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Submitted by: Larry, Webmaster

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Sand is a wonderful hydroponics growing medium. It's dense, cheap and easy to find. It really can't be used alone because it is too dense but when mixed with perlite, vermiculite and even pea stone it is a perfect mixer. I used to use pea stone as a medium exclusively but now I use perlite and vermiculite and enough sand to make it dense enough to drain the solution a little slower. The sand also gives the medium a little weight otherwise the perlite/vermiculite would either erode away slowly or blow away in the wind if outside. If sand is used alone it may clump and not allow the solution to drain leaving some of the root system starved for nutrient. And the part that soaked up the solution would never really dry between watering which may promote root rot. So my view of sand is: worthless if used alone as a medium but indispensable when used as a mixer. And any sand would work, even sand from a beach, as long as any added ingredients it might contain are washed out first. Sea salt (in those concentrations) in your hydroponics system would be a disaster.

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