Western Desert Sand

[jhaluska]

I was at my local Lowes, which I browse through once a week. This week I saw some 'Western Desert Sand.' I was thinking of chaning my future soil mixtures to 2 part Peat, 1 part perlite and 1 part sand. Anybody know if I can use this sand or not?

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

I wouldn't trust it. It is not possible to make generalizations about sand, other than the sand used must be quartz sand. I never use any sand that is not 100% white sugar sand, and even then I check to be sure it is not some wholely or partly other white mineral.

If you have spare plants, you might try an experiment to see how your test plants respond to this before risking something rare, but give the experiment a full season before you draw your conclusions.

 

[D muscipula]

I was wondering that myself.  Please let us all know if you try it, because it's all the garden centers here sell, too.

BTW, someone suggested buying filter sand from a pool supply.  They use silica sand (aka quartz sand) for that purpose.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Pool filter sand is the best IMO.

 

[buckeye]

I have some of that brand of sand but I haven't used it for cps yet. Since you got me wondering about it I decided to find the company's website and emailed them about the sand. I'll post whatever they reply here.



-buckeye