Thursday, May 21, 2015

diapers for water control

The problem is the coconut lined baskets hang on the railing and the dry Colorado air goes right through them taking all water with it pulling moisture from them like wicks. You can spend all day watering. 

The second year heavy duty liners were fashioned for them and that worked well as trough without any draining at all until they flooded for weeks on end.

The third attempt uses the sodium polyacrylate in disposable diapers, the same material marketed for gardeners, but here in a form that may be more useful to line the inside of these coconut liners to hold moisture a little bit longer and stop dripping on the bulged out commercial windows below.  
Buying these things was weird. I didn't know how many I will need. I don't know if this inexpensive brand will do the same thing as the ones in the videos. I looked for my size that would be small, then thought, "Why are you doing that, Stupid? Maximize the area."  
Although I saw two videos I still had no idea what to expect from these. It's basically a very large pad to fit around the nether regions of a very large man. All the rest is goofy keep-the-pad-on paper underwear with a weird paper elastic to hold snug around a fat man's upper legs, and for my purposes all that extra stuff can go away. The absorbent material fill the whole pad, not just the blue patch at the center of the pad.
It soaked the whole quart without spilling a drop. It could take more. It really is awesome. 
It is slightly too short and slightly too fat.

The top layer of paper material peels off  easily once soaked revealing cottony substance that can be spread to the ends of the coconut liner and partially up the sides. 
The first layer of potting soil also has this similar mixed in and that is run up the sides too beyond this white, but the bulk that fill the center is regular potting soil with vermiculite. The plants are already planted they're all ordinary nursery annuals with morning glory seeds mixed throughout. 

8 comments:

chickelit said...

When I started out making plastic fakeries, I made spills and what not but that got kinda boring. I once made a used diaper which was oozing a yellowish brown slime. I would soak it and make it swell before leaving it in various places around the neighborhood and at work. It always elicited looks of disgust and "how could you?" comments. I should have taken a photo of it. Like most of my best work, it "disappeared" one day. I consider theft a form of flattery.

Chip Ahoy said...

I used to do something similar with Baby Ruth bars. I'd act all shocked and disgusted then eat it.

rhhardin said...

Maxipads (wingless) make good bicycle helmet forehead pads.

The "new improved drier" ones seem to disintegrate much faster. You hardly get two weeks out of them.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

There must be an easier way.

Sturtz and Copeland use a secret recipe in their potting mix. It cannot be that big of a secret, but it is to me. It's this clear gel they mix with the dirt and it helps hold the moisture.

I used to splurge and have them build my 2 hanging pots. I no longer do it. but I would like to know how to get my hands on that gel.

chickelit said...

I used to splurge and have them build my 2 hanging pots. I no longer do it. but I would like to know how to get my hands on that gel.

Lem's Link carries it: link

35 grams doesn't look like much but it's dry weight.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Is it the same stuff?

chickelit said...

@April, that product seems to be the potassium salt, not the sodium salt. Potassium is better for plants--essential actually.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

heh - chickl (re: the stolen fake poopy diaper)

Many years ago I signed up for a beginning oil painting class. Just for fun. Anyway, I painted a chair and some cubes... and at the end of the class, photos were taken of everyone's paintings and slides were made. So we had to leave the art in the classroom for a while. I went to pick my painting up, and the painting of the chair was gone. Someone stole my painting. I do have a slide in case it ever winds up on antiques road show for a million bucks. ;)