Coarse sand and rocks for soil mixes

[myco]

Hey all I've got ridiculous amounts of stuff to pot up

I've been doing everything from crushing bricks and limestone aswell as some quarts

And also sifting through white sand to get all the coarse stuff out

It's a fucking mission but the worst part is how time consuming it can be to get relatively small amounts

That really don't go that far

I'm interested to see wat others methods are for getting coarse sand and rock for thier soil mixes

[Jox]

Hey myco,

I have been doing the same for thing for the last few weeks. I have been using the clay balls you buy from hydroponic shop, used for flood & drain tables. I find these a lot easier to crush up than bricks & rocks, I put them in an old pillow case, lay it on the concrete & bash them with a stick or brick.

Sometimes there fine to use not crushed,depending on what size ruble your after.

[tipz]

If your crushing clay balls from hydroponic shops, a very fine dust can be created which will block and silt up your medium. If your doing this make sure you wash the grit fully to remove the fine powder.

I just go to the local sand and garden depot and buy brickies sand. I put it in a large bin and blast it with the hose, allowing all the finer pieces to settle at the bottom. I then just puncture the bottom of the bin to let it drain and use the coarse sharp sand that is left on top.

Edited September 8, 2012 by tipz

[flumsquid]

good question myco.i use my cement mixer. chuck a shit load of softly binded quartz and granite ,limestone.let mix for an hour

this method works well.do wet and tip/ wash all dusty sludge out .then i add coir,soil,perlite and slow release ferts to mixer

this ensures even distribution of all the parts.ideal for garden beds or a yearly spring re-pot

great if you own a mixer or can borrow one.

cheers flummy

[Jox]

Good point tipz,

I forgot to say, I put it into a big sieve & wash it to get rid of the dust. Most the time I don't crush it that fine anyways.

[shortly]

I generally get the ungraded gravels etc & sieve them either with hand sieves or on a bedframe sieve that sits on 4 car springs. I normally mix my media in a cement mixer.

Crushing up stone is far too much like hard labor for my liking & i try to avoid it if at all possible

[myco]

Some great ideas there guys I thought it would be interesting to hear others methods

Loving your Great idea tips sounds like a much easier way of doing it than the way I been doing it

You can get some good stuff out of that builders sand

And here's me slowly sifting my way through it all haha wat a joke

Very nice idea there to flumsquid might have to look into buying an old cement mixer

Edited September 8, 2012 by myco

[Foo]

My latest idea is play ground sand. The white stuff they put in sand pits, they sell it at bunnings.

[quarterflesh]

washed river sands the go for me, i find brickies sand to be far to fine and over time it compacts.

[watertrade]

I use Decomposed granite washed so all the silty bits are gone. And sometimes crushed scoria (we have a rock crusher at work ;) )

[CβL]

Crushed scoria is my favourite ingredient. Wish I had more though. :/

[myco]

Must be handy to have a rock crusher around

[watertrade]

Must be handy to have a rock crusher around

 

It's not as fun as it sounds, it only takes a small amount at a time and jams constantly. I just wanted to Conjure up images of what it could be.

[Evil Genius]

Btw, be careful when dealing with dust from quartz or any other mineralistic material because it can be cancerogen as some stones are more radioactive than others. Especially stuff that originated from or is related to lava, such as Pumice. Theres no need to get paranoid over this but always make sure not to breathe in the dust. If you do something that causes a lot of dust to be blown in the air, wear an approved fine particle mask or simply wet the whole substrate BEFORE you handle it. A simple dust mask helps to keep away most particles but still lets way too much shit through.

Edited September 9, 2012 by Evil Genius