Home-made rooting hormone!

[noviceveggrower]

My granddad use to use wallpaper paste. It contains anti bacterial stuff in and all he did was stick it in small pots then stick the cuttings in.

[clod]

My Dad used the sweat of his brow (wiped onto fingers then the cutting) and claimed it was just as effective - if HRP doesn't do much anyway, then maybe it was!

[starloc]

Hormone rooting powders are effective on some plants and unnecesssary on some plants as they have high levels of hormone anyway

But....

Rooting powders soldd in shops are very low power horrmones, all of different concentrations and different active hormrones in them, some work better than others, some plants are better with some hormones etc all need different concentrations etc.....but the trace levels in aa powder sshouldd enhance rooting, but using too much can stop it rooting, the powder itself is usually somethng like captan a fungicide that stops rot
concentrations used commercialy on hardwoods are about 100 to 200 times higher active compound in them, depends what its for how strong, commercial UK rooting powders have something like 50ppm of active andd in the usa its often 3000ppm....

Honey should and does work well and is natural, it stops rot , probably it also contains active hormones as its extracted from plants as well but also contains sugar and sugar feeds a plant with no roots

I always add a pinch of sugar to water i am rooting plants in, and a pinch in water i use to spray plants as it is absorbed through leaves as well

Anyone who thinks rooting hormones make no difference should buy some strong hormone from a micropropagation supplier and try 2 cuttings....not thaat it is usualy necessary but you will see a difference
Plant hormones are hillarious....not often necessary but....

Another great one to mess round with is cytokinin or kinetin.....

Take 2 identical plants , spray one with ddilute coconut milk, it will branch at every noe ue to cytokinin unlike the other, for hillarious resumts get holdd of some gibberelic acid (GA3 powder) from ebay...a a pinch to the coconut milk an the plant will double in size and number of branches and flowers

[vixylix]

Interesting Starloc!

My grandad always uses rooting powder (he mostly grows flowers) and I never use rooting powder (I've only tried taking cuttings from herbs) - I've never had any problem so I think maybe the plant does make a difference? Alternatively the rooting powder is entirely pointless

At least I feel like I don't need to bother buying any now!

[janzbro]

any type of willow works snadger, although I can not confirm this in any way shape or form.