Growing Cannabis In Plain Sand

[HenryTheEighth]

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.

Navajo sounds like he has a clue. The pine sand would be acidic from the pines. He must be lowering ph for his peppers?

 

[HenryTheEighth]

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.

Sounds interesting.
I’d skip the rock wool and go fem seed straight into your four window planters with different mixes.
You should amend with dolomite lime maybe for cal mag buffer? Mag deficiencies might be an issue with sand and sawdust?

 

[Cpappa27]

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.

Thats really cool. I was thinking pine needles too theres so many here. I notice stuff grows awesome in sand as well so it will be interesting to see how these do. I read somewhere pine needles make the soil acidic, not sure what PH but I read that somewhere.

 

[Cpappa27]

Navajo sounds like he has a clue. The pine sand would be acidic from the pines. He must be lowering ph for his peppers?

Exactly my thought, I wonder what the PH is of that.

 

[Fangthane]

Navajo sounds like he has a clue. The pine sand would be acidic from the pines. He must be lowering ph for his peppers?

Not sure he really thinks about it in quite those terms. Telling him about my indoor grows, he seemed surprised with how relatively complicated we make it with measuring pH, EC and all that comes with trying to get dualed in. Pretty sure he does water-only so I assume his thinking is more along the lines of cramming as much organic material into the sand as he can.

 

[Cpappa27]

Sounds interesting.
I’d skip the rock wool and go fem seed straight into your four window planters with different mixes.
You should amend with dolomite lime maybe for cal mag buffer? Mag deficiencies might be an issue with sand and sawdust?

I wanted to do the window planters but the grow room is going to be pretty full already and those are huge 3 foot long planter. Next season outdoors Im going to put a sand mix in those planters and do herbs. For now Ill just put them in 3 gallon pots and see what happens. Maybe Ill do a fifth one with lime as well. As for the just sand pots I want to keep them as plain as possible just for the experiment.

 

[Cpappa27]

Ok I am going with the Afghan Skunk by Expert Seeds

Got 5 soaking now. The rockwool I got sucks so I'm just going to soak them and plant right into sand. They should germ without any problems. And with sand damping off isn't an issue either.

 

[HenryTheEighth]

Not sure he really thinks about it in quite those terms. Telling him about my indoor grows, he seemed surprised with how relatively complicated we make it with measuring pH, EC and all that comes with trying to get dualed in. Pretty sure he does water-only so I assume his thinking is more along the lines of cramming as much organic material into the sand as he can.

So maybe he was just copying who taught him? It has to be for ph adjustment. Compost would be neutral ph so the pine sand would be to make it slightly acid and a better soil composition I suspect.

 

[Cpappa27]

So maybe he was just copying who taught him? It has to be for ph adjustment. Compost would be neutral ph so the pine sand would be to make it slightly acid and a better soil composition I suspect.

I actually just found this subreddit called Sandopnics. These guys are growing in straight sand mostly with various hydro methods. Very cool.

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[Fangthane]

So maybe he was just copying who taught him?

Most likely. We're right in the edge of official Navajo Nation land. Have a feeling his family has been right around here a good long time, and probably figured out the pine needle thing long ago and just passed it down as a little family trick. I'll have to ask him some time.

 

[Cpappa27]

Got them in cups of sand now after a 24 hour soak. I was going to use rockwool but Im going sand all the way. Im doing these cups cause I dont know how hard it'll be to transplant so I can cut the bottom out and then make slits up the side so I can just pull the cup away after its in the final pot hole versus flipping the cup upside down and doing it the standard way. I feel like it will fall apart. Got them in a closet to germinate that is right aroun 80 degrees steady temp. Just sand and the seed and some water. I also started 4 more seeds in just peat plugs like I normally do incase these dont germ well in the sand. I think they will but never know.

 

[Cpappa27]

Is anyone familiar with the Hoagland solution? I was reading something on this site here about growing tomatoes in sand and all these people from different universities answered the OPs question. A couple of them mentioned this buffered solution for growing in sand? https://www.researchgate.net/post/How-do-you-grow-the-tomato-in-the-sand-to-study-the-root-morphology

 

[Moflow]

Compacted sand, lack of oxygen.
A big knitting needle or 6" nail and poke holes in the sand? Lol

 

[Cpappa27]

Compacted sand, lack of oxygen.
A big knitting needle or 6" nail and poke holes in the sand? Lol

Haha that could work. I was thinking actually that once the roots start growing I think it will fluff it up underneath. Also just gott be super careful but if I squeeze the cup sides gently it kinda fluffs the sand up but Im afraid if I do that when theres roots Ill break off all the roots. This is going to be a fun experiment.

 

[smoke and coke]

Interesting! Let’s see how this turns out.

 

[Cpappa27]

Interesting! Let’s see how this turns out.

3 popped their heads through the sand today, Ill get pics once they all pop through

 

[Cpappa27]

I am intrigued.

I know in large enough volume sand is used as a water filter, but I am no expert, and I have been awake for an hour, so I am having trouble imagining what that might mean for the roots.

Please share your results!

I found this in a 1939 study soil vs sand for the roots of a sweet pea and cucumber. It looks like the roots grow better in sand from this picture.



This is the link to the study here THE SAND CULTURE OF SEEDLINGS AND MATURE PLANTS
https://business.ct.gov/-/media/CAES/DOCUMENTS/Publications/Circulars/C129pdf.pdf

 

[Cpappa27]

 

[Nizza]

I wonder if you flooded the sand like a flood and drain it would "fluff" better and allow the roots thru

Flood to waste would be super wasteful and Flood and drain would prolly get messed up by sand ruining the pump or something. I saw a video of how fluid sand can be I thought it was pretty damn cool!

Looking forward to ur results dude thank u for sharing.

I also wonder what a hempy type with air stone might be like, possibly bubbling up and loosening the sand as the roots grow

 

[Cpappa27]

I wonder if you flooded the sand like a flood and drain it would "fluff" better and allow the roots thru

Flood to waste would be super wasteful and Flood and drain would prolly get messed up by sand ruining the pump or something. I saw a video of how fluid sand can be I thought it was pretty damn cool!

Looking forward to ur results dude thank u for sharing.

I also wonder what a hempy type with air stone might be like, possibly bubbling up and loosening the sand as the roots grow

Thats a good point, I wonder the same. I know that sand is sharp so ideally I dont want to move it alot or it may shred the roots underneath. Flood and drain is possible. Theres a technique called Sandoponics ive been learning, its a flood and drain system into a sand bed garden some use water from a fish tank, flood the sand bed, filter the water and feed the plants the fish poo then back into the fish tank every 2 hours.