Lava Sand, 8 lb bag

Does your soil constantly flood? If you live in a low-lying area with a high water table, or if there's often more rain than your lawn can drain, you can give your plants a boost by adding sand as an amendment to your soil.

This lava sand is made from pulverized rock. It's insoluble, so adding it to the soil wont affect the pH value. Fine sand resists compression and adds structure to soil, while retaining far less water than compost or clay. In testing, lava sand retains roughly 40% of its own weight in water, compared to 160% for fine-screened compost and 250% for smectite clay.

Due to this lower water retention, lava soil can help your soil dry out quickly. Water logged dirt is harmful to plants because it kills helpful bacteria and can cause root rot in many different plants. Coarse, quick draining soil is also easier for roots to tunnel through, so adding this lava amendment to your soil can promote deep root growth. Deep roots help plants survive infrequent watering and plants with deep roots are less likely to topple over in heavy wind.

Please note: Mixing sand with clay is a bad idea. This can create a concrete like mixture with the worst characteristics of both soil components (no water absorption and no drainage). For clay soils, you may want to consider an additive such as Vermiculite.

Technical Specs

Weight: 8 lbs

Treatment area: Up to 400 square feet. The ideal concentration is 4 lbs per 100 square feet (for a 200 sq. ft. treatment area).

pH: 8.3 (although this is largely irrelevent because the sand does not dissolve in water, will not neutralize acids, and does not leech anything that will affect the soil).