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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Advanced Mycology
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Polymer crystals
    #682251 -

polymer crystals are small crystals that expand to about 15 times their size when moistened by water. They are added to soil to prolong time between watering, specially when growing cannabis.

Have any of you applied this "tek" when growing Cubensis? If so please tell me what your experiences have been. If not tell me what you guys think about adding these little crystals to a casing compost.


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The Universal Spirit is within.

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: Banshee]
    #682971 -

this could be interesting. i remember people using those (especially people growing green plants that they couldn't water as often as they need to) in soil mixtures, but i haven't actually seen them close up.

what's the texture like? how big are the crystals?

take care! stay safe...
-bizarro

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: Banshee]
    #683081 -



I tried this as a casing material once, surprisingly, it colonized like mad. On its own it doesn't quite have the porosity you want in a casing. It basically fruited like a cake. Probably best used mixed with peat/coir/etc.
For those ambivalent about such things as 'bleach dunking' for the toxicity issue, the individual molecules that form these water crystals are very carcinogenic. The fungi likely remediate it into harmless nitrogen compounds, but I'd bet not much research has been done.
Also, once the crystals are colonized, they no longer soak up water like they used to. It's very easy to hydrate too many of them, one teaspoon yeilds a couple handfuls.
A nice bonus of these things is that they are highly resistant to contamination.

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: Suntzu]
    #683306 -

suntzu-

nice information. how 'bout using the crystals in a substrate, rather than casing layer? how do you suppose they might work?

thanks! take care!
-bizarro

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: UHID]
    #683454 -

They work exactly like you would expect they would in substrates. Mixed in, as a resevoir in pf cakes, or simply a bottom layer of a tray. This stuff simply holds water, and has no nutitional value (therefore contam resistant). Similar to verm in that regards, but holds a lot more water, and a lot less air.

Back in my pf days, I regularly made resevoirs of the stuff, and thought it worked a little better than resevoirs of verm. But then again, resevoirs in cakes aren't really that great no matter what their filled with.


--------------------
"From a certain point of view"
-Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi

PM me with any cultivation questions.

I just looked at my profile and realized I had a website at one point in time on geocities, it's not there anymore and I have no idea what I had on it. Anybody remember my website from several years aga? PM if so please.

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: mycofile]
    #684103 -

sunshine mix #7 is a soiless mix peat/vermiculite that comes with water crystals built into it.. it sells for $20 canadian for a bale that will fill 17 3gallon grow bags.. heh

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: Suntzu]
    #684181 -

suntzu and mycofile, interesting!
Thanks for the information, I should be experiments with Polymer Crystals soon I hope. What where your yields like ?


--------------------

The Universal Spirit is within.

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: ast]
    #684706 -

ast-

does that mean that you've used it? care to share the results or talk any more about using that mix w/ the crystals in it?

interested in the results...

take care! stay safe...
-bizarro

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Re: Polymer crystals [Re: UHID]
    #692220 -

I've used some type of potting mix available at walmart which was jiffy mix style. Peat, verm, ph buffer and water crystals. They still sell it, but only with the addition of fertilizer which I would avoid (at least in my area they still do). I used it, and it worked fine. I think all that you're going to get out of a mix like this is that it doesn't dry out as fast. Which isn't a problem in a propper set-up anyway, and I had a great set-up at the time.

In fact, according to a theory of mine, the growth of mushrooms is actually limited, because mushroom growth is dependent upon the evaporation of moisture from the casing surface to draw water/nutrients up throught the mycelial network.

IME with the stuff, I noticed no results other than the casing didn't dry out quite as fast....


--------------------
"From a certain point of view"
-Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi

PM me with any cultivation questions.

I just looked at my profile and realized I had a website at one point in time on geocities, it's not there anymore and I have no idea what I had on it. Anybody remember my website from several years aga? PM if so please.

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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Advanced Mycology
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