Vitamin C rooting magic

[Indigo]

Christine Walkden was demonstrating taking cuttings on a recent 'Great
Garden Revival' episode and said she tends to use vitamin C tablets
dissolved in water instead of hormone rooting powder when it was
necessary.

I don't generally use any hormone powder for the relatively small number
of cuttings I do, as it goes off and I end up throwing most away and
regretting the purchase. I wondered if anyone here had tried the vit C
method and if you'd recommend it to increase 'strike' rate?

--
Sue

[David Hill]

I've also heard of using soluble Aspirin.

[Bob Hobden]

"David Hill" wrote

That's for when the whole lot fail and you get a headache! :-)
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

[Bob Hobden]

"Indigo" wrote

As I usually only take cuttings from Pelagonium Doris Moore I never use
rooting powder.

[Martin Brown]

Soluble aspirin has good reason to work the active ingredient is an
analogue of a plant growth hormone found in willow bark. Although it
tends to mediate the flowering stem elongation response which might not
be all that helpful for rooting a cutting.

I can't see ascorbic acid being any more effective for striking cuttings
than any other randomly chosen weak fruit acid.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[Derek Turner]

On Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:35:13 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

> I can't see ascorbic acid being any more effective for striking cuttings
> than any other randomly chosen weak fruit acid.

It's a good antioxidant. Does taking cuttings produce free radicals? If so
it may prevent damage to the cutting. Probably.

[Broadback]

On 27/01/2014 18:47, Bob Hobden wrote:
> "Indigo" wrote
>>
>> Christine Walkden was demonstrating taking cuttings on a recent 'Great
>> Garden Revival' episode and said she tends to use vitamin C tablets
>> dissolved in water instead of hormone rooting powder when it was
>> necessary.
>>
>> I don't generally use any hormone powder for the relatively small number
>> of cuttings I do, as it goes off and I end up throwing most away and
>> regretting the purchase. I wondered if anyone here had tried the vit C
>> method and if you'd recommend it to increase 'strike' rate?
>>
>>
> As I usually only take cuttings from Pelagonium Doris Moore I never use
> rooting powder.

Years ago, when the Co-op used to give gardening lectures I went to one
all about cuttings. The talker swore by pushing a corn seed into the
stem. He had a scientific explanation for it. Considering that the Co-op
(at that time) sold rooting compound I guess he was very brave, or foolish.

[Shudderdun]

I was watching a Youtube tutorial some time ago and the guy was using honey as rooting compound, I think it was on Geranium cuttings.

I have never bothered doing Geraniums before, so thought I would give it a go. I did two with rooting powder and two with honey, only one took and that was one of the I ones I did with honey, may have just been luck or my bad skills for not getting the other three to take.

Can any one shed more light on using honey as rooting compound ???????

If there is any foundation in this theory and being a beekeeper myself I was wondering if raw honey would work best, i.e. has not had all the goodness filtered out of it.

Thanks.

[Pam Moore]

My immediate thoughts are that a) honey might attract ants and b)
geraniums are very easy to root with no treatment at all.
Does anyone know what rooting hormone powder or liquid is composed of?

Pam in Bristol

[Nick Maclaren]

In article <l7qhe99es3f94h4b1...@4ax.com>,

Pam Moore <nospam...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>On Wed, 29 Jan 2014 01:21:03 -0800 (PST), Shudderdun
><shudd...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>I was watching a Youtube tutorial some time ago and the guy was using honey as rooting compound, I think it was on Geranium cuttings.
>>
>>I have never bothered doing Geraniums before, so thought I would give it a go. I did two with rooting powder and two with honey, only one took and that was one of the I ones I did with honey, may have just been luck or my bad skills for not getting the other three to take.
>>
>>Can any one shed more light on using honey as rooting compound ???????
>>
>>If there is any foundation in this theory and being a beekeeper myself I was wondering if raw honey would work best, i.e. has not had all the goodness filtered out of it.
>

>My immediate thoughts are that a) honey might attract ants and b)
>geraniums are very easy to root with no treatment at all.

Sugars are supposed to help, in some cases.

>Does anyone know what rooting hormone powder or liquid is composed of?

Not in detail, but the active ingredients are gibberellins (whatever
they are, beyond being 'plant hormones').


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

[stuart noble]

On 29/01/2014 12:30, Chris Hogg wrote:

> On Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:43:49 +0000, Pam Moore
> <nospam...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Does anyone know what rooting hormone powder or liquid is composed of?
>>
>> Pam in Bristol
>

> AIUI there are several different compounds that can be used in hormone
> rooting powders/liquids although naphthalene acetic acid is quite
> common. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Naphthaleneacetic_acid
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_hormone and
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooting_compound
>

They say willow tea works well.

[me]

On Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:01:12 +0100, Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:

>>>
>>>I've also heard of using soluble Aspirin.
>>>
>>>
>>That's for when the whole lot fail and you get a headache! :-)
>

>Christine Walden HRT :-)

[me]

On 28 Jan 2014 13:29:14 GMT, Derek Turner <frd...@cesmail.net> wrote:

>On Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:35:13 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:
>
>> I can't see ascorbic acid being any more effective for striking cuttings
>> than any other randomly chosen weak fruit acid.
>

<m...@privacy.net>

[RustyHinge]

On 31/01/14 16:43, me wrote:


--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.