Chris - try Home Depot or Lowes, etc. Look for products like "SoilMoist", etc.

I found it at WalMart in the garden section. It was less than $8 for about 8 oz. But it really goes a long way because you only use a teaspoon or so. It really expands when hydrated.

Hi there-- I went online and found a place called Watersorb where the crystals were pretty inexpensive and the company sound pretty good. I bought a couple pounds and used them in my fall plantings. We'll see if it makes a difference!

I noticed these crystals today in the White Flower Farm catalog - $10 per pound. Catalog says they last up to 10 years - a much better value than the cellulose ones. Go to whiteflowerfarm.com.

Not wanting to put a damper on this, but I went to a landscaping class last Spring, and the instructor advised that through studies by Univ. of Penna., they determined that the crystals had a tendency to lock the moisure in, and not release it back into the soil when needed. I didn't do any experiments myself, deciding to just keep mulching well as usual,as the instructor advised, but just keep it in mind, and see it those crystals really do help.

Which type of crystals did they use? I did a search on the U of Pa web site but didn't find anything. Some crystals absorb water more quickly than others, maybe release it more easily too.

It's true that the crystals absorb prodigious amounts of water, but more than one university research trial has shown that they have problems releasing that moisture when soluble salts are present. (Soluble salts can be considered another name for fertilizer, no matter what the source.)

Water-absorbing crytals don't substitute for appropriate irrigation.