I am interested in where you get the gel powder. I never heard of it before.

I think it should work fine. I love rooting hydrangeas, anyway.

Janie

I found it on ebay when I looked for Water Gel powder (I think). A very little goes a long way.

Water absorbing crystals are found in most garden centers. 'Water-sorb' is one common brand name, but there are many others.

Is that all it is, the water absorbing crystals? No rooting hormone in it? Or did I miss something?

I thought it was a powder.

Wouldn't rooting cuttings in the crystals be the same as rooting things in water?

Janie

My experiment used the powder. I mixed up some Woods Rooting solution and added it to the dry powder to make the gel out of the powder. It's sort of like jello that has barely begun to set.

Last year I hydrated the large crystals to make jello-like globs, put it in a closeable deli container, sprinkled some penstemon seeds on the surface, closed the container and the seeds germinated. No near neighbors so I just mess around to amuse myself.

Nothing happening yet on the hydrangeas but the leaves still look very fresh. So, I'm hoping.

Tomorrow I'll be adding a weak soluable fertilizer solution to some of the large crystals and mix it into the planting holes of some things I'm putting into several beds. Another experiment. Somebody stop me!

all your experiments sound like fun; and interesting too ... soooooo, how did they go???

do you do any kind of propagating at this time of year?
thanks, phyl

fleur, i'm waiting for the news, how did it go?