RE: Polymer gel

**"* L* <m*@nytec.com>**

Fran,
I looked into this recently.  Here is a link to a technical paper that
was just published.
http://hydrologydays.colostate.edu/Papers_2004/Green_paper.pdf
The study was done at Colorado State University.  It concluded that most
of the water absorbed by cross linked polymers is not available to
plants.  There was no significant difference in field crops that
received these water absorbing crystals compared to those that did not.
They said conditions in potted plants may differ from field crops, so
there may be a benefit using them in a pot.  They also noted that this
polymer rapidly loses its water absorbing ability after a few cycles of
wetting/drying, so I wonder if a potted plant would get much benefit
from this stuff.

As far as safety goes, I have read in the past that the polymer degrades
into harmless components, not carcinogenic ones as suggested by the
"acrylamide" section in its name.  I don't have that information with me
today, but from this and other studies done recently, I have lost
interest in using this material as a way to conserve water.

-Mark Lee, Seattle

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