Potting Media Mistake

[Slyfi]

I bought two beautiful plants from petflytrap 2 months ago....1 was a prepotted green dragon and the other was barefoot green dragon.....the potted plant I placed in a sunny windowsill and is doing very well.....the bareroot did fine for 2 weeks then slowly declined then seemed to go dormant....it also looked burned....

I could not figure it out for the life of me....what have I done to this poor plant.....the light, water, and position were almost identical.....then it hit me...playsand...I had made a 50/50 mix of playsand to peat....and my local water is hard.....so I got some Sanivac(10% phosphoric acid cleaning solution used on lime deposits) and tested a small pinch of sand....it practically exploded....my playsand was contaminated! IT WAS FULL OF NASTY DISSOLVED minerals!

How could I be so foolish...how could I make a stupid error like that!

AGGGGRRRH!

So stick with nice safe perlite or test a small smaple of your sand before you use it......otherwise you to might see your pride and joy slowly start to wither and die for no apparent reason......

 

[SnowyFalcon]

Whoooaah, not good. If I were you, I'd go to Home Depot and pick up a 50 pound bag of sandblasting sand. I have had no problems so far with that stuff.

SF

 

[fre8train]

how much is a fifty pound bag of sandblasting sand? Do you have to rince it out with RO water? or is it good to go right out the bag?

 

[SnowyFalcon]

I think mine was only a couple of bucks. I don't remember the exact price, as I got mine so long ago. It has lasted FOREVER!! I didn't wash out my sand (I know, I'm lazy) and have had no problems.

SF

 

[pond boy]

I`m SO sorry to hear that! <span id='ME'><center>pond boy saddened.</center></span>

 

[Wesley]

Hmm, I think I might go for some sand-blasting sand.

 

[jimscott]

My Saturday job is at Home Depot. I've seen two play sands - one is throrgh the garden department and the other through building materials. There are several products under the Quikrete label, but I don't recall one called sand-blasting sand. what is the exact name of that particular sand?

 

[Joseph Clemens]

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>There are different brands/manufacturers, they are all quartz/silica sands and the label will mention the grit size and that they are specifically for sandblasting.</span>

 

[droseradude]

don't worry about it. . . my first cp- a sarr died because I repotted it into some construction sand and peat, I read on the internet they liked that mix. Now I always use perlite instead.