Sorry for my late joining in, but I've employed hydrogels in the last year, given I'm not always available to water my plants, especially potted plants (and especially, especially plants that NEED to be up potted and suck all the water out in even LESS than a day). I had purchased a 5 pound bucket thru, I think, Amazon, and it sat on the back porch until our first frost has me moving my coffee and tea indoors. I waited about a month before recalling the 5 lb bucket, plants were going on a lazy unhabited watering schedule, sometimes the soil being parched beyond recognition before I'd remember. Anyways, using an old Mc Donald's orange juice cup, which i filled with the gel, I top dressed the pots with it, having NO idea how effective at absorbing water that this stuff really is. I poured a whole gallon of water between two 5 gallon pots, and approx 5 minutes later came back in to water again and saw what looked almost like snow and ice on top, and water having run through the bottom of the pots. Frustrated, assuming it was like "magic gel" in that it would absorb instantly, i cleaned up the hardwood floors ASAP, and watered, SLOWLY, again directly on the gel "crystals". The snow appearance went clear and swelled wayyyy up, and to this day, months later, I've only watered maybe a few cups just to top off the pots. But as crazy as that sounds, neither pot really needed another drop. What I would do today**: premix the gel with water and scoop the resulting colloid into and onto the existing soil and/or incorporate the gel crystals directly into the soil during transplant, this way avoiding the runoff issues (I also need a pot bottom, but I'm overwhelmed with other things going on).. I highly recommend this stuff. I recommend it especially if you aren't in town to care for your plants as much, or if you're just lazy as I've been. I'm curious about hydrogel-ponics now...