Sand for carnivorous plant potting mixes

Type of sand to use- rinsed play sand or rinsed tube sand. It's coarser. Filter sand from a pool supply place is probably best but I don't have a pool supply store anywhere around me.

Rinse your sand please.

You can take a five gallon bucket and fill it half way with water. Dump your sand in the bucket and swish it around. The sand is heavy so it will sink to the bottom. Empty the water from your bucket and repeat until your water runs clear. You do not need to use distilled/RO/rain water to rinse your sand. Tap water is fine for rinsing sand.

The organic matter floats up to the top of the water the first rinse so that's first to go when you dump the water. Most times I can get my water to run pretty clear by the second rinse. There are times that I have had to change water five times to get it to run clear. The entire process doesn't take all that long as I run the garden hose right into the bucket.

If you want to see why rinsing sand is so important, place some of your sand is a little container and add some vinegar. If it bubbles, you would have been potting up your plants in this.

This is one of those tidbits of information that I wish someone would have shared with me years ago. Dave's Garden is my first forum. I had already been growing carnivorous plants by the time I joined here and there was little interest in them so I joined a listserve. People there come right out and will tell you to rinse sand before you even think of using it in a mix. Shame I didn't find the list serve until I was already a few hundred plants down the road. But I found the listserve... and now I am sharing with you all to please rinse your sand before you use it in any potting medium. The first time you rinse your sand you will see exactly how dirty the sand is. The main reason for rinsing sand is to get rid of as many impurities as you can.

There are those out there who don't rinse their sand. Their plants may do fine as I suppose it all depends upon the actual sand one gets their hands on.

Thank you for this info! I will certainly rinse my sand before planting.