Beach sand

[Don]

Has anybody used beach sand and if so how did you leach the salt out and is it worth it or should I just buy sand in bulk.

[palmislandRandy]

Don, Pre-washed sand is pretty cheap. Why take a chance on salt & other contaminates. Beach sand may have bits of broken coral & shells that would lower the PH of your soil!

[Gonzer]

Never, ever use beach sand Don. Use coarse builders sand.

[Kris]

Never, ever use beach sand Don. Use coarse builders sand.

Here in india we only use coarse grade washed river sand,construction grade.And never use beach sand.Since most beach sand is too fine for water to drain easily and it has lots of impurities in it.

love,

kris

[Davidl]

I agree I would not use beach sand because of the problems stated above. I guess if you had no choice it would work but only after the salt removed and then if you had other sand/dirt to mix it with. But you would be better off not using it.

[Don]

It's unanimous:D

[oppalm]

Has anybody used beach sand and if so how did you leach the salt out and is it worth it or should I just buy sand in bulk.

Depends on what you want to use the sand for. If you want to make your own beach I think it would be fine. If, however, you want to use it to plant palms trees in, I would have to agree with the others.

[BigFrond]

Don, Pre-washed sand is pretty cheap. Why take a chance on salt & other contaminates. Beach sand may have bits of broken coral & shells that would lower the PH of your soil!

Actually the corals and shells will raise the PH.

[_Keith]

Don't tell the coconuts. They have been erroneously growing in beach sand for thousands of years. If they find out, they might all die at once.

[Palm Guy]

Don't tell the coconuts. They have erroneously growning in beach sand for thousands of years. If they find out, they might all die at once.

Took the words right from my fingertips

So it probably would work ok for any species that can tolerate salt in the soil. Coarse sand should be the better 'drainage material' as it doenst pack as tightly.

[Peter Pacific]

You got it...it depends upon the species. Peter

[Davidl]

Coconuts grow in sand but usually look better in better soil with no salt.

[palmislandRandy]

Don, Pre-washed sand is pretty cheap. Why take a chance on salt & other contaminates. Beach sand may have bits of broken coral & shells that would lower the PH of your soil!

Actually the corals and shells will raise the PH.

Doink, thats what I meant Calcium=PH up!

[Tyrone]

Coconuts grow in sand but usually look better in better soil with no salt.

The soil here is sand, and I give my coconut rock salt every now and again. Coconuts need some salt. Coconut growers in the Phillipines discovered this.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Alicehunter2000]

I think in another post I said 75% potting soil to 25% beach sand.....after reading everyones opinion....I will re-think this.

I just hate buying sand....its like paying to breath around here.

[LauraAnu]

Actually a lot of people who grow Coconuts for harvesting apply salt to the coconuts to increase the yield (the coconut water is better too).

David, I can see with you on buying sand . We have so many beaches here, I just hate buying the stuff and the sand they sell here is also beach sand as that is what is used in construction here.

Laura

[Kathryn]

My back yard was always wet when I first moved here. I put in drainage and added several inches of beach sand. I don't know where the sand came from, but it was very white and clean (washed). I put Bermuda sod over it. I didn't see any problems with the grass, palms or other plants. I got the beach sand because our local river silt/sand always has weeds.

[Davidl]

Tyrone most of Florida is sand mixed with organic sometimes but mostly sand. There is no salt in our water and they do just fine. Maybe it helps with the taste of the coconut but for growing its not necessary here.We have problems with magnesium and potassium deficiency's.

[Gileno Machado]

I think in another post I said 75% potting soil to 25% beach sand.....after reading everyones opinion....I will re-think this.

I just hate buying sand....its like paying to breath around here.

I've just ordered another 3 cubic meters of river washed sand here to add with the potting mix for the new seedlings and I thought the same...but I'm always afraid of using the local material. Our property is located on a sandbox near the sea but the only palms that seem to enjoy the medium are actually the coconuts. A local friend and Biologist said that Cocos nucifera has the unique and incredible ability to synthesize (mispelled?) food from quartz because of the highly specialized micorhyza (?) working in their roots. A grown up coconut tree increases enormously the fruit production when properly fertilized with NPK balanced mixes but they'll thrive perfectly on their own provided water and sunshine when planted by the sea, in pure white beach sand.

I've been testing many other palm species in the ground here but I usually add a lot of organic stuff and different soil mixes as a substrate for the new plantings. I doubt any other palms, except maybe Medemia, Thrinax, a few Phoenix, Bismarckia and Allagoptera, could stand the harsh conditions of a salty sand as the Coconut does...

[Tyrone]

Tyrone most of Florida is sand mixed with organic sometimes but mostly sand. There is no salt in our water and they do just fine. Maybe it helps with the taste of the coconut but for growing its not necessary here.We have problems with magnesium and potassium deficiency's.

I think the salt was considered a way of increasing the fruit yield. In the Phillipines in commercial groves they found that the coconuts near the ocean performed better than inland coconuts and giving the inland groves salt supplements the yield and vigour of the plant picked up. My thoughts are that the salt helps keep away root fungi which would attack my coconut through the cool winter months here. So I give it salt every few months and it has grown like a rocket, but I also give it heaps of NPK and trace elements. My sand here is 800000 yr old beach sand, and is about 60ft deep.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Bennz]

It's unanimous:D

Not unanimous! I've experimented with unwashed beach sand. Acacia dealbata seedlings grew faster in pure unwashed beach sand than anything else I tried growing it in. With the palms, results were moderately predictable, Parajubaea don't seem to like it, I placed some sprouted seeds in pure beach sand and thought they died, but they actually survived and are now growing. Most of the common palms around here (Rhopalostylis, Howea, Archontophoenix etc) seem to handle at least 25% beach sand without problems.

I am confident most of the anti-salt paranoia is just that; paranoia. Sea salt is 90+ minerals (with mineral balance about the same as in healthiest human population blood), this is a different substance than processed sodium chloride. Pure sea salt is the only input I consider essential to my farming system. I use it as fertiliser, health tonic (worms love the stuff), and in high concentrations, foliar herbicide.

Interesting aside, Meyer lemon cuttings seem to strike roots and produce shoots in 50% beach sand faster than any other medium I've ever seen.

[Tyrone]

I heard somewhere that it was a well known practice in ancient agriculture to mix a small amount of sea salt with animal manure and use it as a fertiliser. All plants need Sodium and a chloride, just not in huge amounts. Most soils now at least in Oz have too much Sodium Chloride, and if you're growing mountain species like strawberries or Caryota's they won't want any salt. But a coconut which grows just above the high tide mark and gets inundated by cyclonic tidal surges is going to get a huge dumping of salt, which they appear to love. I think salt has been demonised a bit. Many things are quite salt tolerant and probably need a bit of it.

Best regards

Tyrone