Horticultural Sand / Sharp Sand - Where to buy?
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Sharp sand
Comments (12)Caracu, Thanks for the post. After looking at the photos you provided I'm fairly sure the OilDri product you are referring to is diatomaceous earth rather than silica sand. I'm not a geologist or anything, but having used both DE and silica sand I'd say the two products are quite different. They both can be used and have places in container gardening but I believe those are two different products. OilDri makes quite a few different grades and types of moisture absorbing products but I'd be surprised if that bag contains silica sand. I've read posts on this forum and others about the danger of breathing DE fines so yes you should either wet the product before use or at least use a mask. Someone said DE fines are sometimes used as insecticide. I'm about halfway through my bag of silica sand and I've encountered very little dust or fines so far. Maybe as I reach the bottom I will find more. Thanks Dave...See MoreTopsoil or 'Sharp Sand' for base during patch seeding
Comments (2)Thanks for your quick reply. The Bermuda in my lawn was due to my boneheaded mistake of pouring some Bermuda seeds (2-3 months ago) in some patches. That was before I knew that there are different kinds of grasses. Since the Bermuda was so young, I was able to kill it off with RU, furthermore I also plan to dig up that area. It will be irresponsible for me to replant or sod with Bermuda because nobody in my neighborhood has Bermuda and I know that it might eventually take over the whole neighborhood. By peat do you mean peat moss (my HD sells it)? I just have to find a source for sharp sand now....See Moresharp/coarse sand to amend clay
Comments (22)Kimmsr, this is essentially a composting forum, and EVERYONE here recognizes, nay, advocates the use of copious amounts of compost. I don't think anyone here is suggesting sand or silt can take the place of compost for amending clay. So you can stop beating us with that stick. It's not an either-or proposition, as illustrated beautifully by Albion's post. This is basically what I've done, although with less sand. I've added tons of organic matter to my clay over the years, and occasionally a bag of sand I come across or a wheelbarrow of river silt. I don't have concrete, I have raised beds with great soil. Either the high organic matter mitigates the 'concrete' effect, or I never added enough pure sand to get into the concrete zone, or I also added enough silt (or it was there in the silty clay to begin with), that I now have loam and not sandy clay. I never went out to buy sand for the specific purpose of amending the clay, and I wouldn't necessarily advocate that, but there are some success stories right here. I would say that if you add enough compost to eventually fluff the beds into raised beds, that mitigates many of the problems with clay, so you don't really need massive amounts of sand....See MoreWhere to buy Coarse Sand?
Comments (9)okay just curious then why some of the videos on gardening have added a little lime to their potting of growing herbs, veggies etc for container gardening. I had Hubby buy some for my crew to dustbath in...from local gravel and concrete place. The lady(about BYC) web site said coarse sand. Unfortunately he came back with a smaller trailer load instead of just sev drywall buckets full. Duh.... I wonder if it could be causing them skin irritations.. as my older gal has had red bellyband nine thighs a few times I like it better when they can dustbathe in just regular dry fine dirt,,,,Of course molting is supposedly to be hard on them too..... I have sifted the sand when I change it out to get out some of the small stones tc.. Unfortunately too the plastic he covered the rest of the trailer load of sand has degraded into many tiny pcs....See MoreErin
6 years agoBoth, into the soil and as a top dressing. I do have plenty of turface fines. but I wasn't sure if they would hold too much water? It's definitely worth a shot. I use it now for leaf propagation.
gardengal48 The only thing my store had was paver base and it was black. I didn't know what material that was. The "step 2" paver base looked just like play sand.
My BBS didn't have anything other than those two so I figured I'd order it and have what I needed shipped to the store. The only thing with that is, I'm ordering sight unseen so I have no idea which one to pick. Thank you for the mention of Quikcrete AP sand. I saw that online on HD's website. I can have that shipped to store. Is it THIS one?You can see HERE that the Sakrete Multi-Purpose looks just like play sand so that made me question the Quikcrete All Purpose sand. This is why I asked you guys for a specific brand. Who knew it would be this hard to find sand? HA!
I went down to the greenhouse and looked at what I brought up from the creek a while back. This is what I have and now that I look at it again, it might work. It does look a tad large but those tiniest pieces look just about right. I could sift that and see what I come up with?
Thank you both tremendously!!
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
6 years agoWhat is in the photo you linked seems to be on smaller size - good for sowing seeds, but maybe too fine for mix. Obviously, I do not know size and if nothing else is available I would use it - in combination with perlite or pumice of approx. same size. Best sized grit would be approx. 2-6mm IIRC:
If the particles are far apart in size, the finest ones will just fill up any space between the big ones.I actually use larger grit (larger than what is used for the mix) or even small stones for top-dressing; pea gravel size or even bigger.
Erin thanked rina_Ontario,Canada 5aErin
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoThank you so much Rina for the pics and info!
From what I've gathered, the mix I'm using for my seedlings is too gritty (too large I mean) and needs an organic component which I'm not using now.
The "recipes" I've found for sewing mesembs and the like usually contain a small part potting mix and the rest horticultural sand. This is what originally sent me on this wild goose chase for this oddly elusive product.
My lithops seedlings are actually doing well in the mix that I have them in but I can tell the F. baby toes are struggling just a tad bit more (altho all are still alive thankfully)
I'll attach a photo of one of the larger ones, the toes are starting to show themselves which has been a neat process to watch.
Sara (9b SF Bay Area)
6 years agoE.B. Stone makes a coarse horticultural sand. It is probably halfway between play sand and gritty mix, size-wise.
That baby toes seedling is seriously cute btw.
Erin thanked Sara (9b SF Bay Area)Erin
6 years agoErin
6 years ago
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)