Preparing plots in Sandy Soil

High everyone
I have a few plots that i'd like to prepare. I usually would dig holes and put in a a big bag of potting mix, a bag of mushroom compost and a bag of cow manure with other organic goodies. I'd mix in some native sand and come back in a few weeks with clones.....it worked out perfect.

This time around....im planning on doing much smaller plots spread out but doing quite a few of them. The place im doing it i cant get bags of soil out there so i'm looking for some critique or additions to my idea. I plan on digging smaller holes and filling with pine needles (i live in Florida) and letting it compost for a few months. I may add lime and root nemotode chitin. Root nemotodes SUCK !! I dont know how this will work as i've never tried it.......how will the PH be ?? I have some really good compost brewing and may supplement with that. I plan on just using chemical ferts....most likely tree spikes with a little magnesium.

Please....give me some advice.....the soil is almost pure sand. Am i waisting my time??

Hi Sonshine. Be careful with pine needles as they are quite acidic. I have lots over here but never add them to the compost pile. I wouldn't recommend them, as I don't know if the lime would be enough to balance your pH. Do you have access to coco coir? Very useful for holding moisture! More ecological than peat or vermiculite, if you ask me.

I'd suggest a mix of coco, compost (the one you've mentionned), and local sandy soil. Of course this is just a suggestion, open to criticism.

Good luck preparing your plots.

Hello sonshine,

I don't believe the pine needles would break down very fast, and I do believe they will drop the PH alot.

I also believe that you could get away with a hole mixture of 50/50 native sand and potting mix. Coco coir, as Relik suggested would be a great compact way of getting organic materials to the plot.

Why is it so hard to get to the plot?

Well....one reason is there are houses on each end of the land i plan to grow on.
Two....there is no way to get my truck back there without driving through these peoples yard. There are only ATV trails back to this VERY large chunk of land.
Three....I plan on doing six or seven plots of four or five plants......which means a whole bunch of bags of soil.....which have to be brought in one at a time on my quad. I could do this under the cover of darkness.....but the more trips the more chances of being seen.

I figured that i was going to have a low PH issue with the pine needles. How about just planting in the sand strait up?? The water table is very low...about two feet. Do you think they will starve for water?? Coco Bricks would be an excellent option, but there is no place to purchase them locally, and i dont really want to order a bunch of bricks off the internet.

What do you guys think of adding water chrystals to the sand?? Worst case scenario.....i'll end up dragging a few big bricks of peat and doing fewer plots. Im still open for more suggestions and i may just do a few plots one way and a few another way.....experiments are always fun.

Hey there sonshine! We got plenty of sand 'round these parts. This year will be a first for me to be growing MJ, but I noticed that the local farms grow tobacco, corn and soy with only chick guano mixed into the sand. I was thinking of doing a 50/50 mix of compost / native soil myself. Good luck and please post back if you have found anything interesting as I am also interested.

SonshineWurship- Have you read my thread on soil texture?

Does it rain through the summer where you are at? Or do you water your plants by hand? Or do your plants reach the water table for water? How do they get water?
If your plants get watered by hand or by sporadic rains, I'd say yes, use water crystals. If your plants get their water from the ground water mostly, I'd only use a little bit.

I really don't think ordering Coco bricks online would look that suspicious, if thats what your are worried about.

I would say dig small holes, like 1 foot wide by 1.5 feet deep, and replace 1/3 of the sand with straight Peat or Coco.
Don't use potting soil itself because you only need the organic components, the natural sand will replace the perlite or pumice found in most potting soils.

sived clean sand or river sand and coco would work well..

Maby have a garden centre mix some soil for you, bring your own coco or flush the bricks weel before mixing..


being outdoor a res isnt really an option so youll need to add a good slow release fert some of the smaller nute companys that make there crust selling to veg farmers do slow release or powdered fertilisers..

I grow out door in pots from time to time 55lt pots full of mainly coco and perlite exactly how id grow indoors but i sprinkle some NPK blue medium release fert through the soil at mixing, come flower feed weekly with a good hydro nute and rhizotonic or seaweed extract.



alittle tip for haulling water and soil a 300lt wheelie bin with wheels works well but still a two person job although a bike may pull it on a flat surface.

Thank you so much Backcountry for coming into this thread. I've read your thread on soil evaluation but just figured mine wasn't even worth an evaluation as its about 90% sand. I'm going to go out and take a few samples from a few different areas and have them separate as you suggested.

My previous outdoor grows have gone through a bit of evolution over the few years of growing. I first started in pots....but found the watering schedule in the hot summers unbearable. The i started digging holes and layering them with hefty trash bags with the bottoms cut out. My thinking was to keep the soil bugs and PH swings to a minimum. Eventually, i just started digging holes and mixing the potting soil, manures and native soil after i found the anti root nemotode chitin.

It seems the weather here is different from year to year so i can never really plan ahead or know what to expect. My plants are either being drowned or are withering away in the heat. My best efforts have come from the mixed soil and it seems after a month or so the plants have for the most part found enough water to keep them alive as long as there hasn't been a really bad drought. There is a water source back in the area so if they had to be watered i'd bring a foldable water bag and do it that way.

I think i'm going to suck it up and order a bunch of coco. I've had experience with it and it is a fantastic medium although it seems strait peat has better water retention capacity. The thing about coco is the stealth aspect...i could bring enough for a couple plots in a backpack.

I'm really trying to avoid unnecessary visits because i haven't grown in this area before and its government land. So im tryng to make the plots self sufficient which is why i want to try the fert spikes. Other grows i've done have been in much more remote areas.....this place get a small amount of hunters and atv riders so if they get found i dont want to be obligated to visiting them.

My soil is similar, very sandy and in a perdominantly hemlock/maple forest. I'd be worried about leaching as I dont think sand will hold nutrients well with water being run through it when it rains etc. I used fertalizer spikes in some very bad sandy soil this past seasson and they worked fine for feeding the plants, I just used tomato ones. If you can haul it, compost is king IMO!

You are going to have a problem with dryness if you go any period of time with no rain. I have sandy loam at my home and I have to water my garden daily when it is dry. If I were you, I would dig a good sized hole, line it with plastic with holes in the bottom and add something that will retain a little moisture. You will have to water them often because the sandy soil will draw the moisture away from the plants when it gets dry. As BC stated, the pine needles are a no no and you want to avoid putting them in your holes. If anything, mix in some peat to retain moisture and add some dolomite lime. Your just going to have to walk in at night and carry your supplies in....

vermiculite is pretty light weight to carry...

Yes, Vermiculite does have moisture retaing properties.

Vermiculite can hold about 2-3 times its dry weight in water, according to Vermiculite.org.

Sphagnum Peat moss can hold 10-20 times its dry weight in water.

Coco coir holds about 8-9 times its dry weight in water.

You might be able to get lots of free compost, some towns/countys collect leaves and sticks and old xmass trees and compost them in huge piles and give away the compost for free. I like compost because it improves soil in so many ways and keeps working naturally year after year.

hey man i got the same problem i live i Florida my self and my soil is 90% sand and looks like 10% slit or clay i was thinking of adding cow manure bone and blood meal and some lime and may be so MG organic potting soil and if need be some peat moss no problem hauling stuff in since it will be in the woods in my back yard

stevr59, it seems blood meal, bone and fish stuff are not good ways to go about when growing outdoors where wild animals can reach your spot, because they will start to dig out your plants thinking there is food down there. well composted non animal organic matter is the way to go.
manure and worm humus are always good choices