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Sandstorm!

joossa

Aklys
As some of you probably know, I live in the high desert east of LA. Yesterday night when I was watching the news, high winds were on the forecast for my area. I didn’t think much of it because we get lots of wind often (it is a desert region after all…).

The winds turned out to be much more powerful. Winds were and are at 35mph and gusts up to 60mph, and are expected to calm down sometime around midnight. As I was coming back home from class (over the mountains into the desert), I saw that the sky seemed very cloudy, but was all the dust and sand! So, I get home and see a bit of sand on the LFS that is topdressing my CPs. It wasn’t a lot; just enough to partially cover my fingers a bit. I usually don’t leave their pots standing in water (I top water) because the winds carry sand and over time they leave a nice deposit of sand in the water trays. My plants are inside now… overnight temps are expected to drop into the 30’s too.:censor:

So my question… Should I remove and replace the LFS that has that bit of sand on it? Can the sand be potentially harmful to the CP’s if I top water as they are now? I know some people use sand in their CP growing media, but I don’t think desert sand is considered clean… Any other tips? From now on I’ll put my plants inside whenever there’s a wind advisory.:nono:

Thanks!
 
Small deposits should not be harmful. I think I would do as you said and bring them in on windy days/nights.
 
60mph is nothing compared to what we get out here
 
Deserts can have a lot of evaporated salts/minerals, so it might be a good idea to minimize how much gets in the pots. If you have access to a conductivity meter, mix some of that windblown stuff with distilled or RO water and let it sit for a couple days to see what happens to the conductivity. If it doesn't jump very high; you don't need to worry.
 
Bruce makes a good point. At the very least, flush your pots every once in a while for the next few weeks to get the dissolved stuff out.
I was in Korea when that huge sandstorm got kicked up over the Gobi back in Spring of '02. That was amazing. The sky was red and orange for days and everything was covered in yellow dust - it fell from the sky like some weird Martian snow. Supposedly, sand from that storm was detected as far away as the US; I think the news article I read about it said it traveled the long way around the globe, too.
~Joe
 
I'm with finch, that's nothing compared to Chicago. I mean, it is "the windy city". But if it's enough for a sandstorm, then then you might want to bring them in, if you have grow lights, especially if the sky's still really cloudy and below freezing temps.
 
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