A complete guide to use rooting hormone

Posted by Amos Fred on November 30th, 2018

Ever thought of developing duplicates of beautiful ornamental plants but had no idea how to go about them? We got your back. In this simple guide, we explore with you how to develop an identical plant type through the use of cuttings, and rooting hormones.

In this simple DIY procedure, you could use cuttings from stems, or leaves of your desired plant. You're also going to require a rooting hormone. Its role here is to help the cuttings grow stronger roots faster. Besides, it also helps protect the roots of the young plant from infection due to fungal or bacterial attacks.

To help you understand better how the root hormones work, let's check how they're used too.

Now, when propagating a cutting preferably from a stem, you will apply the rooting hormone on the area of the cut. It stimulates the development of roots, making them grow out quickly, and sturdier as compared to plants propagated in water etc.

How to use rooting hormone for stem cuttings?

Step 1; Use a clean, sharp knife to cut a healthy stem from your desired plant. It's recommended that you cut a stem from an actively growing plant. The tip of the cut stem should range between 3-8 inches, and cut preferably close the plant node. Chop off extra flowers, and leaves on the stem.

Step 2; Moisten the cut area on the stem for a few minutes to make it easy for the hormone to stick on it.

Step 3; Spread the rooting hormone/powder on a clean flat surface, and roll the base of cutting on it. Make sure the rooting hormone powder only covers the region of planting depth. From here, gently tap the stem of the cutting to shake any excess dust.

Step 4; Make a hole inside a potting mixture using a pencil or a tool slightly wider than the Cutting's diameter.

Step 5; Gently push the cutting into the hole taking care that the rooting hormone isn't rubbed off the walls of the hole. After that, press the soil gently against the stem of the cutting, cover with a plastic bag, and put in an area with a lot of light but not direct sunlight. Water daily for 3-4 weeks maintaining the moisture in the potting mix.

Using rooting hormone with leaf cuttings

Most succulents lack stems, and this makes propagating them a bit complicated. No worry though. In such cases, you're going to use the parent plant's leaf cuttings to do the propagation.

This way, you're going to apply the rooting hormone to the region closer to the leaf's centre then cover in a soil mix. You will then make a small hole and push the leaf-cutting into the hole and press gently to fill air spaces in the soil.

If the leaf-cutting had a stem though, you'll propagate it just the same way as you'd propagate a stem cutting. Note that there are also plants that require that you apply the rooting hormone on the back of the leaf. In case of any queries with your plant propagation, your local rooting hormone vendors will help you choose the best rooting hormone for the plant.