Crystal soil is not only a wonderful potting mix for decorating our home and office, but also has great practical use when mixed with soil in our container plants, as well as our outdoor gardens. These water absorbent polymer beads that are able to absorb and hold tens to hundreds of times its volume of water for a long time have a wide variety of uses in agriculture as well as home and garden applications.
Crystal Soil as Reservoir
With the characteristic of absorbing hundreds of times its weight in water for a long time, water absorbent polymer acts as a reservoir to store and release a steady stream of water to the plants even during periods of drought. When mixed in the soil, the water absorbent polymer will soften and swell as water is added and absorbed. When the potting system dries, the crystal soil beads will release its water to the plant.
Crystal Soil Improves Soil Aeration
The expansion and retraction of the crystal soil beads during watering cycle helps soil aeration, which is important to the growth of our plants.
Crystal Soil is Non-Toxic, Eco-friendly
Water absorbent polymeris made of non-toxic material. Hence, it is safe for our plants.
Crystal Soil is Economical
In addition, these crystal soil beads are economical to use for they are reusable and usually last several seasons. In addition, water absorbent polymer will reduce our irrigation needs and frequency in as much as 50% as well as retain our applied fertilizers and nutrients for plant use.
I am a chemistry student in peradeniya university in Sri Lanka.Crystal soil article is a really interesting for me. if you can please send me chemistry behind the crystal soil.
Hi R.M. Manasinghe,
Since I am not a manufacturer of the crystal soil, I don’t know the chemistry details of these beads, but only that they are water absorbent polymer.
I am sure you can find more information online, maybe thru wikipedia or by contacting some manufacturers.
My bet would be that they’re probably made of polyacrylamide, though the manufacturers and sellers aren’t likely to confirm that. The Wikipedia article I linked includes the following:
“It has also been advertised as a soil conditioner called Krilium by Monsanto Company in the 1950s and today ‘MP’, which is stated to be a ‘unique formulation of PAM (water-soluble polyacrylamide)’. It is often used for horticultural and agricultural use under trade names such as Broadleaf P4, Swell-Gel and so on.”
Hello I’m curious on how your plants are doing in this medium ?
I like crystal soil. it looks beautiful. where can I buy this