soil Sorbitol 20, non-ionic surfactant for potting soil

I have heard of people using non ionic surfactants to help soil that won't soak up water. I have some old peat moss like this. I want to buy some Sorbitol 20 to try this. It is a non toxic, plant based, and edible. You can buy food grade stuff cheap. When you mix a little into the soil it will allow water to bind with the soil rather than running right off. They use this stuff in ice cream.

Has anyone tired this?

my solution is perlite.

I have pearlite in my old mix of peat moss. The peat moss is like and old dried out sponge. If you soak it long enough (30 min) it will take water up. That is every time. I'm trying to avoid that. I need it to soak up water immediately, so nutes also don't run off.

I didn't know peat moss could get like that.

That is why they add wetting agents to it during production. Sorbitol 20 side effect is a wetting agent.

i still use APE for my peat lite surfactant. (alkyl phenol ethoylate)
 
never herd of sorbital as a surfactant.

     It might work, but I doubt it'll last very long in soil. Being a sugar, I'm pretty sure it would be very quickly metabolized by soil microbes. 

I was thinking of using it for old soil to rejuvenate it.

There are a lot of other wetting agents out there, most are very bad even toxic.

Remember, I'm growing food, not pretty flowers.

there are plenty of other surfactants to use, just none that are as cheap as APEs.  i would contest your claim that most are bad/toxic.
 
alcohol etholxylates are one im familar with, as they sell it at stores as wetting agents. problem is they sell it in a laughably diluted form, and ask for 20 bucks a quart.

queequeg152 said:

there are plenty of other surfactants to use, just none that are as cheap as APEs.  i would contest your claim that most are bad/toxic.
 
alcohol etholxylates are one im familar with, as they sell it at stores as wetting agents. problem is they sell it in a laughably diluted form, and ask for 20 bucks a quart.

Click to expand...

APE is some bad stuff. I don't think I want it anywhere near me. Especially in a food plant. Do you guys research stuff before you buy & use it? I research and read MSDS to see how bad stuff is. APE will accumulate in your body.

http://healthychild.org/easy-steps/avoid-alkylphenol-ethoxylates-apes-in-cleaning-products-and-more/

If the internet age was around during the dawn of asbestos we would have a lot less dead people.

Alcohol exthoxysulfates (AES) looks to be good, and not toxic. I will look into these.

Come to think of it AES was used in drilling mud for oil field drilling at least 20 years ago here in California. I remember talking to one of the mud guys. He used everything including olive oil, and coconut oil. He was very Mother Earth type guy. Tell you what, when he made the mud you could put more pipe down the hole per shift. He did something right. Sorry. I have been out of the oil field for about 15 years now.

Thanks for jogging my memory. I knew I had heard of AES somewhere before.

Yea APE is bad, but you have to keep the concerns in the context in which they are issued.
APE is used in god awful amounts of detergents, packing materials, cleaning agents, clothing treatments, lotions etc. i THINK i remember reading they used it in old condoms for lubricant lol.
the concerns are over the fact that there is so much APE in use that's beginning to contaminate food and water sources, and causing chronic exposure issues. Its not broken down very readily ether.
 
also, given the fact its easily replaceable, most environmental agencies are erring strongly on the side of safety on this issue. with the EPA phasing it out quickly, and the euro banning it outright i think.
 
that being said, there is no indication that plants exposed to APE treated soil mediums present a risk, and ive looked belive me.
 
APE is( or it was at the time )  the product used in the promix soilless medium that is why i chose to buy it.  ironically the APE i bought was intended for use as a SPRAY adjunct, meaning its supposed to be added to pesticice/fungicide sprays which presumably can be  sprayed directly to food crops. i would not do this personally, given that i dont wash anything ever....even store bought stuff.

FWIW, i only mentioned the alcohol etholxyates because there the only alternative ive read of, here is a few i have not:
 
organosillicones -similar to antifoam b it think, so should be spendy lol.
 block copolymers - no idea wtf these are.
alkyl polyglycosides- sp? no idea.