Here it’s already Wednesday and no GP postings! My excuse is that I had a seminar to give yesterday before catching a late night flight to Pullman. Bert (who should have posted Monday) must still be lost in a mai-tai fog somewhere in Hawaii. Or maybe he’s looking for Holly, who’s been AWOL for a week. They’re supposedly at the ASHS meetings. Right.
I’m kind of liking the idea of finding fun new products for the busy gardener. Much to my delight, after Goggling the phrase “best new garden product of 2011” I was introduced to amazing water slices. Here’s the text of the announcement/sales information:
“WINNER OF BEST NEW GARDEN PRODUCT OF THE YEAR AT THE HORTICULTURE WEEK/HTA AWARDS & GARDEN RETAIL AWARDS
“A pack of four amazing water slices – so simple to use, they can retain enough water to keep your plants happy for up to 3 weeks.
“Simply soak each slice in water for 3 hours. Use inside or underneath pot plants, hanging baskets, flower pouches, etc.
“Use in layers, too: one slice=one week’s watering. So three slices will give up to 3 weeks watering.
“Cut to shape – one slice can fit two smaller pot plants.
“An extremely efficient and water-saving product – highly recommended.”
And here’s what a “water slice” looks like:
It’s a sponge.
?!?
And I’m sure they were some bargain price like $9.95 for three “slices”. Geez.
I should have mentioned that this was from a UK web site, and 4 slices are 5.5 pounds, which is about $8.50 right now. So…a little over $2.00 per slice, not counting tax and shipping.
Such a deal!
“But if you order now, we’ll double the offer, just pay separate shipping and handling.”
“Can I have a slice of water with my lemon?”
Yes, just a sponge, but it does seem like it might be a good idea to maybe use less expensive sponges for this purpose. I soak newspapers and spread them at the base of my greenhouse tomato plants when I leave town for a few days. Cotton rags work well for this as well, so maybe sponges would work even better.
I somehow doubt the marketers of these sponges are going to get rich on their idea no matter how many suckers are being born a minute, though.
i work for smart-tech in the uk , we are the company who made the water slice(smart slice) and a sponge releases all water when pressure is applied however the slice only releases water when the plant needs water , this product is not yet even established so as for not making money all i have to say is HA as they are selling brilliantly already !
I Work for Smart-Tech Ltd. and we are the ones who developed the Smart Slice(Water Slice) and i can tell you all that it most certainly is not a sponge as it bonds with the water and cannot be squeezed out like a sponge can, it slowly releases the water to the roots as they need it.