Sterilizing Sand

BCtrippin · Feb 28, 2009

juicyjayz said:
not too worry man,but now that you mentioned your current "issue",i saw we can talk about that instead....

Man I hate those types of land lords...Ive never had them like that,but then again I usually scare em; away lol...theyd rather not come by my crib fuckin with me lol..hoever to those that do,i reccomend some tips:

1.NEVER get all friendsly with any neighbors or the landlord...dont seem "too friendsly",be as polite and say the usualy good morning:etc.....just enough so that they
get the hint that u dont like to be bothered,etc....

2.incase of an emrgency,NEVER trash allk ur plants...kill all but 1 or 2 mother plants..you can just throw em under 2 26w daylight cfls..and then u can keep the lineage!!trashing all plants means starting at square 1 with seeds,which always sucks...

3.please dont have ANY visitors..

Yeah landlords are a bitch. The guy only owns this one condo, but now his insurance is pushing for monthly inspections.. :roll:

I got lucky, my plants were ready to harvest right before the first walkthrough. I am just moving tho, its not worth the hassle to stay and deal with monthly inspections. I need to get another crop going ASAP.. :bigjoint:

chinawas said:
Thanks guys, I was able to find a perlite type substance It took me a day in a different city to find it. I just wasnt sure if i should mix sand into the mix. I wont use the sand now, I will just use the perlite substance.
Here is a pic of it.

chinawas said:
I got it from a garden shop that had a ton of it. The light in the pic isnt that good but, it is white. The shop looked pretty professional, they also had a ton of volcano rocks too. Im going to try to go back there soon. The problem is, its three hours by train to get to the shop. Thanks for the advice!

Looks like regular pearlite to me. The pic does look a little yellow but it could be the bag/lighting. If its white then its standard pearlite.

If they had lots of Volcanic rock at the store then it is definitely Pearlite. Pearlite is actually volcanic rock that is heated up to about 890+ degrees centigrade and it pops and puffs up like popcorn. The heating is also what makes it white. And the heating also completely sterilizes the pearlite.

I would definitely ditch the sand and use up to 50% pearlite in your soil mixes. You really cant use too much pearlite, You just have to water more.

If you have nutrients available then you could even use up to %100 pearlite with Excellent results. Ive seen a couple 100% pearlite grows that were amazing.

Anyways, good luck with the grow.

:peace:

chinawas · Feb 28, 2009

BCtrippin said:
Yeah landlords are a bitch. The guy only owns this one condo, but now his insurance is pushing for monthly inspections..

I got lucky, my plants were ready to harvest right before the first walkthrough. I am just moving tho, its not worth the hassle to stay and deal with monthly inspections. I need to get another crop going ASAP..

Looks like regular pearlite to me. The pic does look a little yellow but it could be the bag/lighting. If its white then its standard pearlite.

If they had lots of Volcanic rock at the store then it is definitely Pearlite. Pearlite is actually volcanic rock that is heated up to about 890+ degrees centigrade and it pops and puffs up like popcorn. The heating is also what makes it white. And the heating also completely sterilizes the pearlite.

I would definitely ditch the sand and use up to 50% pearlite in your soil mixes. You really cant use too much pearlite, You just have to water more.

If you have nutrients available then you could even use up to %100 pearlite with Excellent results. Ive seen a couple 100% pearlite grows that were amazing.

Anyways, good luck with the grow.

Hey, thanks for the info. It is white, my camera on my phone sucks. I will definately add more to my mix now. I really appreciate the feedback.

ML75 · Nov 3, 2011

wow this is funny.... but can I add something please?... well I am anyway... I am having sand issues as well and I am broke... but I live on the beach. do you think if I rinse the sand (to rid of salt) , freeze the sand (to rid of mites) and then bake the sand (to sterilize) that it would work?
the reason I am using sand is because of fungus gnats..... I just want to add about 1-2 inches to my top soil... but do you think beach sand will fuck it up?? :confused:

Gastanker · Nov 3, 2011

So much trolling...

Perlite is good, sand is great as well - you can definitely use both and there is no difference between horticultural sand and construction sand. You DO NOT WANT unwashed beach sand - salt is a BAD thing.

Bagged sand that you purchase doesn't need to be sterilized - sand is inert and bugs/bacteria really aren't at all interested in it as long as it is dry - you already have way worse things in your potting soil.

ML75 said:
wow this is funny.... but can I add something please?... well I am anyway... I am having sand issues as well and I am broke... but I live on the beach. do you think if I rinse the sand (to rid of salt) , freeze the sand (to rid of mites) and then bake the sand (to sterilize) that it would work?
the reason I am using sand is because of fungus gnats..... I just want to add about 1-2 inches to my top soil... but do you think beach sand will fuck it up??

for gnats you want pretty fine sand. If you can successfully wash out all of the salt then yes, fine beach sand will work to prevent gnats.

ML75 · Nov 3, 2011

for gnats you want pretty fine sand. If you can successfully wash out all of the salt then yes, fine beach sand will work to prevent gnats.

Thank you for the quick reply.... I rinsed the sand numerous times and then actually tasted it. gross yes, but it didnt taste salty. I am now baking it to sterilize it.

I have heard of using perlite. do you think its as effective as sand at keeping the gnats away?

ML75 · Nov 3, 2011

Gastanker said:
So much trolling...

Perlite is good, sand is great as well - you can definitely use both and there is no difference between horticultural sand and construction sand. You DO NOT WANT unwashed beach sand - salt is a BAD thing.

Bagged sand that you purchase doesn't need to be sterilized - sand is inert and bugs/bacteria really aren't at all interested in it as long as it is dry - you already have way worse things in your potting soil.

for gnats you want pretty fine sand. If you can successfully wash out all of the salt then yes, fine beach sand will work to prevent gnats.

after all that BS I went though with the sand, I ended up using perlite, I am too afriad there will be traces of salt in that sand. I really hope the perlite works. thank you for the advice. :joint:

Gastanker · Nov 3, 2011

ML75 said:
after all that BS I went though with the sand, I ended up using perlite, I am too afriad there will be traces of salt in that sand. I really hope the perlite works. thank you for the advice.

Perite might work for gnats... I don't think it will work as well as sand though. The idea is to create a barrier between the soil and the surface that the gnats have a hard time penetrating. Perlite might be so porous that they can get through. Maybe not though.

ML75 · Nov 3, 2011

Gastanker said:
Perite might work for gnats... I don't think it will work as well as sand though. The idea is to create a barrier between the soil and the surface that the gnats have a hard time penetrating. Perlite might be so porous that they can get through. Maybe not though.

Ahh, I see said the blind man.... as you can tell I still have a lot to learn. :dunce:

creating a spicific environment is a lot of work but also a lot of fun. I have high hopes for the perlite but with the information that you just told me, I am going to add more. I actually had a half a bag on hand, but I dont think it was quite enough and you just backed that up by what you said.
thanks again :blsmoke:

Sterilizing Sand

BCtrippin

Well-Known Member

chinawas

Well-Known Member

ML75

Active Member

Gastanker

Well-Known Member

ML75

Active Member

ML75

Active Member

Gastanker

Well-Known Member

ML75

Active Member