Easy As Hydrophobic out of the bag

[Hudo]

View attachment 20250423_205903.mp4

 

[Hudo]

How do I fix it , i just spent 50 bucks on the shite and I can't even use it, I've got seeds with tails and it won't soak up the water to wet up, it just runs to the side of the pot and down the outside and stays bone dry

 

[SAW]

I was thinking detergent maybe weak, perhaps can rinsed out?
Or trying spraying/misting, finer molecules?

Why Isn't My Soil or Potting Mix Absorbing Water?

Are your plants yellowing and dying, even with regular watering? The soil or potting mix may have become hydrophobic or water repellent. This prevents water from infiltrating the soil/potting mix, and can cause water droplets to bead and sit on soil surface.

www.yates.com.au

 

[itchybro]

the way your fingers moved that soil round seems very strange , generally you would just let the pot sit in the drip tray as you water & let the water in the tray soak or wick up the pot for a while but i'd be contacting easy as & let them know what you found & where you got it from , they obviously not storing the bags of soil to well , leaving them in the sun or heat or something , easy as is pretty cool years ago i got a few bags full of gnats he replaced them for me at his cost , he drove over & dropped them off as we weren't that far from each other at the time

 

[Harry bootlace]

wettasoil ?

 

[Hudo]

the way your fingers moved that soil round seems very strange , generally you would just let the pot sit in the drip tray as you water & let the water in the tray soak or wick up the pot for a while but i'd be contacting easy as & let them know what you found & where you got it from , they obviously not storing the bags of soil to well , leaving them in the sun or heat or something , easy as is pretty cool years ago i got a few bags full of gnats he replaced them for me at his cost , he drove over & dropped them off as we weren't that far from each other at the time

I'll contact him tomorrow, this bag hasn't any scoria in it either, it almost looks like canna terra

 

[itchybro]

wettasoil ?

saponins in aloe vera or soap nuts would be better (higher saponin count in soap nuts) , much healthier for soil than that wettasoil product which "generally" made from chemical surfactants

I'll contact him tomorrow, this bag hasn't any scoria in it either, it almost looks like canna terra

def let him know 100%

 

[Goonie Goat]

$50 for a 25L bag?
I just made around 100L of 70/30 coco perlite for about $40.
Like Itchy said, looks like that bag has been stored in a desert for a few years lol.

 

[Green Genius]

Old stock most likely. Unlucky, chase em down, no doubt they will sort you one way or the other.

 

[Billygoat]

They have always been reasonable to deal with in my interactions. Why not contact them first instead of attempting to damage their reputation?

 

[Hudo]

They have always been reasonable to deal with in my interactions. Why not contact them first instead of attempting to damage their reputation?

I'm not trying to damage nothing, wanted to know how I could fix it so I could use it to put my 100 bucks worth of seeds into that had tails 20mm long at 10 o'clock at night, there was no waiting to get it sorted another 12 hours in the paper they would have been fucked, so yeah probably a bit pissed off that my 50 buck bag was fucked and had to go outside at 10pm scratching around for some used coco out of the garden to get them in, it looks nothing like the last bag I got

 

[Billygoat]

I'm not trying to damage nothing, wanted to know how I could fix it so I could use it to put my 100 bucks worth of seeds into that had tails 20mm long at 10 o'clock at night, there was no waiting to get it sorted another 12 hours in the paper they would have been fucked, so yeah probably a bit pissed off that my 50 buck bag was fucked and had to go outside at 10pm scratching around for some used coco out of the garden to get them in, it looks nothing like the last bag I got

fair call. That does look like a bunch of peat and sprinkle of perlite. Was the bag light feeling comparied to normal, they are usually quite heavy and dense.

 

[Hudo]

fair call. That does look like a bunch of peat and sprinkle of perlite. Was the bag light feeling comparied to normal, they are usually quite heavy and dense.

Yeah it's nothing like the last couple bags, it's very peaty

 

[Hudo]

$50 for a 25L bag?

Yeah it's pricey but last round of seeds i popped half were in jiffy and coco and other half were in Easy As, I noticed the easy as seedlings were alot stronger than the others so that's what I'm starting them off in from now on for first 2 weeks then into coco, i had half a bag till the misses discovered it and used it to pot some 50cent plants,

 

[Slash]

I’ve found most peat and coco peat based mediums can become hydrophobic if they dry out too much. This can seem to happen on occasion when the bag has been sitting in the shop too long and is old stock. I generally use a soil wetter from Bunnings. I like to use the soil wetter as well a couple of times during my grows to help maintain even moisture through my pots.
The price of the living soils that have come out in recent times are pretty hectic at over $50 for 25-27L bag. There are some that say they are worth the $ and produce great plants. Each to their own