Hi, OK; I was all ready to try out propagating from stems for the first time: I took a long stem from one of my hydrangeas, cut it in exactly the right places to insert into my already-made potting medium, went to open up my bottle of rooting hormone and noticed the warnings on the side of the bottle. If you inhale it, you should call 911? If you get it on your skin you need to wash for 30 min. and call a poison control center?? Geesh! Well, I was so intimidated by the warnings on this stuff, I just went ahead and planted my hydrangea cuttings without using it and they all subsequently dried up and died :( Anyway, could someone please hold my hand through this process, and let me know how I can use this rooting hormone safely, or if there is another way to sucessfully root without the hormone?
Thanks for any feedback!
Rooting Hormone for hydrangea cuttings; please help!
Spunkster----I have rooted tons of hydrangeas-----and never used rooting compound. Stash it for plants more difficult to root. To be quite honest not all of my attempts are successfull-------(I root roses, fig trees, salvias, etc.) Certain varieties of each plant will root more easily than others so be prepared for some failure. I think 50 % is a success. I use a mixture of potted garden soil(usually Miracle Grow for flowers) with some sand (and the sand is just a new addition) in a black plastic gallon container----one you got at the nursery when you bought something. I stick a few nodes under the soil----cut the few remaining leaves in half----and, in my Starkville, Mississippi heat----just set them under a shade tree (close to a faucet for watering)----and ignore them except for watering to keep them damp. In the spring or in the fall I place a plastic liter drink bottle over it (bottom removed and cap thrown away). This will create a miniature green house. Don't get discouraged if (and when) it looses all its leaves----just give it time.
And if you do want to use rooting hormone on something it's really not that bad to work with, just take a few common sense precautions. It's not a really fine dusty powder, so as long as you're not sticking your nose down in the bottle and take care not to spill it and make it "poof" up in the air your chances of inhaling it are pretty low, and wear gloves to make sure it doesn't get on your skin. If you're worried about spilling it and having it become airborne, get one of those little white dust masks and wear it, never a bad idea anyway when working with anything powdery.
I just got a catalog from Logee's greenhouse. They sell a rooting gel which they swear by. I have not used it myself but it's worth a try. The gel sticks to the cutting and there is no airborne material.
I have an old -- very very old -- container of Rootone that I have used for many, many years. I still stick the bare end if a cutting into it -- maybe I'm just superstitious.
:)
This message was edited Aug 19, 2008 7:36 AM
You guys are great, thanks for your responses. Shirleyd, thanks for sharing your rooting methods, I think I'll try that out this weekend w/o the rooting hormone, and I'm also going to check out Logee's to see about that gel, sounds like a better alternative. Thanks ecrane, you are right, it's probably just fine, but you know how some people are germaphobes? I think I'm a chemaphobe! (believe it or not, I worked in a lab with all sorts of chemicals at one time of my life, but was always paranoid about it!). Knowing me, I would be nervous and drop the bottle and there would be a huge cloud of it all over me! Then I would have to call 911 :)
Hey, flyboy, you may be superstitious, but hey, whatever works right?!!