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Experiments with Polyacrylic acid

I am Bob

Not really
I recently got some dry polyacrylic acid, which is a white powder when dry. one of its most well known properties is that it can hold a lot of water.

Now this is where the Cp's come in. As I was looking at this container of the polyacrylic acid, I got the idea to try to grow a D. capensis in it. that was a couple of days ago. so far, no ill effects on the capensis. Does anyone have any experience as using this as a medium, or am I the first? As I said in the title, this is just an experiment right now, but I think that it would cool to be able to grow plants in something like this. What do you guys think?

I would add pics, but I'm not sure where the camera is right now.
 
Are you talking about sodium polyacrylate? I think it would act a lot like agar, used as a medium in tissue culture. As long as it doesn't dry out or add salts I can't imagine why it wouldn't work, except for some trace nutrients they normally get in their soil.
 
I guess thats what its called. I don't usually get long titles like that right.

That sounds about right. It shouldn't add nutrients, and it dries out very slowly. I just thought it would be cool because I could watch root development (it is partially clear.) Thanks
 
Is it a powdered form of polymer water crystals?

This place sells it as various sized crystals and in powdered form in 2 pound or more bags of dry weight. 2 tablespoons of crystals and 8 hours makes 1 gallon of material. I use it for roach & cricket watering.

http://www.watersorb.com/


I would think regular chunky crystals would allow more air to circulate in the soil. I have purchased "aquatic plants" (terrarium plants) packaged this way living semi-hydroponically (?) in a sealed tube planted in the crystal gel medium. I left them in the tubes for a few months using pieces of them as I needed them. They continued to grow in the gel tubes, I opened the lids a bit and add water every once in a while as the crystal dry but these ferns and other things needed fertilizer. CPs may grow indefinitely in the gel medium without suppluments. Only concern I could see would be any molds or fungus getting in and going wild on such a sheltered plant especially if you feed it insects. Mold maybe wouldn't grow on the medium but the plant itself with dead insects could be a prime target for just about anything as you open to mist in there to rehydrate the crystals from evaporation. Just guessing about them becoming virused because I eventually removed all the plants from the tubes after a couple months and did not have CPs in it. I would be interested to see how the experiment progresses!
 
This morning after work, I found a 500g bottlle for 20$, I'm considering getting it. If it doesn't work for cp's, it can definitely be added as a soil amendment for all my other houseplants, I'll just have to remember that watering won't be as often with this in the mix.

Sounds like a possible replacement for peat one day if this catches on, which is good for the cp's habitats should the current bogs being used for harvesting peat become depleted.
 
So after one week, my drosera 'dichotoma giant' root with sprout are still alive, kicking and growing rather quickly, sending out a new leaf as soon as it reaches the top of the 'substrate'. Next up, Heliamphora Minor, a 12$ guinea pig.

Considering it is a gel like substance, yet it is 99.9% water, would this be considered hydroponic, semi-hydro or something else?
 
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