you know I am a container freak... wouldn't EVER pot one up without polymer gels!!!... and I expand them in a cup or food container first.. and then mix them in... that way they won't do the creeping blob impression out of the top... learned from experience!!!

Definitely going to have to try these for my hanging baskets! Trying to keep them watered is one of the reasons I don't have more! Bet they'd work well for some of my smaller containers that tend to dry out quickly, too.

I think I have all of my containers repotted now with the crystals. I can't believe I didn't try them before!

Hope I can find them locally. I'm just getting ready to repot my containers and I really want to try these!

Do they shrink and swell in the soil, as the soil gets drier or wetter?

If they do, it might be a way to keep some outdoor raised bed clay soil aerated: like freeze-thaw cycles expanding water to create voids or air spaces.

It's too bad that they swell when wet instead of swelling when dry: over-watered soil needs extra air channels more than dry soil.

But for marginally over-watered soil, maybe these beads would pull enough water out of the soil that some air could re-enter. In other words, they might increase the amount by which you could over-water without drowning roots.

I recently saw a "broadfork" demonstrated as a low-till way to keep soil "open" without turniong it over and exposing new weed seedfs. I like that idea too.

But having little plastic pellets loosen the soil for me every time it rains sounds cool! Like little ballons.