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diapers anyone?

Al-from-Chile

Al-from-Chile

Hi there,

I was just wondering if anybody has made any experiments concerning hydrogels ...

where I live, those are not readily available (or if they were, it would be very costly)



So, I was thinking something along the lines of germinating a pepper in a diaper .... (we have babies, so the diapers would be something like sunk cost, anyway )

any experiences/thoughts?

thx,
Al "honey, where are you taking this dirty diaper??" B.
 
That's taking planting in "soil" to the extreme..but could work I guess.

Personally my kids crap like they were getting paid for it, there ain't no spare diaper's/nappies in our house that's fo'shor!

But heck give it a go, there's soo many throw away diaper's/nappies used these days if someone could find a use from them, then that person is going to be very very rich 1 day!
 
Put a few seeds.... pour on a jug of water..... and bam! You got yourself a growing medium.

Save on pots and it's self-watering, Lmao!

( I'm kidding tho, seriously)

, Vegas
 
here is an interesting sniplet from a study, which can be downloaded here:


(its a google.pdf document preview)
https://docs.google....eeUbiJAqw7gUvLg

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SNIP

USE OF DIAPER POLYMERS AS SOIL CONDITIONER

Shahidian S., Serralheiro R.P., Serrano J., Machado R., Toureiro C., Rebocho J.
Instituto de Ciências Agrárias Mediterranicas, Universidade de Évora, Herdade da Mitra, Évora, Portugal.
Tel: 266760823. shakib@uevora.pt

INTRODUCTION

Super absorbent polymers (SAP) are white sugar-like hygroscopic materials mainly used in disposable diapers.
SAPs are made of hydrophilic networks that can absorb and retain huge amounts of water or aqueous solutions.
They can uptake as much as 1000 g g-1 water in relation to their own weight. Over the past years there has been a
continuous reduction in their price and a generalized use of disposable diapers in the developed and some parts of
the developing world.



However, diapers are not necessarily un-reusable waste, and SAPs have been successfully used as soil
amendments to improve the physical properties of soil in view of increasing their water-holding capacity and/or
nutrient retention, especially in sandy soils. SAP hydrogels potentially influence soil permeability, density,
evaporation, and infiltration rates of water through the soils. Potentially, the hydrogels can reduce irrigation
frequency and compaction tendency, stop erosion and water run off, and increase the soil aeration and microbial
activity.
The objective of this ongoing study is to evaluate the viability of recycling used diaper filling in
agriculture, as a soil amendment.


SNIP
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


(bolding mine)

I will def. do some more basic research (trial and error ;-)) on this topic ... I got finally a couple of SBs germinating and those need to be treated right ... let me see if I can do a A - B comparo

check here or better yet in my glog ( http://thehotpepper....rowing-peppers/ ) for future updates on this topic.




cheers,

Al
 
That is actually quite clever, I want to try this, plus since I don't have any kids I can't wait to see the look on my buddies face when I ask him to spare a diaper. All in the name of science!
 
The only thing I've read about using the gel stuff is it has a point where it won't release water.

I read that the gels wants to keep X amount of water for itself and will suck water up from anything that it can to keep the balance it likes.
Worth messing with but it might not be a set it and forget it type thing.

Might be along the lines of the sprouters/mini greenhouses with the pad under the cells that are supposed to make it so your starts get an even amount of water.
 
smokemaster said:
The only thing I've read about using the gel stuff is it has a point where it won't release water.

I read that the gels wants to keep X amount of water for itself and will suck water up from anything that it can to keep the balance it likes.
Worth messing with but it might not be a set it and forget it type thing.

Might be along the lines of the sprouters/mini greenhouses with the pad under the cells that are supposed to make it so your starts get an even amount of water.
Click to expand...

my google-research came up with the same info ...

the hydrogels lock in water, but beyond a certain point they will not give it back, and if drying out, they might even suck the whazoo out of your plants ...

so, it seems the best usage for it is to use it as lowest layer in a pot (instead of gravel) - kindalike a line of last defense - and water the plants from below (let the gel suck up all the water it can from a plate below the pot. The good thing is that it would avoid waterlogging the roots (I guess).

A small quantity (percentagewise) could be used in a potting mix as well - just enough to create some kind of a buffer.

Whatever you do, make sure you use the gel already moistened, as it will expand like 50 times its volume, and will push out any plant on top of it, if applied dry and the being watered ....

I came down with the flu yday, but I hope I can do some hands-on testing with our pampers :-)

I even like the idea of recycling used (urine only!) diapers, as the gel would even come pre-NPK'd :shh: :rofl: :shh:

cheers

al
 
Cayennemist said:
I have a "pre-NPK'd" diaper in the trash right now... considering putting on some gloves and making a mess. I am building up the motivation
slowwwly.
Click to expand...



its all a matter of wording ... call it advanced preownded diaper forensics ... and be done with it :-)










ok,

I had to be the first one to jump the gun ...


here we have a Parent's Choice Nr. 5 diaper courtesy of Mr. Walton...

we all know - this is the Big-Block-HEMI-Twin-turbo-supercharger-AK47-Moruga-7-Scorpion-Bonets of all diapers, it has been professionally modded by my youngest daughter. :P


EB54E304-orig_zps8ce0faf0.jpg



as you can tell, it is a "preloved", extra low mileage fully loaded model, and comes NPK enhanced.


It is best to do the destructive diaper testing (DDT) with the the hydrogel portion of the diaper still intact ... I tried opening the diaper dry, and its pretty messy with all that cotton and fluff and stuff in there (pretty dusty).

so, i cut away the non essential parts, and left it like a women's iPad :cool:

B5912C9B-orig_zps96c5ecf9.jpg




then I went to town ... and poured 16 oz of crystal clear well water on it ...it gelled up pretty good and both the inner and outer klingon-repellant protective membranes could be taken off with minimum enemy-contact. :twisted:


I gushed another 16 oz in there - so there is basically 1quart / 1Liter of water in it... and it is all packed in there - so no sloshing around or dripping

79025F0A-orig_zpsc1e7c2f1.jpg



the whole process is pretty straightforward and to be honest, its not even half as gross as watching tedbarrus vomit up a bhut on youtube :scared: :D


here is another closeup ...

33AD94AC-orig_zpsf5026e01.jpg



what do you think? ... seems pretty usable to me ... the price cant be beat, right?


any thoughts?

cheers,
Al
 
UPDATE:

I put in another 8oz of water - the gel still holds it nicely

the next 8oz (for a total of 1.5 qt/L) made it fairly sloshy ... it still holds the water, but it is noticeable wet.

cheers,

Al "saving our planet" B.
 
ok,

so ... there were concerns that the hydrogel would absorb water, but not readily return it to the soil/root system.

I did a little experiment, putting a kitchen towel on top of it and had the two of them fight for water ;-)


as you can see, there seems to be plenty of water available to be absorbed by the kitchen towel - the towel is dripping wet as you can see from the last couple of secs of the movie. So at leas when the hydrogel (HG) is really wet it provides good amount of watering, and releases it without any hassle.

Also, the amount of hydrogel that you see in the video and pics (above) is from one! :shocked: diaper ... right, thats about 3lb of wet hydrogel !

My guess is that this is enough to populate (in a 50:50 mix) something like 300-500 germination cells or (guessing) 100+ solo cups - again, this is one diaper






NEXT STEPS:

1.) I will be having sitting the HG in the sun for the whole day - its still rather hot and dry here - so lets see how fast things go south ;-) ...

2.) I will be repeating this for a couple of days until the gel gets noticable dry and then redo the kitchen-towel experiment - just to have them fight again for the remaining water


3.) would be interesting to know if the HG in its pure form serves as germination medium or if nutrients need to be added (I guess so - would appreciate your thoughts/opinions here, esp. on what nutes to add)

4.) would be interesting to mix HG and some kind of germinating soil and see how it performs and determine viable/optimal mixes


I would appreciate if anybody could help with step 3 and 4 as I dont have a great deal of neither seeds nor growing space to come up with 10 or so extra plants

This could cut us some leeway to take off for vacations for a couple of days without finding all your seedlings dead after a couple of days

thoughts and opinions are highly welcome?

thx,
Al "I never thought a make a vid of some gel drying" B.
 
As of today, my mind is officially blown. This stuff is the best (by far) soil Aerator I have EVER used!

I filled a Wally-Bag with soil amended with this stuff, that was 4-5 days ago. It has been hitting 80 here every day and the bag feels like it weighs the same as day 1. Yet the plant has no signs of over watering at all. In fact, the 7pot brown I planted in it seems to be growing very quickly.

Here is my mix ~
10% worm castings
40% finished compost
30% peat moss
15% local old growth humas
5% hydrated nPk'd hydro-gel - 2 diapers and about 1/2Gal. of filtered water.


I have been playing with the hydro-gel in the soil and it doesn't take much to get decent soil aeration. This has me very excited.

Before and after soil pics coming soon...
 
Cayennemist said:
As of today, my mind is officially blown. This stuff is the best (by far) soil Aerator I have EVER used!

I filled a Wally-Bag with soil amended with this stuff, that was 4-5 days ago. It has been hitting 80 here every day and the bag feels like it weighs the same as day 1. Yet the plant has no signs of over watering at all. In fact, the 7pot brown I planted in it seems to be growing very quickly.

Here is my mix ~
10% worm castings
40% finished compost
30% peat moss
15% local old growth humas
5% hydrated nPk'd hydro-gel - 2 diapers and about 1/2Gal. of filtered water.


I have been playing with the hydro-gel in the soil and it doesn't take much to get decent soil aeration. This has me very excited.

Before and after soil pics coming soon...
Click to expand...

Seeing good results just makes me want to do it. My wife is gona kill me if she finds out where all the diapers went Lmao.

,Vegas
 
Cayennemist said:
Here is my mix ~
10% worm castings
40% finished compost
30% peat moss
15% local old growth humas
5% hydrated nPk'd hydro-gel - 2 diapers and about 1/2Gal. of filtered water.


I have been playing with the hydro-gel in the soil and it doesn't take much to get decent soil aeration. This has me very excited.

Before and after soil pics coming soon...
Click to expand...

Cay,

How do you apply the hydro gel? Do you work it into the mix of do you apply it "watering"?
also, do you layer it in the bag or is it in there @ Random?
Also the 5% is it with the product dry or moist
Thx for sharing

Al
 
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