Sand

[Patrick Palms]

 

Can any Palms, grow in mix of sand and soil?

[Steve Mac]

Most would I expect. But how well would depend on the other influencing factors, being optimal or otherwise for that particular palm.

Like water and quality thereof, humidity, light, Ph, salt, wind, temperature, frost, altitude.

And depend on the mix in the original soil, and how much organics and nutrient were in it to start with, before you dilute it with sand.

I think that the sand is devoid of nutrients, it only facilitates drainage, so the plant will not become waterlogged and rot.

If the soil drains well by itself it won't need sand. All soils are a mix of things to start with.

Some palms are adapted to low nutrient soil and sand being a part of the soil mix will not bother them.

Also just because you do add sand to a soil, that does not always make it drain better.

Adding sand to a clay or fine silt type soil will often make it more like concrete. 

I would usually think that if you need to add sand to a mix, there is already another imbalance that needs to be corrected first. 

 

[Kris]

Dear Gary Patrick,

In my garden we have clay soil for 7 to 9 feet deep.And i live in hot wet tropics with high coastal humidity.So i usually dig a pit of 2 to 3 feet wide and in depth.And we refill the pit with freshly prepared coarse soil made using washed river sand,red soil and cow dung manure and some humus(dried dicot tree leaves). This same soil also goes into our potting mix.

ratio is 3 bond of coarse sand,2 bond of cow manure,1 bond of red soil,1 bond of dried humus and small quantities of bone meal.

This is how our garden soil and our potting medium looks like..every alternate days you need to water the plants or else the plants could die due to lack of water.And we never reuse that clay which was dug up.

And for flowering plants and tropical palms we use vermicompost and neem composite in the above soil mix.

Now coming to the downside of using fast draining river sand mix is palms that are susceptible to "Lethal Yellowing" dried up.

i.e few varities of Sabal, Syagrus and Butias did not like this kind of soil mix as their potting medium.

Love,

Kris.