Soil Moist JCD-10BKSMP Plus 10-Pound Pail

These moisture control particles work my absorbing water and ballooning up to many times the particle size and allows plant roots to tap into this water source during dry times - this means much less watering for us. Even though we live in an area that has a fair amount of rain, last summer, we had a really bad drought, so, I purchased this product to help in this regard. I've used this type of moisture control in small quantities in the past in the Bay Area and here in Indiana in some of my container pots with enough success to order a large amount. This doesn't mean that you can stop watering altogether but more moisture is held in the root areas longer, so, can mean less watering during a 1 - 2 week period depending on the hydrophilic properties of your plant species. I don't know the longevity of the particles but since I added a lot to our vegetable bed this year, I'll see when we cultivate the soil next year what is left.

I didnt exactly follow word for word what this product is typically used for but it did a surprising well job of keeping my grass green all summer long even through out the drought.Step one, aerate your lawn heavily.Step two, spread soil moist all over your lawn, this will look funny after your first rain.Step three cut your lawn while the soil moist is still swollen up, this ended up chopping it up much finner and allowed it to mix in with the soil.Step four listen to your neighbors state how green your lawn is.Worked great for me, and I will be buying this again in the sprig time again.

Have used Soil Moist and previously TerraSorb for many years. Back when you could buy 50 lbs and have it shipped for $118 including the product. I am very familiar with this type of product.Could find 20 lbs without the fertilizer. Price was very good for this one. Would buy again if it were available without the fertilizer. The poly crystals do what they are supposed to: hold water for the plants needs and "drink up" water to dry up mosquito puddles. Along with mosquito larvaecide, I sprinkle it under moist areas in Hosta beds and where other plants cover the evaporation more and the water might collect.For bedding plants the fertilizer formula is pretty good. Most of these products last, if undisturbed in the ground for 3 - 5 years. They also break down into water and Potassium, which is good for the soil.Product seems OK!

Used most of the pail to sprinkle on Bermuda grass after aeration...then there was a rain storm...looked like ice cubes all over the lawn (funny)...probably spread too much to be honest b/c just tossed them on by hand rather than use a fertilizer sprinkler gadget. It's not August and we have yet to turn on our irrigation system (actually can't b/c we have a broken backflow) and the grass is thick and green. Not sure if it's just because an above average rainfall (we live in the South) or the granules or a combination - whatever it is, it's definitely cut our irrigation bill!

I purchased 2, 10 lb pails of these and have used about a 1/4 bucket on one. I put them in some water and then added some Miracle Grow Miracle-Gro 3001192 All Purpose Plant Food - 10 Pound. Once they swell up to about a nickle size, I integrated them into the soil of my container garden. Well a few days later, we had about 3-4 days of heavy rain. Next thing I know, I see the monster-sized gooey things on the ground and at the top of the container. The containers have plenty of drain holes, but I guess all of the heavy rain just super charged the crystals' sizes. I mean they push straight up through several 5 gallon buckets. I put the crystals about midway in the buckets about where I thought the roots may grow.After a couple of very hot days, the ones on the ground and on the top of the buckets just lost all of their form and liquidized into this plasma-looking flat blob.I used my hand and pulled out as much of it as I could from the rest of my buckets. As they were pushing their way up through the soil, they know out a whole lot soil. So, I just did not wish to go through that again during the next heavy rain. Also after seeing the gooey blog that they turned in to when exposed to the sun, I just decided I did not wish for that gunk to be in with food I was going to eat!!!For a cool-looking project to do with kids, I would likely give this item about a 4-star rating; however, for my purposes, it just did not fit the bill. I can't say that these crystal won't help the soil hold or put moisture into the soil. However, I can't say that they will either. I will say that (1) based on the size that these crystals can get, a 10 lb bucket will go a very long way in terms of relative size. (2) I originally was going to put these into a raised bed but decided not to tackle that this year...so maybe they would work better in a larger area (3) If you do use them for gardening, remember a little goes a long way...or at least don't let their tiny initial size fool you to how big they can potentially get when exposed to a lot of moisture like rainstorms, especially for a container garden.Because I have so much of the stuff (almost 18 lbs) left, I am thinking about trying a very small amount in some containers and plants some flowers. If they pan-out in that application, I will certainly update this review and be fair!!!

I bought the large size thinking I would get a better bargain on the water-storing polymer. Instead I got a diluted, diminished product partially filled with a heavy filler. Unlike the smaller sizes, the 10-pound pail is a mixture of unwanted, heavy, cheaper fertilizer.Substituting a low-cost, heavy ingredient for the desired polymer makes comparison of price per weight meaningless.tAdding insult to injury, comparison of price per container volume is misleading.. While other packages are fully filled, the pail was only two-thirds filled..Of course, for JRM Chemical, the manufacturer of SoilMoist, the product the filler and the opaque container make perfect sense.