Аннотация:A new type of polymer acrylic hydrogels with amphiphilic peat filler is designed for use in the agricultural sector. It is assumed the integrated use of the gel for the purposes of improving the water-holding capacity of soils and their structural status, as well as to place in the rhizosphere of modern crop protection products in the swollen gel compositions. The most effective plant protection products is expected to be silver. In this connection, we investigated the impact of two types of strongly swelling polymer hydrogel (SSPH) on the water retention capacity of quartz sand in pure water and Ag+ solutions (10-100 mg/l). Water retention has been studied by author’s centrifugation method in a wide range of thermodynamic water potential up to 3030 J/kg. Both hydrogels – the Aquasorb preparation (Germany) with hydrophilic properties and high degree of swelling in pure water (700–1000 g Н2O/g) and the new Russian amphyphilic SSPH with a peat filler (degree of swelling 500-700 g Н2O/g) were very effective as water adsorbing soil conditioners in relatively small doses from 0.05 to 0.3% per mass. The water retention capacity of sandy substrate increases under SSPH impact by 2-3 times up to the level of native loamy sands and loams. Introduction of Ag+ to the water solution statistically decreases water retention of soil-gel compositions only for a biggest concentration of SSPH (0.3%) and ionic silver (100 mg/l).