Sandy, I actually have never used vermiculite at all, so not the right person to ask. However I respect both David's and Ken's thoughts very much and their opinions here make much sense to me. I have sand for free, but even if you would need to buy some. it would be a lot cheaper than vermiculite as that is usually a very expensive product, at least here it is. Just make sure there isn't any salt in the sand and you will be fine. I heard the recommendation to taste the sand to make sure there is no excessive salt in it, but I'm not prepared to go that far myself
