Growing Cannabis In Plain Sand

Moflow

Moflow

Well-Known Member
For some reason the garden centre leaves it stacked outside to the elements so it's usually wet and heavy.
It sticks together and can be clumpy.
I've put it on big drip trays to dry out on warm days lol
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
I wonder if I plant a seed in a small seedling cup with sand if it will be hard to transplant. Im wondering if the sand will all fall off when I try or if the roots will hold it together. I wonder if I should just plant directly into the final pot since the sand wont really retain any water and overwatering would be hard?
 
Moflow

Moflow

Well-Known Member
Do two pots. Two seeds.
One pot to transplant into from seedling pot.
One to plant directly into.
If your transplant fails at least you've got one going.
 
go go kid

go go kid

Well-Known Member
Cpappa27 said:
I wonder if I plant a seed in a small seedling cup with sand if it will be hard to transplant. Im wondering if the sand will all fall off when I try or if the roots will hold it together. I wonder if I should just plant directly into the final pot since the sand wont really retain any water and overwatering would be hard?
Click to expand...
you'll be surprised just how much water sand will hold
 
Jjgrow420

Jjgrow420

Well-Known Member
Sand has no capacity to exchange cations because it has no electrical charge. This means sandy soils such as podzolic topsoils have very low CEC
Soils with a low CEC are more likely to develop deficiencies in potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+) and other cations while high CEC soils are less susceptible to leaching of these cations

If it were a good idea, everyone would already be doing it.
 
conor c

conor c

Well-Known Member
Billy the Mountain said:
Sand was actually one of the first hydroponic mediums used in large-scale operations.
The issue was inefficient use of water. As a medium, it works fine.

Opening from "Sand Culture" chapter in Resh's 'Hydroponic Food Production' book:

Sand culture was the most common form of hydroponics in areas of the world having an
abundance of sand. It was particularly well suited to desert regions of the Middle East and
North Africa. Now, however, nutrient film technique (NFT) and rockwool systems have
replaced sand culture because of their ability to recirculate the nutrient solution and to
automatically control nutrition through the use of computerization.

Since high-quality water is rare in most of these desert locations, some form of puri-
fication through distillation or reverse osmosis is imperative for success. Recirculating
hydroponic systems that efficiently utilize the costly purified water are essential from an
economic standpoint.
Click to expand...
Aye a mind jorge Cervantes mentioned in his old book but did say rooting cuttings was its best use
 
calvin.m16

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
Cpappa27 said:
I wish I thought of this like 3 months ago I would have done this with dozens of plants outdoors and tomatos to test different sands, mixes, additives, etc with the sand. I love the sand idea though, no weeding the garden and if I level it right I can water super fast. I wonder if flood and drain would work with sand?

I can get sawdust easily. I wonder what the nutrient value of the sawdust is in the sand or does it even break down since theres no real microbes in there?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty positive if you used chemical fertilizer it would have a better chance. I'm not sure though. Let us know. :)
 
Billy the Mountain

Billy the Mountain

Well-Known Member
Jjgrow420 said:
Sand has no capacity to exchange cations because it has no electrical charge. This means sandy soils such as podzolic topsoils have very low CEC
Soils with a low CEC are more likely to develop deficiencies in potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+) and other cations while high CEC soils are less susceptible to leaching of these cations

If it were a good idea, everyone would already be doing it.
Click to expand...
Rockwool has essentially zero CEC as well and is considered one of it's positive attributes.
Low CEC isn't a negative, it just dictates how you fertilize.
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
Moflow said:
Do two pots. Two seeds.
One pot to transplant into from seedling pot.
One to plant directly into.
If your transplant fails at least you've got one going.
Click to expand...
I just got back from home depot and on the trip I was thinking Im going to do probably 4 with each one being a little different. I found all purpose sand its much coarser than play sand so this will work perfect. Also found some planter pots on sale from 20 bucks down to 2 so bought all of them lol
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
Jjgrow420 said:
Sand has no capacity to exchange cations because it has no electrical charge. This means sandy soils such as podzolic topsoils have very low CEC
Soils with a low CEC are more likely to develop deficiencies in potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+) and other cations while high CEC soils are less susceptible to leaching of these cations

If it were a good idea, everyone would already be doing it.
Click to expand...
I heard that earlier too but I want to try it just to see what comes of it.
 
HenryTheEighth

HenryTheEighth

Well-Known Member
Cpappa27 said:
I wonder if I plant a seed in a small seedling cup with sand if it will be hard to transplant. Im wondering if the sand will all fall off when I try or if the roots will hold it together. I wonder if I should just plant directly into the final pot since the sand wont really retain any water and overwatering would be hard?
Click to expand...
I think sand in cups is asking for drowned plants. Be fine for cuttings but a cup won’t drain well enough for sand.

I cant see sand in pots being a good idea. For sand you would want more width than height to your medium. Trays would be better so the load of the water gets spread horizontal not vertical - if that makes sense?

I grow in a mostly sand type soil outside.
Sand is great for outdoor I think. Pretty easy place to start. Digs easily and you can dig in most nutritional requirements. Some chook shit pellet or sheep shit and some dolomite lime and you are good to go. Mulch well and the sand will keep a more even moisture content.
As far a pot or hole size goes I do ‘bath tubs’.
Outdoor in sand I do bath tub shaped holes with the hole depressed into the ground. I don’t do raises beds with sand. Fork it up nice and fluffy with your amendments and don’t step in the hole - ever.

You want more width than depth to make up your volume with sand is my suggestion.

I admire your keenness to experiment but I think from my experience you will find that sand for indoor is hard and heavy.
Only way I’d grow in sand indoor would be in bath tubs on wheels in a concrete floored shed with a high ceiling and a variety of HID’s to take the BIG plants through their life cycle.
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
HenryTheEighth said:
I think sand in cups is asking for drowned plants. Be fine for cuttings but a cup won’t drain well enough for sand.

I cant see sand in pots being a good idea. For sand you would want more width than height to your medium. Trays would be better so the load of the water gets spread horizontal not vertical - if that makes sense?

I grow in a mostly sand type soil outside.
Sand is great for outdoor I think. Pretty easy place to start. Digs easily and you can dig in most nutritional requirements. Some chook shit pellet or sheep shit and some dolomite lime and you are good to go. Mulch well and the sand will keep a more even moisture content.
As far a pot or hole size goes I do ‘bath tubs’.
Outdoor in sand I do bath tub shaped holes with the hole depressed into the ground. I don’t do raises beds with sand. Fork it up nice and fluffy with your amendments and don’t step in the hole - ever.

You want more width than depth to make up your volume with sand is my suggestion.

I admire your keenness to experiment but I think from my experience you will find that sand for indoor is hard and heavy.
Only way I’d grow in sand indoor would be in bath tubs on wheels in a concrete floored shed with a high ceiling and a variety of HID’s to take the BIG plants through their life cycle.
Click to expand...
I appreciate that info. I actually purchased 4 36 inch long window planters that might work too
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
I changed the title to just growing cannabis in plain sand cause I dont want to start a new thread so ill just update here on the grow kinda like a journal. Follow the thread if you guys are interested in seeing how cannabis grows in sand.

This is my plan:

Im going to grow 4 plants in sand.
Im going to start from seed tonight.
Im going to start 2 in Rockwool and 2 in a little cup of just plain sand maybe an extra or two in rockwool incase.
Im not sure what strain I will grow but they will all be feminized
Once the plants are about 6 to 8 inches or so tall Im going to transplant them into their final pot.
So Im going to do it a little differently than I originally said
4 pots probably 3 gallon plastic will consist of this:
-One in just plain all purpose Quickcrete sand from home depot washed. This sand is slightly coarser than play sand
-One with all purpose sand and sawdust just like The Mittleider Method @curious2garden showed me earlier
-One with play sand and perlite only
-One with all purpose sand and grass clippings. NPK of decomposing grass is 4-2-1 so this might be good
-I wanted to do one with sand and a couple perch from the lake chopped up raw and just thrown in the sand, but it probably will stink pretty bad so I dont think Ill do that.

These are all going to be grow under LED. Im combining them with my current grow in a 5x10 tent. Three LEDs total wattage 1080watts. I will be feeding them a balanced NPK chemical fert. They will probably all have different watering schedules and feed requirements so Ill fiddle with that as I move forward in the grow. Thats it for now. Ill post pics of the seeds and plantings tonight.
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
HenryTheEighth said:
I think sand in cups is asking for drowned plants. Be fine for cuttings but a cup won’t drain well enough for sand.

I cant see sand in pots being a good idea. For sand you would want more width than height to your medium. Trays would be better so the load of the water gets spread horizontal not vertical - if that makes sense?

I grow in a mostly sand type soil outside.
Sand is great for outdoor I think. Pretty easy place to start. Digs easily and you can dig in most nutritional requirements. Some chook shit pellet or sheep shit and some dolomite lime and you are good to go. Mulch well and the sand will keep a more even moisture content.
As far a pot or hole size goes I do ‘bath tubs’.
Outdoor in sand I do bath tub shaped holes with the hole depressed into the ground. I don’t do raises beds with sand. Fork it up nice and fluffy with your amendments and don’t step in the hole - ever.

You want more width than depth to make up your volume with sand is my suggestion.

I admire your keenness to experiment but I think from my experience you will find that sand for indoor is hard and heavy.
Only way I’d grow in sand indoor would be in bath tubs on wheels in a concrete floored shed with a high ceiling and a variety of HID’s to take the BIG plants through their life cycle.
Click to expand...
I am going to start the seeds tonight. I detailed below my plan and how I will do it and Ill be using this thread as kinda like my grow journal.
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
Every time I walk out my front door, I see just how well stuff tends to grow in sand. Most of the vegetation in my yard seems to have really shallow roots and a tenuous grasp on the substrate. I mow far more tumbleweeds than grass. It'll be interesting to see if the results are significantly different inside a tent. Effectively unamended, my guess would be that the plants aren't gonna do very well in the sand, even in an otherwise controlled environment.

My neighbor is an older Navajo guy that likes to grow peppers outdoors. He drives 20 minutes to a place nearby that has some pine trees and he'll take a bunch of the sandy soil from underneath, where needles have been falling and decomposing. He mixes that stuff with composted manure and does really well with peppers.
 
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