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The Truth About Rooting Hormones: What You Need to Know for Hydroponics · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily. Today I'm going to be talking about
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  hormone powders or hormone gels.
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  I think this is a really important subject to talk about because there are a
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  lot of rubbish products on the market and you need to be really careful when
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  you're getting into horticulture that you're using the right product.
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  And also you need to determine whether you actually need a rooting gel or a rooting hormone at all.
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  So why do I say that? Well a lot of plants are really easy to root when you take a cutting.
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  If you take the classic example of a tomato, I mean true tomatoes here,
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  the ones that produce red fruit, then you put them in a glass of water and they will produce roots.
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  They're really good at producing what we call adventitious roots.
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  Adventitious roots are roots that form in places where they shouldn't normally
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  form, normally on the side of a stem.
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  And so a tomato, you don't need to use a rooting hormone.
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  If anything it's going to delay the growth of the plant the subsequent
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  cutting because it's going to it's going to stimulate extra
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  root production when actually once the roots are going it probably
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  wants to produce more stems so don't research
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  all the plant you're going to grow and decide whether
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  for cuttings you actually need a rooting powder
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  and so things like basil's really
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  easy to root as well so they'll tomatoes and
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  basil they'll even produce roots on sections of
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  the stem where you wouldn't normally expect them to form for a
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  cutting so that's like between the nodes the
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  internodes internodal sections will actually form roots and if
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  you flood a tomato plant you'll see roots appearing on
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  the stem at the bottom of the plant you'll think oh i've got such good
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  root production no that's bad if you've
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  got roots forming at the bottom of the stem in a tomato plant
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  in this then you you've done something wrong and
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  it's actually caused it to produce new roots so it gets some oxygen into
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  the root system so that's important to note
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  also important to know if you've got poor rooting on a plant anyway and you
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  think oh I could put some rooting gel or some rooting powder dilute that down
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  and pour it into the solution to get my root system going don't do that that's
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  a quick way to just stop your plants from growing you might even kill your plants
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  so rooting powders, rooting gels.
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  Strictly speaking, just for use on the actual plant itself.
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  Sorry, just on the cutting itself. Don't put it on a rooted plant.
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  And in fact, many of the hormones that are used in rooting gels are actually in weed killers.
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  So things like 2,4-D and MCPA,
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  these are actually weed killers, herbicides, when they're put in higher doses,
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  you put them onto your lawn and then they kill
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  the weeds but not the grass because grasses are less
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  sensitive far far less
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  sensitive to auxin hormones so that's
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  an interesting side note so as i've just said these are
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  auxin hormones all the rooting gels that are registered around
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  the world are all based on auxins so normally
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  it's either indole acetic acid
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  indole butric acid and they're iaa
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  or iba there's also NAA I think
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  that's naphthalic acetic acid don't quote me
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  on that NOA as I said 2,4-D and things like that
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  so normally it's IBA IBA is similar
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  to IAA but it doesn't break down as quickly and that's
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  an important thing to consider so there's a
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  really good point about rooting hormones keep them in
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  a cool dry place in horticultural
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  nurseries you'd normally have a dedicated fridge so you wouldn't put them in
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  a normal fridge because these are hormones and potentially toxic so that's important
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  if it's a liquid you do not want to put it in the lights because auxins break
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  down in the light and even if they're stored in a fridge you'll often find them stored in a.
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  Brown glass jar either a liquid or a completely opaque jar so that's important
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  to note so the gels just make it easier for the the hormone to get into the
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  plant they did used to do a powdered,
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  auxin i think was it bsf strike remember
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  strike it had a yellow tub and they
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  had a green lid and the lid was actually a
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  dibber so you could dip it into your growing media and make a nice hole for
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  you for your for your cutting a fantastic piece of product design although i
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  don't think strike's available anymore might be in america not in the uk so
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  things like clonex are normally the market leader in both the uk and the us that's a purple gel.
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  Ipa in it and there are other products on
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  the market there are lots more in canada is that that you can
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  get big tubs of routine gel and things like this so a
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  lot of them will contain these and but you need to
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  be careful of the routine gels and the
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  routine powders that you'll find in garden centers and hardware stores things
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  like in the uk poundland home base things like that and they'll say natural
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  rooting powder and they might have a bit of seaweed extract in but they won't
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  have auxin they won't have the synthetic auxin they won't have the auxin.
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  That they might have a bit of willow roots and like that but they're not going to,
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  really be potent it's a bit of a placebo effect i
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  wouldn't use them i'd always look for something that
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  contained you know was active speak to
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  your grow shop see what they recommend and certain
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  crops need a higher dose rate so if you go into a grow shop
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  the sort of crops that grow shops tend to
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  cater for they will have a higher oxygen level
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  in those those routine gels and they normally have a pigment in them
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  and things like that so normally about 60 ml tubs i think so have a look at
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  that don't buy the the cheap and nasty routine powders they will be useless
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  and especially if they've sat on a you know hardware store or discount stores
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  shelf years and years and years there'll be nothing in them anyway.
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  So I've said on previous episodes, auxin is the hormone that's produced in the
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  apical buds of stems and growing leaves that travels down through the stems,
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  polar auxin transport it's called, and builds up at the cutting because it's
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  not getting to the roots. It would normally form more roots.
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  And so that stimulates the formulation of callus, which we've talked about before,
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  undifferentiated cells that then,
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  will produce root primordia and the roots will grow out from there
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  a bit like a traffic jam it all builds up and then
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  it's suddenly the roots form because there's too much orcs in.
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  There and then you can you can bypass this process by
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  putting a routine gel on it so something like a rhododendron cutting
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  you definitely need a routine gel or routine powder because
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  it's just such a slow process and they
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  wouldn't form adventitious roots on their own and certainly
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  not in internodal sections one top
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  tip is always to decant rooting gel
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  or rooting powder into another vessel and then
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  dip your cuttings in it and then throw that that powder
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  you were using away especially if you're really
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  worried about diseases being transferred from one plant to the other
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  so if you've got cuttings from a number of plants maybe
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  you've harvested them from a friend's grow room or things like
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  that and there's a number of plants if you dip them
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  all in the same one then you could be transferring if the
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  first one had a virus you could be transferring that virus to
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  them all if it had fusarium wilt it could get fusarium
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  wilt or verticillium wilt all over the
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  rest of your plants that's why and then that's why you also sterilize any
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  of your secateurs or snips that you're using to take
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  cuttings some rooting gels might contain a fungicide
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  to prevent this and also to help protect your
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  plants against root rot or just
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  rot when you're when they're in the humid damp humid environment when you're
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  trying to take them the cuttings might also be zinc in your rooting powder just
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  because zinc is required for the synthesis of natural auxins and so it helps
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  with that zinc would also help to be a bit of a biofungicide so not a biofungicide just to.
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  Kill fungi and the actual vast majority of the routine gel and routine powder
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  is water or talc or some sort of natural gel it's only far less than one percent
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  auxin because these are hormones that are acquired in such very small amounts.
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  You might be growing a perennial plant and a deciduous plant and for these you
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  have to take something called hardwood cuttings.
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  You have to do a bit of research around what those are, but there,
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  when you're taking a hardwood cutting, you have to use a far higher concentration
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  of auxin than it would be in the normal. Rooting gel and rooting powder.
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  Rooting gels are normally designed for herbaceous plants and softwood cuttings,
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  so you need to bear that in mind.
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  You also have to be careful of any rooting liquids that contain a lot of alcohol
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  on species such as roses and barberries, because Berberis.
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  Berberis? That sounds like a tongue twister. because they are highly sensitive
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  to alcohol so you might want to use a routine powder there and then use the
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  higher concentrations on things like phytinia, rhododendron,
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  white fringe tree which need a lot higher level of auxin to stimulate root production.
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  Interesting fact auxins were first isolated from human urine during the 1930s.
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  Unfortunately the concentration used for propagation is far lower than is found
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  in human urine so you can't use your own piss to propagate your cuttings. Don't try it.
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  Organic growers could use willow rooting substance which is made by taking young
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  willow shoots, removing the leaves and then placing them in a small volume of
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  water and steeping them for a day and then putting that in the fridge.
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  The drain liquid is used as you would any other rooting solution at the base of the cuttings.
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  So as I say it can be stored in the fridge and it can be made with any variety
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  of willow, so salix species.
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  You'll find them down by the riverside, near a canal or near a lake.
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  So despite the positive findings with.
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  Wrs it's not as
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  good as standard rooting liquids and
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  the few published scientific studies on the use of wrs have presented contradictory
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  results on its effectiveness so suck it and see try it on your plant see if
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  it works and remember auxins do not stimulate growth in general only the growth of adventitious roots.
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  If you apply it to roots that are already there it will inhibit their growth
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  so don't think of it as a rooting stimulator or a root stimulator even.
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  One interesting finding is that some plant species get improved rooting if you
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  wound the bottom the base of the cutting before you put it into rooting gel.
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  So this can be squeezing it, slitting it,
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  doing anything like that that will wound it and form wound tissue this stimulates
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  the formulation of callus tissue as i've talked about before and increases the
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  surface area where roots can appear this has been found to be effective in juniper
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  holly thujia which is a i believe that's a conifer.
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  Rhododendron again apple and magnolia and
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  then they're normally quite difficult to take cuttings from in fact
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  most conifers you'll wound them as you take
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  the the needles off the stem anyway to to
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  actually make the cutting look suitable for to be
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  you know reduce the surface area of leaf tissue down so
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  you'll get wounding anyway when you do that however most
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  plant species wounding is not advantageous certainly like
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  herbaceous plants so don't think of that as your go-to technique
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  in fact you want to minimize wounding in many species
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  so make sure you've got a sharp craft knife or very sharp secateurs
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  that are sterilized and ready to go don't use
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  a craft knife on woody material because that's dangerous
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  it could you know either snap break you
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  cut your finger off things like that so secateurs are always the best
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  for woody material and then again even when you're using secateurs be really
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  careful of your fingers if you're using a folding blade make sure the inside
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  of the the container the was it the receptacle is clean as well and free of
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  plant material because again that's going to cause rotting and things like that
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  if you dip in it dip back into rotted plant material.
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  So that's something to consider and you can always take
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  two cuts i always do this if i'm taking plants cuttings
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  i'll always cut them actually in in
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  between the nodes in the internode first and then when i'm just
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  about to put the cutting into the compost the
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  grain media and then i will cut it just below
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  the node dip it in the rooting gel then put it in the grain media because
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  that way you've got
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  to remember that the cutting is transpiring it's losing water all
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  the time as soon as you cut it off that plant it's dehydrating so
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  that by cutting it at the interno that allows some
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  of that sap to sort of suck up into the.
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  Stem go a bit further up and the air is moving up and then
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  you cut it again and you've got fresh sap there
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  at the bottom and then you put that into the into the
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  grow media you increase the humidity to 100 put the lid
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  on and then that means that there's
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  more sap in the total of that stem as
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  it were if that makes any sense at all but that's
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  what i would do and we've talked about air layering is like
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  in the past sort of a cross between taking cutting and
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  air layering is you can girdle the plants a week
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  or two before you take the cutting and then
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  that helps the auxin build up because you've removed the outer
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  bark or outer stem tissue and allowed the
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  xylem the water to still flow into that that cutting
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  and then you take it and then that gives it a week or two more
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  of auxin building up before you actually take it this would
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  only be doing you'd only do that on really really
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  precious genetic material that you really
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  wanted to preserve you couldn't do that commercially on
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  loads and loads of cuttings but if you've got one plant you really need to
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  rescue then you could girdle before you take a cutting need
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  any more information about that then please get in touch and
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  i'm happy to discuss it further that's been hydroponics daily
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  for today all about rooting hormones and rooting gels be careful of the products
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  you use make sure you actually need one if you've enjoyed this episode please
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  link please click follow so that you don't just get this one episode and never
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  hear from me again get loads more episodes if you'd like to leave a review that'd be fandabby dozy,
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  until tomorrow thank you very much for listening.