What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Playsand?

I am planning on making a classic terrerium for subtropical and tropical sundews using 50/50 sand and peat. I found an ancient bag of play sand in my garage and "terreriums" was one of its listed applications. Normally I get river sand for my outdoor bogs. Does play sand have anything in it that is harmfull to CP's?
 
I'd say river sand is more harmful than playsand, since it is most likely very mineral-rich. I use playsand for a lot of my plants, it can be a bit dirty, so you should wash it, but other than that, I think it's ok.

-Ben
 
You can get pure silica sand from a pool dealer. They use it for pool filters.
 
I'm going to start using Play Sand as well, at least on a trial bases. I've heard that rinsing it real well is the key.

Homer
 
can you rinse with your tap? distilled water for me is too precious to just pour over sand....
Alex
 
Both Peter D'Amato and Barry Rice list play sand as generally safe to use but you must rinse it well first (until the water is clear).

Tap water is fine but you need to give it a thorough final rinsing with rain water, purified (by RO) or distilled water.
 
How exactly does everyone rinse sand? Do you put it in a strainer with very very small holes? Or do you have some special mesh something or other?

xvart.
 
Just put some in a clean bucket maybe 1/2 full, add water nearly full, stir, pour out as much water as you can. Repeat until the water is clear. You can use a board or something the help hold back the sand while pour the water out.

If you use tap water you can bury the hose at the bottom of the bucket, turn on the water with a gentle flow and let it run until clear.

If you have some screen that's fine enough to hold back the sand you can screen over the unplugged drain hole of a large planter bowl and rinse the sand in that.

I'm sure others have other techniques.
 
you can get larger sized silica sand, and just use that on a fine mesh. I would go for the hose thing though but you want to mix it a little bit too, and get the stuff that might have settled in w/ the current.
 
  • #10
I've found "play sand" to be too fine and it makes the mix too dense and chokes the roots. It also contains salts and, depending on where it came from, may contain small bits of shell which slowly release lime, regardless of how well you initially wash it.

I use regular pool filter (quartz, silica) sand for most of my CPs. It's cheap, easy to find, coarser than "play sand," and best of all--inert. Why mess with play sand when there's a alternative that's just as easy to find and guaranteed to be inert?

For cephs and drosophyllum, I use coarser quartz sand (~1-2mm Jersey #1 or #2 sand).

Hope this helps,

Ken
 
  • #11
The only "play sand" I've seen at my local supply centers, upon reading the fine print, was composed of, "calcium carbonate". I might be able to use a little in some Mexican Pinguicula media, but, certainly not for other CP.
 
  • #12
I used to not wash sand, untill I washed it and saw how much useless crap was in there.
 
  • #13
You can get silica sand in different grades from sand blasting companies/supplier. I don't know what the smallest size bag you can get though. You definitely have to wash sand blasting stuff.
 
  • #14
Just recently I bought 2 bags of pure silica sand, sold at my local sand-blasting supply store, all they sell are different sands and other substances used for sand-blasting. I purchased one bag of size 16 grit, the largest particle size they had, and one bag of size 90 grit, the smallest size they had, the #90 is almost like dust or silt. Both bags are 100 lbs of sand each. Both sides of each bag have extensive labelling that warns never to use the sand for sand-blasting, and etc. etc. etc., how extremely hazardous it is to inhale any dust from the sand. I asked the salesman what the deal was. He said the only thing he knew that the sand was used for was, sand-blasting, that the companies that produced the sand had to label it like that to avoid liability.
laugh.gif


I told him what I planned to use the sand for, and he thought that was quite interesting. I also mentioned how I had purchased my last batch of silica sand, for the same purpose, from his store, a little more than 10 years before. A little goes a long way.
 
Back
Top