water polymers guerilla growers savior? (retaining moisture)

DimeBag65 · Mar 20, 2007

Someone brought these to my attention the other day and i thought it deserved its own thread seeing how much praises i heard about them. for how many people have lost their plants due to the ground drying out or missing waterings between hot days, these could help you harvest your crops while the guy down the way loses all.

http://www.watersorb.com/index.htm

from what iv heard if you dont wanna mix it through soil after planting a good method would be to drill down deep and drop these water crystals down the holes. they retain a nice bit of water and will retain it in the area where your roots will need to be getting water. i got excited first time i heard the success and read up on these. i do believe they could help many. hopefully some of you will be able to put these to use and enjoy! Hail the leaf, Dime

Highlighter · Mar 20, 2007

Always a mainstay in my guerilla garden.
I can never water enough, and I believe my yields would be alot less w/o the Soil Moist polymers.
Every spring I stir up my old holes, adding amendments & polymers, and never see a trace of last yrs' polymers. WHere do they go? Can't believe they break down so well.

DimeBag65 · Mar 20, 2007

thats awsome to hear man... iv been hearing more people say their plants wouldnt have survived the year out without the wonderful water retaining polymers. sure hope people dont just pass these up and have a crop die off... these are opposite of trying to have drainage... trying to keep that water all nice and close up on your roots where they can get to it. anyone else had success due to polymers?

Dignan · Mar 20, 2007

I use them. My only reservation was that I'd heard they impart a plastic smell and taste to your buds. I noticed no such thing with my plants and have another friend who grew alongside me who reported the same.

Soak them before adding them to your pots, by the way, or they may push your soil right up out of the pots when they expand (depending on the volume of polymer crystals and the size of the pot, of course).

masterlow37 · Mar 21, 2007

Dignan said:
I use them. My only reservation was that I'd heard they impart a plastic smell and taste to your buds. I noticed no such thing with my plants and have another friend who grew alongside me who reported the same.

Soak them before adding them to your pots, by the way, or they may push your soil right up out of the pots when they expand (depending on the volume of polymer crystals and the size of the pot, of course).

what about in 15-30/gal. holes in the ground, do you still nead to soak first ?...thanx

bio-forte · Mar 21, 2007

I'm thinking of using them but I'm worried we'll have a real wet spring/early summer(not uncommon were I live) and the holes will stay soaked. But also that there could be a wicked hot later season when I could really use them. I'm sure If you have an overly moist period they must exacerbate the problem???????? Any ideas????

Dignan · Mar 21, 2007

masterlow- I personally would soak them first but it's probably not as crucial as with a container.

bio-forte- my understanding is that the polymer crystals absorb water and a crystal will only release moisture once the air/material surrounding it is dry enough to "absorb" it. I'm not sure it would make an overly wet situation worse, but it certainly wouldn't help matters. I live in a very arid environment and am pretty much forced to use the crystals. If that weren't the case, I'd skip them personally.

As a sidenote, the properties of these crystals are such that they absorb a TON of water and release it VERY SLOWLY. When I first started messing around with these, I put about 1 teaspoon of crystals in the bottom of a pint glass jar and then filled the jar with water. A few hours later, the jar was FULL of crystals. All the water had been absorbed by the crystals.

I then set the jar out with the lid off to see how long it would take for the crystals to release the moisture they had absorbed... a week later the level hadn't gone down at all, so I gave up and added the crystals to my soil mix.

I apologize for rambling. Fast fingers.

abc123xyz · Mar 21, 2007

Found a cheaper place for polymers (for me anyway). 5 lbs for $30.47 with shipping instead of $30.00 for 4 lbs at the other place.

http://water-keep.com/

Anyone find cheaper on the net?

masterlow37 · Mar 21, 2007

^^^ thanx Dignan ^^^^

Ganico · Mar 21, 2007

Walmart sells them, not that cheap though, it's about $3 for a small jug. Would be cheap enough for a small grow though

badmf · Mar 21, 2007

Funny thread; I've advocated using them for years but it seems not many wanted to believe it, lol. They work fine mix about 1/3rd to your "fav" soil mix after you've mixed em with nutes/water or wahatever you use, smiles. Then add mixing from about 6" down and mulch the top 6", to prevent further evaporation. With timers its a breeze, less trips and happy plants. What else? You maybe could get some that trim themselves? :bat:

DimeBag65 · Mar 21, 2007

haha badmf thats great, until recently iv never had to worry bout a water situation but now these are makin me very excited about some happy plants, with like you said less trips and less chance of dead plants. hope many of you can put this to use, badmf too bad more didnt catch on to using these maybe they woulda have plants that didnt die first bad heat?

ne ways stay safe gents, and keep em green, Dime

DimeBag65 · Mar 26, 2007

need to go drill holes to drop these into soon, im thinkin maybe 5 to 10 inch wide 4 or 5 feet down will do the trick.

badmf · Mar 26, 2007

Wider holes for bigger plants, think 3 feet min., your depth is fine. Allow up to 3+hours for the poly to set-up. I mix in a trash can and go back another day. Mixing with nutes isn't a bad way to go either. Remeber to mulch and if you're in pots sheild the outside from the Sun. And camo of course! Late! :wave:

DimeBag65 · Mar 26, 2007

im not planning on diggin out huge holes or mixing soil just too far and too much work, so what i was thinking was just fill narrower deeper holes all teh way up with the polymers all the way around the plant and the roots can tap into that in their time of need. the initial hole i dig ill spread some around as well but im probly not gonna be diggin any deeper than a foot depending. hopefully ill be able to get enough to keep them goin for at least a few weeks at a time. thanks for the imput, Dime

BACKCOUNTRY · Mar 26, 2007

Water crystals have been popular since before Overgrow, and many many people on OG and IC have been using them, they have been a basic staple of nearly every plot I have dug for nearly a decade.

And no, they do not make your bud taste like plastic.

I've slowley increased the ammounts I use, in recent years I have been known to use 2 or 3 times the label recemended dose. I put half or more of the crystals on the bottom of the hole to catch any water that makes it that far, the rest get mixed in with the soil.

Dignan · Mar 28, 2007

From http://watergelcrystals.com/:

Water-Gel Crystals is a polymer gel powder (cationic polyacrylamide powder) and is non-toxic, ecologically neutral, it breaks down after its useful working life to water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen.

One pound of crystals for $11 shipped. :joint:

(One pound will go a LONG way... consider that 1 teaspoon of crystals will absorb 1 cup of water at least.

FlyinHawaiian · Mar 28, 2007

ill be usein em this year along with the potatoe base ones www.drywater.com

Rare Groove · Mar 28, 2007

That DriWater gel looks like some good stuff, FlyinHawaiian. Polymer crystals have long been a staple in my outdoor plots, but these gel packs seem really cool because you're essentially bringing the water in ahead of time...time release water. Anyone have any experience with them?

badmf · Mar 28, 2007

It's better to bring in non-mixed polymer and mix on site. Lighter and less bulk. Check online for better deals than folks makin' it for you. Go to water-sorb for a more earth friendly company.

water polymers guerilla growers savior? (retaining moisture)

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