Barstow and just on the northwest edge of Edwards Air Force Base) which is home to the US Borax Boron Mine, formerly run by the Pacific Coast Borax Company and now by the ubiquitous Rio Tinto global mining conglomerate.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/31 "2025-01-26T21:26:14Z")
Now that the question has been answered, The US produces plenty of its own potash and even exports potash to other countries. Utah, Michigan, and New Mexico have large reservers.
Canada just has a lot and sells it cheaper. These are the sort of things that trade wars and tariffs are made for. US farmers will not run out of potash, the price may change or become more competitive. Do not panic!
I used to purchase a lot of potash for a fertilizer producer. Some of this chemical is certified as organic. Bought it from the Great Salt Lake mineral company. It is unlikely that Salt Lake in Utah will ever run out of available potash.
This discussion should revert back into one of the political treads about impending doom.
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### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/32 "2025-01-26T21:59:28Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> The name apparently comes from early alchemist / proto-chemists who found that some of their experiments left an ash-like substance in their beakers and pots, which was later identified as KCl. They called it “pot ash”.
TIL.
I always thought it had something to do with wood ashes being a good source. Of course, going back to burning wood specifically for that purpose on any remotely large scale would cause a lot of other problems.
– ah, maybe I need to promptly unlearn again and go back to something closer to my original impression:
.
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Potash is named from the early process of burning wood in a pot to produce potassium rich ashes. The name of the element potassium is based on its original source, potash.
That version seems to have some confirmation available, though it wasn’t only wood that was burned for the purpose:
> **[potassium / potash — Wordorigins.org](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/potassium-potash)**
>
> 21 June 2024 Potassium is a chemical element with the atomic number 19 and the symbol K . It is a soft, silvery-white, alkali metal that reacts rapidly and violently with oxygen. Potassium is necessary for life as we know it, required for nerve...
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/33 "2025-01-26T22:02:39Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> The town you are thinking of is Boron. CA…
The mine and the town are worth a quick stop to check out the Borax and Aerospace museums and get a peek at the open pit mine. If you’re hungry the Twenty Mule Cafe serves up some decent grub.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/34 "2025-01-26T22:15:32Z")
Most any gardener or farmer knows how to read a fertilizer bag. NPK is the standard information: Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium, macronutrients needed by all plants in various ratios during their various life cycles. This is printed on bags of organic and non-organic fertilizers alike.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/35 "2025-01-26T22:20:08Z")
When I was at school and doing a lot of silly giggly things to amuse my friends, one of them decided their new character name was going to be **Potash Feldspar**. That still makes me laugh.
Feel free to add it to your Band Name lists.
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/36 "2025-01-26T22:23:16Z")
The K in the NPK is for potassium. From the Arabic, or Latin, or who knows, word for potash.
Kalium.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/37 "2025-01-26T22:46:57Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> insulate underwater transatlantic cables and in other early electrical insulation applications
Neal Stephenson wrote a classic essay about undersea cables that mentions gutta-percha, among other things:
> **[A Global Tour of the Biggest and Best Wire Ever Made](https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/)**
>
> The hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, chronicling the laying of the longest wire on Earth.
> Without rubber and another kind of tree resin called gutta-percha, it would not have been possible to wire the world. Early telegraph lines were just naked conductors strung from pole to pole, but this worked poorly, especially in wet conditions, so some kind of flexible but durable insulation was needed. After much trial and error, rubber became the standard for terrestrial and aerial wires while gutta-percha (a natural gum also derived from a tree grown in Malaya) was used for submarine cables. Gutta-percha is humble-looking stuff, a nondescript brown crud that surrounds the inner core of old submarine cables to a thickness of perhaps 1 centimeter, but it was a wonder material back in those days, and the longer it remained immersed in salt water, the better it got.
> Dr. Wildman Whitehouse and his 5-foot-long induction coils were the first hazard to destroy a submarine cable but hardly the last. It sometimes seems as though **every force of nature, every flaw in the human character, and every biological organism on the planet is engaged in a competition to see which can sever the most cables**. The Museum of Submarine Telegraphy in Porthcurno, England, has a display of wrecked cables bracketed to a slab of wood. Each is labeled with its cause of failure, some of which sound dramatic, some cryptic, some both: trawler maul, spewed core, intermittent disconnection, strained core, teredo worms, crab’s nest, perished core, fish bite, even “spliced by Italians.” The teredo worm is like a science fiction creature, a bivalve with a rasp-edged shell that it uses like a buzz saw to cut through wood—or through submarine cables. Cable companies learned the hard way, early on, that it likes to eat gutta-percha, and subsequent cables received a helical wrapping of copper tape to stop it.
Recent events have demonstrated that not a bit has changed in the past couple of centuries.
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### Author:  [@split\_p\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/split_p_j)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/38 "2025-01-26T23:06:24Z")
It’s a huge traffic source for railroads.
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/39 "2025-01-26T23:28:34Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#):
>
> Now that the question has been answered, The US produces plenty of its own potash and even exports potash to other countries. Utah, Michigan, and New Mexico have large reservers.
For numeric perspective, consult with the U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2024.
For 2023, thousand metric tons:
US Consumption of Potash: 5300
US Imports for consumption: 5000
US Exports: 160
US Mined Marketable Production: 400
Canada Mine Production: 13,000
So the US produces less than 10% of what it consumes. It exports 3% of what it consumes.
The US doesn’t seem to be running out of Potash to mine and I’m not panicking. Furthermore, paying 20% more for a key component of US fertilizer is not the end of the world, though it would make US agricultural exports less competitive. Tariffs can be understood as a tax on exports and consumption.
Putting tariffs on potash (or any other product without careful thought) is basically delivering a supply shock to yourself, resulting in some combination of higher prices and lower final output. It would also entail a degree of industrial disruption. But lower income for US residents and Canadians at the same time is not the end of the world.
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### Author:  [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436/40 "2025-01-26T23:30:00Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#):
>
> Kalium.
At some point during a family road trip, we went past [Kalium Rd](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kalium+Rd,+Pense+No.+160,+SK,+Canada/@50.408013,-105.2190969,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m10!1m2!2m1!1sKalium+Road!3m6!1s0x531bfcb7920fa29b:0x3b8c3a3190b0b0f3!8m2!3d50.4080131!4d-105.214226!15sCgtLYWxpdW0gUm9hZJIBBXJvdXRl4AEA!16s%2Fg%2F1ydnytqv3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D), named after the Potash industry in the area.
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