rooting hormone

[WiGard]

I am presently using Rootone powder for propagation.

Are there better choices? At one nursery where I worked, Dip-n-Grow was the choice.

[madgardener]

[Ricky]

It all depends on what you are rooting. Many plants will root just fine without it and many plants will develop a fungus from it's use. Most "quick stick" plants should never have it. "Quick Stick", by the way, means that you can usually just stick a growing piece of limb or trunk in moist soil and have it root. The Euphorbiacea are a prime example, most of your succulents as well will not work with rooting hormones.

[Stephen M. Henning]

Some rhododendron and azalea propagators use Hormodin rooting powders. It is made by Olympic Horticultural Products

It comes in 3 strengths:

Hormodin 1: 1% Indole-3-butyric Acid Hormodin 2: 3% Indole-3-butyric Acid Hormodin 3: 8% Indole-3-butyric Acid

Rootone has 4.24% Indole-3-butyric Acid

Rooting hormones seem to work by retarding top growth while the callus and roots are forming on the wound. Too strong of a hormone will cause residual retardation of the top growth after the roots form and may interfere with the early development of the cutting into a plant.

Stronger powders do better with hard to root cuttings but may retard growth of easy to root cuttings. Weaker powders work best with easy to root cuttings and have less of an effect in retarding the growth of plant after rooting.

By using the Hormodin powders commercial growers can optimize their results. Rootone is more for the home hobbyist where production is not critical.

[David Hill]

Or if you are really keen on trying to root everything then you can make your own rooting liquid by buying Indole-3-butyric Acid crystals, dissolving them in Methyl alcohol then diluting down to the concentration you want, helps to have access to laboratory chemical scales and to be very good at Maths,as you are working down to solutions of around 10'000 to 1

[Jim Lewis]

powders.

The shelf-life of these materials is quite short -- especially the liquid formulations. Use them up as soon as they're mixed and use a jar of powdered rootone in a single season.

Jim Lewis - [e-mail] - Tallahassee, FL - Only where people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.