gel capsules for lawns

I have a client who is talking about putting gel capsules in the lwan to reduce watering. I assume he means water crystals. His lawn mowing co. is offering this. Does anyone have actual experience with this and whats your take on it.

When I was in college (six years ago) there had just been a study on those water crystals and how effective they are. They determined that the crystals hold water so tightly that they don't give it back to the soil readily and that in order for the plants to benefit from them their roots would have to grow into the crystals themselves. Therefore, sometimes they can actually do more harm than good because they actually pull the available moisture from the soil. The stuff sounds good in theory but in practice it's not worth it.

I Have never heard of them being used in a lwan, thats ahugh area. But, this client will believe anything he's told. I don't like the co. he uses and they tend to make more of a mess than anything else. I like hearing about studies, they mean alot. I have never thought that as the crytals loose water they take up free water in surronding areas. Great thought.

He must have a lot of money, those are quite expensive.

I use them in all of my containers, they work very well.

Paul

They sell them by the tons further south from me in UK and all the gardening books etc have lovely coloured adverts telling us that we need never water our pots again if we use this product, but to be honest, they are saying they are for plant pot use, I can only think the ones we have would have to be placed into the soil before the lawn was ever laid as to scatter them on the top would be quite futile and wasteful not to mention the cost as Puglow mentioned, the ones we have actually expand when water is added as these pellet / capsule take up water, moisture I have this awful dread that the lawn would end up with more lumps and high bits that the mower would make quite a mess of the turf, but then my imagination could be playing tricks eh. wish someone who had tried this method could come in and give us all better info than what I feel could be a whole list of problems. good luck. WeeNel.

its a fairly big lot and the co. said they would do it for cost at $500.00. I was reading a study done at Colarado State, thanks to plantfreak turning me onto them and it said that the actual benefit was only 17% and that that happened at 20X the recommended amount put out. I know no matter what I say hes going to do it so I'll wait and let you guys know if it works or not or if we have hills.

Kitten, if it turns into hills, you could always book a round of mini golf, ha, ha, ha, this guy obviously feels that throwing money equals better lawn and less work, hope he insists on a guarantee for cover for a few years in-case he has to have a new lawn laid, but hey, as I always say, we learn all the time and just maybe it will do the trick eh, hope so as this is a lot of cash, he should ask where this worked before so he can go look and see the results, if the company is genuine, they will have a list of previous places this work was carried out and the end results. you have given him your best advice anyway so there aint much else you can offer him. hope all works out. WeeNel.

i want the mini golf it would be a great TOLD YOU SO and I would have fun!

Can I be on your team and we could bounce the balls of his head as we sing "The Green Green Grass of Home" in tune of course, ha, ha, ha, OH wont we get the smile wiped right off our faces when he has a lawn looking like a tennis court, he, he, he. I'll press my whites just in case. WeeNel.

Who REALLY said, "There's a sucker born every minute"? It's usually attributed to P.T. Barnum, but he was more into sideshow hoaxes than scams.

oh my god your so right.

Here is a link to a vendor of the crystals so you can see what they say.

http://watersorb.com/

I use them in pots and it seems to help there but agree the use in the ground seems iffy. When the pellets swell with water they turn into something the consistency of jello (not hard).

her client is talking about putting them ON TOP OF THE GRASS!

When I read "in the lawn" I assumed added into the lawn soil somehow. Hee hee, on top of the grass it will turn into a layer of clear jello as soon as it rains!

and it will hold water. wet grass is so susceptible to all kinds of fungal diseases. i have an opinion of any "lawn service" that would suggest this to a customer.

I have a vision of a lawn looking like someone tossed a few buckets of wallpaper adhesive all over it and slimy to boot after the rain gets to swell the stuff up, but then maybe they were going to inject the capsules into the soil under the lawn, maybe thats where the exorbitant price came into it, too many maybes so get back to us with the results Kitten when you find out how it went. best of luck to this guy anyway, he sounds like he will need it. WeeNel.