Use hormone preparations correctly

Plant hormone preparations have lots of fancy names. Some people call them "growth regulating compounds"; other people call them "rooting hormones". Most of the time in the nursery we just call them "hormones". The job they do is help the cuttings form roots, and more quickly too. This means that your cuttings will strike more quickly and can be potted up sooner.

There are different sorts that you can buy and it depends on which type the nursery manager likes best as to which one we use in propagation. You can get them as powders, liquids or gels and each of these is applied differently to the cutting.

For the powders, you dip the end of the cutting in and then knock the end of the cutting on the side of the dish so that most of the powder falls off. You don't want lots of powder sticking to the end because it dries out the end of the cutting.

For the liquids, all you need to do is dip the end of the cutting in for about 10 seconds, just before you place the cutting into the medium.

The gels are a bit different. You'll see that when you dip the end of the cutting in, a bit of a glob sticks to the stem. This is O.K. You don't need to wipe this off. It can go into the medium just like that.

The hormones come in different strengths, so you need to check that you are using the right one. The label on the hormone container will tell you what type of cutting to use it on. If you use one that is too strong it will burn the end of the cutting. One that is too weak won't be strong enough to help the cutting form its roots.

One thing that you will need to remember is that you always pour a very small amount of the hormone onto a dish before you use it. When you have finished preparing your cuttings you can't pour it back into the container, because the whole lot will go bad.

Don't ever dip the cuttings into the original container - they will contaminate the hormone so that it can't be used again. You'll be in all sorts of trouble if you waste an expensive product like the hormone.