Water Retaining Gel

[antdg]

Hi

Has anybody used water retaining gel in the growing of tomatoes. I was thinking of using some mixed in with the compost (Im growing my tomatoes in large pots) just in case for any reason I get delayed in watering.

Can you use this gel to grow veg

Has anybody ever tried using it.

Cheers

Tony

[antdg]

[Mrs Ava]

I haven't but Toby Buckland is apparently using it in his new allotment as there is no tapped water on his site - he talks about this in I think last months Kitchen Garden mag.  My sister is using them in a huge coffin like trough she has in which she grows her pumpkins and runner beans to try and cut down on the need for watering.

[jennym]

Isn't this gel the same as that used in babies disposable nappies? Sodium Polyacrylate.
I can't find evidence that this gel degrades into something harmless to the environment and would be reluctant to buy new gel crystals from the garden centre for the purposes of keeping the soil moist.
It might be considered that used nappies could be split open and the gel inside used, if this lessens the impact on landfill sites.

[tim]

I read somewhere that it actually absorbed moisture from the soil!!

[Rosyred]

If anyone finds out about nappies then let me know as i get through a few and it would be perfect. I used the gel a few years ago for my flower pots and it worked well.

[Motherwoman]

I've never used it,I'm always worried that all the water will be in the gel and not in the plants!

[natasha]

We were on holiday a couple of weeks ago and I left young tomato plants indoors using irri-go plus from wilko. Well, they were just fine. Peppers also survived, but aubergines didn't like this stuff, nearly all of them developed milky coloured leaves and looked sad. ???
I find it a bit expensive to use the gel without emergency.

[carloso]

it worrys me that although they may say that they are safe its not exactly organic is it !

peeing into them is one thing but having to eat when they have supplied the water to your food noo ta, I like to try anything but not with chemicals

ok thats just my thoughts

carl