Water crystals

I am notorious for forgettng to water my container plants and then finding them dead. :-( I'd like to add some of the those water absorbing crystals. Has anyone used them? How do you add them to an established container---just sprinkle on top or do you dig a few holes and put them in? They are kind of expensive. If you've used them, do you think they are worth the money? Tamara

They may seem expensive at about $10. per pound, but a little goes a LONG way. If you overuse the crystals, your plants will be out of the pots and on the ground. Follow the directions carefully. I know this from experience having had to repot all of my plants a few years back after using the crystals in the potting soil and in the ground. Since you want to add to established pots, you would need to take a tool or a pencil, open up several spaces, and drop a FEW crystals down the hole. Cover and water.

What I do now is hydrate the crystals first in a solution of liquid fertilizer and water, then mix with the potting soil. That way you know exactly how much they've expanded. Works for me anyway.

You can get the crystals at Home Depot and Lowe's. If you do the mailorder thing, you'll pay more because of the postage. However, if you're going to use a lot for flower beds or your yard, then order from Watersorb.com. Just remember, a teaspoon of crystals will turn into a couple of cups when hydrated.

Thanks Chunx! I will try to mix them up ahead of time. What fertilizer do you use? How much water, fertilizer and crystals do you use when mixing up a "batch"? Tamara

I picked up some on eBay for a reasonable price. I usually get a Ziplock or whatever type plastic container with a lid and add a tablespoon of crystals and a cup or two of water. Go with less water at first and stir in more if they seem too thick and stuck together. That way you have some mixed when you need it and can reseal the container. If it's a while before you need them again and you find that they've started to dry out, all you have to do it add some water to plump them up again. I hadn't thought of adding fertilizer but I will now. I usually only put them in the bottom 2/3's of new potting soil so I don't get little jellies at the top. I also forget to water and these have saved me and my plants many times! Just thought I'd jump in. The fertilizer advice is great!

Donna

Thanks, Donna, for the info! Tamara

Yeah, what dmac said. I do a lot of planting in pots, so I usually fill up a bucket of water, pour in twice to three times the amount of fertilizer you would use per gallon, then dump in some crystals and let it sit overnight. If you have too much water, it's no big deal since you're going to mix this into the potting soil or layer it like dmac does. Not enough water? Just mix in more and wait a few minutes. I have found that if you can use rainwater, the crysals absorb the water much faster. Don't ask me why, but that's been my experience. If you spill a few crystals on your sidewalk, when it rains you'll have all these little clear Jello bits that look like hail. By the way, the crystals last for 3 to 5 years if not exposed to direct sun. They started using them in California to put out forest fires by dropping the hydrated crystals from helicopters and planes. They also mix in seeds and spray the hillsides with them.

One floral shop here adds food coloring to them, puts them in clear vases and then adds long stemmed flowers. It looks unusual since she sometimes layers different colors. Just a craft idea I'm sure Martha hasn't thought of yet!

Excellent idea Chunx!! I'm going to have to try that!

Anita

Here's the best price and no sales tax outside the state of Arkansas. Very good and fast service. http://watersorb.com/prices.htm
I love this stuff.
Sidney

You people at Daves garden ever watch Rebecca's Garden on Tv.
Well she said to stir the crystals in with the soil when you pot up your plants and I got some at Walmart last week and it said one teaspoon per 6 inch pot. Took me a long time to find the things. They were sitting right in front of me and never even knew it. They were pretty expensive so I thought at about 8 dollars a small 12 oz bottle. Fran

Chunx, that's a great idea about soaking them in fertilizer.

I always mix them with the water before I use them too. I put the soil in the pot at what I think is the right depth. Then I place the plant in to see if it is the right depth. I take the plant out and put about a teaspoon of wet crystals right where the roots will be. Then I put the plants in and fill in with more soil.

When I was transplanting tomatoes into the garden I had one pot that was bone dry. The plant looked fine though. When I took it out of the pot, the roots had gone through the crystals and were stuck to the soil. This soil right around the roots was nice and moist. That's when I decided to use it that way.

About 6 or 7 years ago, before you could find the packets of crystals in stores there was a novelty product out using the crystals. They were in 1 qt plastic tubs already hydrated and dyed different colors. The idea was to fill a vase and take rooted houseplants (rinsed free of soil) and grow them directly in the colored crystals. The product disappeared pretty quickly though.

I'll definitely be adding fertilizer to my crystals now.

Actually I ordered some this year and found them way cheaper to purchase from here:
http://watergelcrystals.com/order.htm

I really searched around when I heard of these things!!!

I mixed them in 5 gallon buckets and tilled them into my flower beds.

Oh, man can I relate to ALL!

I forget to water my pots, too.

I used too many large-size crystals one time, too! LOL! Sort of pushed the plants right up and nearly out of the container.

Last year, though, I bought some from DG Coop Lhasa (she has a coop going on now $4.75 a pound) I put them in my coffee bean grinder to get them really small so I don't have big jelly-things in my potting soil, then I do as Chunx does and hydrate them with fertilizer water, although I didn't use the 2x or 3x recommended amount. I'll do that this year.

Last year's containers were soooo great! I still have a bunch left since I wanted the full 5 pounds to get my postage money's worth from the coop.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/824744/

I empty the soilless mix out in the compost pile at the end of the year, but running into those large size jelly things with my bare hands later on is really gross...it feel like a slug. You must grind them smaller if you get them from the coop. If you don't get them from the coop, buy the absolute smallest size you can buy for potted plants.

I had no idea you could just put a few crystams at the bottom of each planting hole...I have always used it mixed in with the potting soilless mix, on the bottom, then topped it off about 3" with the regular potting soilless mix, sans crystals.

bradh616: Thank you for that website, I just ordered 5 pounds :)

You are more than welcome Kalika. I ordered 10 pounds, being the first time I ever used them I had no idea how much I would need. Thats fine though, more for next year if I don't use them all. I felt like I had to do something with the drought we've been having! With the crystals and a new rain barrel hopefully it will help.

FertiSorb combines fertilizer and polymer all in a single product. It feeds for 3-4 months and holds water, as well.

I used Ferti-Sorb last year but can't find a place that carries it. Where did you buy yours?

I have about 22 pots that I do every year and there is no way I could do that without the water crystals - I hydrate them first (love the fertilizer idea - will have to try that) and I throw the hydrated crystals in the bottom of every hole that I dig for each plant that I put in my pots. It REALLY saves on watering. I get mine at my local nursery. WELL worth the price.

You can buy it from the company's website: www.fertisorb.com. Were you pleased with the results last year?

Make another try at the link, Illiniguy? It leads to a construction site. ;o) I'm really interested in learning more about the product. It sounds very interesting.

Al

If you delete the period at the end of the address it'll take you to the right place.

I really liked them, not only the product they had for tomatoes but the cystals, used in container plants, were wonderful. I put a few plants with different water requirements in one pot and they all lived happily ever after. I have just enough left to try it with coleus and zonal geraniums this year - they're big opposites for water needs and I feel very confident they'll be happy together.

"If you delete the period at the end of the address."

It's force of habit to enter that period at the end of a sentence; that's what I get for paying attention to my teachers throughout grade school.

I know the feeling! The trouble here is you need to leave a space between any characters and the hyperlink, otherwise the computer either doesn't recognize it as a link, or it includes the character as part of the link (colons at the beginning and periods at the end are probably the most frequent offenders)

I got mine in today, and am just amazed how much water they hold. I didn't read the directions (of course) and ended up making WAY too much. This is gonna be a huge help for the hot hot louisiana summers down here.