A quart of water is poured into the bowl and the pellets drank it like nothing. Another quart of water is poured into the bowl and the wet pellets drank it like nothing. A half quart of water is poured into the bowl and the pellets drank it like nothing, no pool of water on the bottom, nothing, it built up in size and spilled over the top.
Half the bowl of pellets was scooped out and dumped into a large bag of potting mix. It covered the surface of dirt and was mixed in. Vermiculite also mixed in.
The dirt does not feel like dirt anymore. It feels like wet gummy worms. Although the bulk is dirt. The railing trough baskets did not drain any water when filled. They just kept accepting all the water that was poured into them until it became ridiculous.
This bowl, half full with saturated pellets accepted two more quarts of water and with half quart increments built up so high it poured over the top again.
This is Denver. The trough baskets if used as directed would dry out in hours. These baskets are lined. But even there, the troughs holding moist dirt are like sponges. With air passing through even worse. The liners in these do not even have drain holes, but the folds are imperfect so they drain excess water anyway, Even with these hydrogel pellets holding 500 times their weight in water and without drainage holes the troughs still dry out in one day. This hydrogel that holds water for weeks or for months when used in a pile mixed with dirt down inside a hole under a bush or a tree do not work so well as that when the sun beats on them directly and their container is narrow and driest of all possible air passes right through on all sides.
