Crystals hold hope for water savings

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

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Everyone's hoping for a wetter spring and summer this year, so that gardening can be enjoyed without guilt. Lots of rain would mean the end of water conservation, right? Wrong!

Many gardeners have learned from the drought that water is a very precious commodity and needs to be used wisely. One helpful tool comes in the form of a little crystal with big ambitions.

Water-storing crystals or polymers have been around for several years, but their popularity increased many-fold last year. Using the polymers in pots, gardens and lawns not only saves water but also time and money. The polymers must be added to the soil before planting, so now's the time to check them out.

Many companies now make the water-retaining crystals, and they're available three different ways: in a jar, in a fabric mat that can be cut to fit into flower pots, and premixed in potting soil. According to Gary Eastman, owner of Fort Collins Nursery, the cost of adding polymer crystals to a 10-inch pot is about 23 cents. They last for about three years in Colorado's climate.

This is the way they work: the crystals soak up 200 times their weight in water. When hydrated, they look and feel like little cubes of Jell-O. The crystals are placed in the plant's root zone, at the bottom of a pot or transplanting hole. When the plant is watered, the crystals act as a reservoir around the root ball, and roots can access this water as needed.

What does it mean in terms of watering routines? Eastman said that watering requirements can be cut in half. In the heat of summer, when people water their potted plants and hanging baskets every day, that schedule can be cut back to every other day.

Eastman recommends the crystals for areas that dry out the fastest, especially container plants. However, they're also useful for giving transplants, such as tomatoes, peppers and new trees and shrubs, a good start. With crystals in the soil, the new plants will not require as much water to get established. Besides saving on water, crystals also encourage deep root growth and help to keep the soil loose, due to the expansion and retraction of the polymer.

Water-retaining crystals can be used to start new lawns, either by sod or seed. The crystals should be worked into the root zone of the grass, Eastman noted, and the cost is about $70 per 1,000 square feet.

Eastman warned, however, that gardeners need to carefully read instructions for using the crystals. More is not better! Once he mixed too many crystals into a pot and when watered the polymers did their job so well that soil and plants heaved up like a volcano and overflowed the pot.

Crystals can give the gardener an important advantage in any year, Eastman said, regardless of whether drought conditions persist. "Our area is always droughty," he pointed out, and with water restrictions and the new tiered water rates, people are looking for ways to save on this limited and expensive resource. Crystals offer one way to keep colorful potted plants on the patio, guilt-free.