Rooting hormone

A week or so ago I bought a product called TakeRoot Rooting Hormore made by Schultz. I am trying to root gardenia from cuttings and thought I would try rooting hormone. I had never used it before.

Problem number 1. There were no instructions for its use on the product label. Thanks to a fellow DGer who sent me an image of the label that he got from the company, I realized that there was a second label completely hidden under the top label (how dumb is that!). After much picking and nail breaking, I got the top label peeled off of the jar, and got to the under label.

Problem number 2. This hidden label, did have instructions but they were not the same as the one on the image provided by the company. The under label on the jar I bought talks about personal protective equipment (long sleeves, long plants, shoes, socks, chemical resistant and water proof gloves), It also has this statement: "Only protected handlers my be in the area during application. For any requirements specific to your State or Tribe, consult the agency responsible for pesticide regulation." Huh? I thought I bought a root growth stimulator, not a pesticide! And all I want to do is root a gardenia cutting for crying out loud.....not start chemical warefare!

Problem number 3. On the assumption that the company left marketing and packaging up to the mail clerk that day, I decided to go ahead and use the product on one cutting. So I dipped one cutting into the powder and then potted it. My other cuttings I just put in water without rooting hormone. Within 48 hours the powdered and potted one started drying out and now, a week later, it is totally dead. The ones I have in water are doing fine and one has developed root nodes.

Has anybody else had experience with this or a similar product? Could I have used it incorrectly? I'm almost wonder, given the label inconsistancies and that it seemed to kill the cutting rather than stimilate growth, if I didn't get a mislabeled product and what I used is not rooting hormone at all.

Did you water the soil you stuck the cutting in?

If you have a powder, the usual procedure is to fill your container with potting soil/seed starting soil, or other medium. With pencil make a hole for the cutting to fit into the medium.

Moisten your cutting stem, then apply the powder (dip it), insert into medium and firm it down. Water.

Often-times it's best to put a plastic bag over the container(s) to hold in the moisture (like a mini g-house).

Another "also"...if there were too many leaves on your cutting they should be trimmed back a bit...this helps cut down on transpiration.

By the way...I've rooted lots of gardenia and seldom use a rooting hormone for them.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Horseshoe. I did all that just as you said except for the plastic bag but even without that the soil is still slightly damp even today so I don't think lack of moisture was a problem. I stripped bottom leaves and the resulting cuttings were all about the same and the ones in just water are thriving so I think I will just stick with that. Good to know you you have been successful with the gardenias without the rooting hormone. But of course that begs another question. What is a good use for rooting hormone?

Go for it then. Those in water may eventually show some roots and when they do you can move them into soil at that time.

As for why your rooting hormone cutting didn't take, heck...there could be lots of reasons for that. If I root 25 cuttings there are always some that don't make it; it's just a given in some instances. Was it a hardwood cutting? Softwood? Was it properly cut at a given node? Was it kept in the air too long after cutting? (I'm always asking myself too many questions! You should see the inside of my mind...it's a big mess in there!) :>)

What is a good use for rooting hormone? I often-times don't even bother with them. They seem to benefit softer cuttings though because most of them contain an anti-fungal of some sort, thereby staving off rot/disease. I've had excellent results using cinnamon, by the way...have also just used willow water, and it is cheap, easy to acquire, and works fine for me. (I'm a miser, ya know!)

Well that brings up another question. Where exact does soft wood leave off and hardword take over. This was the end of a branches so stem was fairly thin so I assume you would call that softwood. It was angle cut at node just like the rest of them. Was probably no more than 10 minutes total from the time I cut it until it was potted.

Well I know have this jar of expensive rooting hormone I will probably never use again LOL. But now that you say it is antifungal, the label calling it a pesticide makes sense. It seems rather disceptive though to call it rooting hormore if it is actually nothing more than a funguside.

PS (I'm a miser too)

"Soft" wood is what folks also consider green wood. So...starting at the end of your branch and following it towards it's beginning you will notice the change of texture and color of the wood. The greenwood is the new growth.

As for your rooting hormone, I wouldn't give up on it so easily but would rather give it a good run for the money! After all, "So I dipped one cutting into the powder and then potted it. My other cuttings I just put in water without rooting hormone."....

...Seems to me you only trialed it on one cutting. Also sounds like you put more cuttings in the water. A good test would've been to trial it with equal cuttings in each experiment.

I hope you give it another try, especially since it is paid for. :

Well there are only 2 left in water right now so there wasn't much difference. I'm debating whether to take it back and get a refund, or giving it another try. You can sure it will be one of the two. But I don't think I will try it on gardenias. I've been struglling to get them to grow here for several years. I finally have a healthy 2 year old potted one that looks like it is going to make it but I don't want to risk it by taking too many cuttings. I guess what surprised me was that the "hormone" dipped one failed so quickly. The cutting had started to dry out within 48 hours. Even cuttings in water that failed to root have never dried out like that, so my assumption was (and for lack of anything better to replace it, still is) that it was the rooting hormone that actually killed it. And I confess, I am still mildly annoyed at the misleading marketing and just bizarre labeling of this product, so right now it's not very high on my list of things to give a second chance to (I'll get over it though :-)

Well...if you think about it...the ones in water wouldn't wilt so quickly 'cus they have water readily available.. The one you had in a solid medium certainly would if the water wasn't dispersed thru-out the medium evenly, thereby causing a callus on the cutting and possibly shock.

I hope you can get your money back. It sure sounds like you are extremely disappointed in this product.

Home depot is pretty good about that....at least with me....they know me on site and they also know that when I return something I usually spend at least twice as much while I am there.

I just pulled the dead cutting out of the pot. The stem looks fine (other than it is dead) and the checked the soil and it is evenly moist.

I have and do use rooting hormone. First, I never try rooting hardwood with it though. I have great results with it on impatients, begonias, coleus, and ivys. Now someone will come along and say just put em in water, but I find if I dip the end in R/H tap off excess, and plant in potting soil, they really take off.
I will take a Gardenia cutting and try this with Horseshoe's tent method.
A small jar of Rooting Hormone will last a lifetime for most people.

I use various types of rooting compound for different cuttings and layerings. There are differences in the products and it needs to be used and stored correctly. Look at the label to see the % of active ingredients. In most cases this will be Indole-3-butyric acid _0.10%. This is the one most often found for home use and works best on green cuttings. A green cutting is the newest growth on any given stem. Some plants will seal a cut very quickly and will cease drawng up water unless they are cut under water. Roses and geraniums are good examples of that type. It is important to use a plastic cover on these when using hormones because otherwise they will lose more water than they can take up. That's why the geraniums in water didn't dehydrate like the one in a soiless mix. You can also use a mix that contains a polymer gel so more water will be available for the cutting. This kind is good for those rose cuttings and rosemary cuttings. The so called inert ingredients in the rooting hormone is ordinary talcum powder.
Stronger concentrations of Indol-3-butyric acid such as the 0.8% in Hormodin 3 are sold for hardwood cuttings and more difficult to root plants. It is not likely you will find these outside of a catalog. Liquid concentrates that are mixed with water before use are available if you will be doing a large number of cuttings or cuttings that require different dilutions. Add the appropriate amount of water to the concentrate only just before use since the solution will be good for only 10 hours. The cuttings are dipped for 3-5 seconds only. Do your hardwood cuttings first and add more water for greenwood cuttings. Remember you have used up some of the concentrate so do the math to figure out how much water you can add without diluting it too far.
Make sure the soil is well draining. It is better to water lightly more often than to allow the cutting to sit in water. Keep in a plastic bag or sealed growing box to maintain humidity.
Fungi such as botyris (grey mold) will kill seedlings or cuttings quickly so some products come with a fungicide added. Some cuttings will not survive a fungicide so check the label.
Keep the unused product in a cool, not cold location. Seal it well. It degrades with time faster with heat or cold. Moisture will break it down.
To avoid contamination and addition of moisture to the unused product spoon out what you expect to use into a saucer rather than dipping the cutting into the container.
Under normal use you can expect to replace your opened product once a year. Longer if you protect it from moisture, air and heat or cold.
Remember to tap the cutting to remove any excess talc. It can mess up absorbtion. Make a hole in the planting medium so when you place the cutting the remaining talc doesn't get wiped off.
A cutting with too much foliage will not be able to wick up enough water to support the foliage. Two or three leaves is usually enough.
A cutting will take 3 to 6 weeks to develop roots.
I hope this is helpful. Jessamine


This message was edited Nov 8, 2004 11:24 PM

That's extremely helpful. Thanks Jessamine.

ah yes... an answer in a nutshell! Very good! Thanks!

It certainly was Jessamine....I just wish half of that info was on the product label.

At http://store.yahoo.com/btgrowersupply/rootinghormone.html I found Hormodin 1, 2 and 3 powder.

I'd be happy to buy a 1lb of each and repackage them into 1 oz packets. A 3 oz over-thick SASBE would cost about 83 cents to mail. That would put the cost of 1 oz of each Hormodin plus S&H (minus the S&H charges from the supplier) at $8.27.

Anybody interested?