Arlene
I finally remembered to call them...
The water sorb is $48 for 5 lbs and $172 for a 5 gallon bucket of it. It has gone up since the last time I bought it. They won't have a new shipment till after New Years day. I think the price you got from the on-line company was much better.
I was supposed to ask them something for Shoe, but I didn't write it down, so I forgot. What was it Shoe?
Water absorbing crystals
Thanks, Cala. watersorb.com says they are not for profit and the same stuff as about 8 other brands. $48--that is almost Lowe's price for a pound of crstals. guess i am glad i ordered from where i did, a little over $3.00 a pound with shipping....
tell me if you have every coated seeds with the powder of this stuff, okay.
BTW, as of about 600 i can now send and receive email!!! finally. did lose my address book and old emails! probably could find them but i don't have the time.
Arlene, I haven't coated the seeds with the powder, but I was wondering the other day if the crystals wouldn't work better for seed starting than the gelatin mix everyone was talking about a few months ago. My DD has diapers for one of her dolls and she took one apart and wet the crystals in a tupperware bowl. It held water for the longest time and no mold grew on it. That's what got me to thinking about sowing the seeds in/on the crystals.
I have noticed that non-peeled Brugmansia seeds often develop a gel coat when placed in water for a few hours. I imagine this gel keeps the seed from drying up and rotting. Can't see why an artificial gel wouldn't serve the same purpose especially when so many remove the seed coats....I have personally prefer to leave the seedcoats on...but I think I am going to revamp that thinking with at least a few of my crosses.
I took the seed coats off of some seed and left them on others. The only difference I noticed was that the ones that were peeled came up all at once and the unpeeled ones came up over several days.
Hers a site for soil moist basically the same as watersorb.
The $ seem reasonable.
Paul
http://www.biconet.com/soil/hydrogel.html
http://watersorb.com/
this is where i bought mine from. ordered friday, received 2 pounds of crystals USPS today, am expecting UPS to show up this afternoon since i got a UPS tracking # friday. 50 pounds, $167.50 including shipping.