Growing in sand

Is it possible to grow marijuana in sand? Just curious

its possible.
mexicans use it to grow it so why not?

Actually yes, I saw a hydroponic system that used flushed sand. Apparently bacteria doesn't grow in it or something.

sand drains really well , so well in fact , that youll have to water alot!

Epcot in Orlando has a huge hydro farm all planted in sand. But they are shot water every few hours according to the tour lady. I bet us growers like that part of the tour more than any one!

thanks for the replies

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.

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.

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.

Please note that all my comments pertain to growing vegetables in my new vegetable garden. I know nothing about growing marijuana nor do I plan to grow marijuana. I don't advocate anyone else growing marijuana either.

i dont think sand is that great of a medium, but i heard you shouldnt you sand from the beach the salt will kill your plants, you should use builders sand.

If you dont advocate any1 growing it including yourself why are you on rollitup.org

chuq said:

If you dont advocate any1 growing it including yourself why are you on rollitup.org

Click to expand...

he thinks if the cops kick in his door that thats gonna save him. he he

I recently found a salt water island, of sand, with marijuana plants growing on it, true story.

I might even get some pictures this weekend = )

Florida Girl,
qmmaka made a awesome point, Florida sand (inland) is primarily eroded limestone sediment. And in all honosty the fact its a sedimentary deposit doesnt make it bad at all. The benifit to limestone is it will neutralize acidic soils, it is primarily calcium carbonate (so no calcium deficiencies) also composed of varying amounts of clay silt and sand (the proper mixture of which (excluding limestone) is considered a perfect median for plants). The downfall to limestone is that it does increase the Ph, and when it gets wet it has a chemical reaction with the water that causes it to bond together and solidify, which would be bad for your roots. Beach sand is a bad idea due to the fact (in most of Florida's beaches) it has impurities, but mostly because it has high levels of salts.
Whenever I make a batch of soil, for any plants, I usually mix a small (1 cup) amount of limestone (small chunks), small amount (~2 cups) of sand-box sand, half a cup of perilite, appropriate amount of bone meal, small amount of bat guano, with 1/4 bag of composeted manure to a full bag of topsoil. I will ADMIT that this is just MY ratio. I am sure someone reading this is thinking this is WAY wrong, but.... It seems to work fine for me. Good Luck.

Professionally, I am a real estate developer and have worked in Southern Florida. The water table is 2-8 feet MAX below the surface, the soil is mostly sand, and the water you hit by not digging too deep is brackish. So saltwater + marijuana doesn't necessarily = shit. Maybe Florida in-ground growers will chime in.

DessertSativa,
I've grown in-ground in FL, but I live in more in the central part where the water table is much deeper so no prob. As a personal note: I don't take kindly to developers. (J/K, well sorta, where I grew up use to be nearly all sticks, now housing tracks and dollar general shopping centers are popping up all over ruining Florida's attractive, and irreplacable, natural/beautifull ecosystems.) From what I have heard from some one who grew on one of the MILLIONS of islands in the gulf, you can grow in high salt environments. It just (according to this guy, who only did it twice) comes out poorley developed. He heavily and deeply ammended the soils, and since the island was moderatly close to shore, he had sealed jugs of fresh h20 stocked. Again, he said the quality was medium, so I take that as "not worth the effort." But again, this is just hear-say, in actuallity it might not have happend.

Chug says- If you dont advocate any1 growing it including yourself why are you on rollitup.org?


Good question.

I am on rollitup because I believe you guys are in the world vanguard of the green movement, and are more open to new technologies. If my posts can persuade just just one person to get high on fresh grown veges instead of on marijuana my posting odyssey into your world will be worthwhile.

qmmckenna, Im not going to call you a name or anything and turn this into a fight but I dont like you. Fresh grown vegetables are great but so is marijuana and just as growing vegetables is legal so should growing weed. Just because people grow weed doesnt mean their whole world is growing weed and smoking weed. The problem with weed being illegal is that it puts it on a pedestal for a lot of people.