Growing in the Sand

Hey all,

I live in a county nicknamed sand county. Has anyone had any experience growing in nothing but sand??? Wondering what my results might be... I have 4 of my weaker babies transplanted to just straight sandy soil outside because Im out of Fox farms and wanted to see how they'd do.... If I feed them my guess is it will work because roots can push through sand easy and it drains well....

If no one knows I'll update you guys as I go...

i have a few in some sandy soil. i also live in sand heaven. wondering the same thing - but i will also find out for myself

Good luck homey!

Anyone else???

hey there premo, I actually read a thread on someone who was growing in pure sand. They werent growing cannabis however, it was just a vegtable garden, but they said it works very well.

let me see if I can find it for you, I ahve no idea what it was called.

would ya look at that, I actually found a post I was looking for!!!

here it is premo.

qmmckenna
Stranger

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Yes. I think it is most definitely possible to grow marijuana in sand. Due to "imperial entanglements" I wont even try growing marijuana myself .... but I am doing something very similar with vegetables. I have germinated and grown vegetables in an outdoor sandbox with my new intermittent sprinkler system I have invented.

Here are some pictures I took last year. I am waiting for the weather to warm up a little more before trying it again this year. I will send more pictures as i go along.

heres another post from that same person, that you might find useful

qmmckenna

Quite frankly, I think sand has lots of advantages over soil. Sand has 1/3 the water potential as soil. That means plants don't have to work as hard to get their water. Weeding of course is extremely easy to do. Sand is also healthier and you don't have to worry as much about diseases and parasites.

The nutrients are extremely easy to apply. I just sprinkle Osmocote® slow-release fertilizer on top of the sand and it lasts for 3 months (you can see the yellow pellets in some of the pictures). The vegetables were also very tasty and didn't have some of the "weird" flavors that can come with soils of unknown ingredients.

This guy sure does know a lot about sand, you might just want to read the whole thread heres the link. https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/55150-growing-sand.html

but heres one more post that has a lot of info for you.

qmmckenna
I live in Boulder, CO. We don't have beach sand here. I went down to a local place and bought truckload of WASHED river sand. River sand is generally washed commercially first before you buy it because it is used for lots of different things, including making concrete. Sand from places like Florida though is different from river sand. it is formed from coral and is loaded with cretaceous stuff and may not be as inert. I don't know how sand from tropical areas would work as a growing medium.

Sand from California though I believe to be essentially river sand because it is washed down from inland rivers and is made of inert mineral material. If you do use beach sand though I would suggest washing it first. It is highly porous so maybe just flushing it with fresh water will be sufficient to purge out all the salt.

I use an intermittent sprinkler to deliver the water as the plants need it. That way I don't have to use very much water.

Another note: Fine grained sand holds water more easily than coarse grained sand. The coarser the grains the more porous the sand is. Also, coarse grained sand provides more aeration for the roots.

I have been using medium to coarse grained sand which I think provides the best balance.

Thanks jack, this is comforting info...

Sand is very fertile in itself, But it dries out and water leaches through quickly, if you could add some organic humas or compost it would help out alot. You'll probably have to keep an eye on the water issue though, Goodluck.

sand drains better than almost anything, and allows lots of air to the roots,especially coarse sand....however....sand doesn't reatain water for shit...it has far less nutrient value than basically anything else...I've heard it's not the greatest indoor medium; but I'm not into lifeless soil or medium, and just feeding nutes...my blog explains.