Silly Question

I am sure you will all be amazed at how dumb my questions can be, but here goes-

How does one rinse sand? And why do you rinse sand?

Thanks

Put some in a bowl and run water into it until just above the sand. Move the sand around in the water and then dump the water out carefully. Repeat until water in bowl is clear. You do it to remove dirt and clean the sand.

Tom

Thanks Tom!

I use a 5 gallon bucket and run a garden hose into it. I let the water run and swish it around until it runs clear and then for the final rinse, I use rain water. Unfortunately, I have noticed this can take about 15 rinse and dumps and sometimes even more but I've been using tube sand. Play sand for kids cleans up faster.

Tommy, I'm going to expand on your explanation a little bit based on my personal experiences and having tested my sand ok? If you fill up a bucket of water, add your sand, and swish it around and stick in a meter to test the PPM... it will most probably be off the charts. I have only run into one time that it didn't test off the charts and that was with sand I "appropriated" from our sandbox that had been in the backyard for a few years. Rain had helped to cleanse it. Bottom line is that different sites can have different levels of pollutants and minerals present in varying concentrations. It's going to depend on where the sand was "harvested" from as well as how long it was exposed to the elements. Ma Earth does a good job at handling our dirty work at times if allowed to do so but I still had to rinse that sand at least 5x.

Sand is initially rinsed to remove contaminants such as pollutants but more important is the removal of heavy metals. Just as tap water generally is deemed inappropriate to use to water carnivorous plants because of the minerals it can contain, so is using unrinsed sand. Any minerals present can leach out into the surrounding medium.

Generally; by the time the water runs clear, the sand is inert and won't be leaching minerals into the medium into which you will mix it. There are ways to test if your sand is inert but I don't bother because I am pretty good about rinsing it well.

I have killed more than my fair share of plants by not rinsing sand thoroughly.

Thanks! I am glad to have all the info- I know you guys who have lots of carnivorous plants probably knew all of this but I honestly didn't. So I guess I need to rinse the sand before I eat those mud pies!

Ummm, I didn't know.... until I wasted quite a few plants. Rinse sand??? How silly is that??? Until you begin testing and see the results for yourself. It sucks having to replace plants that I kill.

Well no wonder I get indigestion!