Coconut soil

[Rickybobby]

Everyone has told me to use kids play sand for my potted coconut. I’ve had a slight issue with peatmoss perlite wood chips from last summer. My question about sand. Beach sand etc is that yes it’s sand it’s fine. But if I water it. The water just sits on top. Takes forever to drain through. And the sand stays wet afterwards.  Being a pot and temps not being hot how can this be better than free draining souls of other kinds?

[kinzyjr]

Mine are planted in native soil with pine bark mulch and show no ill effects.  Actually, they seem to enjoy the fact that my soil is a little richer than average for Florida.

Here is a load of it I was hauling to the back:

This shows some contrast as I was digging a new planting bed and getting the holes ready for new plants:

[Rickybobby]

I kept it too wet during the summer a few roots died off. I’ve put it over a heater. Hope it helps it 

[sandgroper]

That seems strange that the water stays on top, beach sand here is very free draining, water goes through as fast as its poured on. Maybe beach sand is courser here than where you are. It doesn't really hold water here either, maybe a bit more in a pot but still very quick to dry out.

[PalmatierMeg]

Why insist on beach sand in the first place? Despite all the beach planted coconuts in Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii, the coconut grows in many places in the tropics and is not overly fussy about soil. Just provide a well-draining soil mix and relegate the sand to the kids' sandbox.

[Silas_Sancona]

18 hours ago, sandgroper said:

That seems strange that the water stays on top, beach sand here is very free draining, water goes through as fast as its poured on. Maybe beach sand is courser here than where you are. It doesn't really hold water here either, maybe a bit more in a pot but still very quick to dry out.

It could be possible that the soil mix / Sand he's been using exhibits Hydrophobic tendencies and might require applying a wetting solution to help it absorb / retain water properly throughout the mix.. 

Peat moss..  simply put,  is a waste of time ( and money )..  Doesn't always wet properly, and can stay wet for too long, especially indoors..  Let it dry for too long and it shrinks, ..and is a ............. to re-wet. Personally use ground, or small-chunk Coir instead, though it too has to be conditioned sometimes with a wetting agent before adding to a given soil mix. I always soak it for 2 days in a 5gal bucket before using.

As far as sand.. in containers, fine- grained stuff can become too dense / saturated / stale if used alone ( Lost count of how many times i'd made this mistake myself in the past ), or, without a good %'age of chunkier stuff to help w / drainage.. Have found that a combo of Decomposed Granite fines, + some larger- gained sand / other chunky stuff seems to work out well. If you use wood chips / bark, Pine, or Douglas Fir are supposed to be among the best / longest lasting. 

[Pal Meir]

I was using for my Cocos only loamy granite grus, always in standing water (wet foot):

[Rickybobby]

Thanks everyone I will update shortly I increased drainage and have warmed up the pot is now hovering around 30c I’m sure it will love that

[Merlyn]

I have a similar sand problem with some of the sandy soil on my property.  Most of it drains reasonably well, but there's an area in the backyard that pools water and won't drain.  If I put some in a pot and pour water in there it'll hold 2 inches of water on the top.  After an hour or so it'll drain through, but it stays dense and mucky and totally unsuitable for planting, except of course if it's something like a Licuala that likes it soggy.

My sand solution is not play sand, it's too fine and powdery.  I use the Sakrete "Multi Purpose Sand" in 60lb bags.  It's medium-coarse and seems to drain well in a pot.

[rprimbs]

Fine sand is actually called "clay".  Because of the small grain size and all the pore space the clay "holds" the water. 

Very fine grained clay holds so much water it swells.