Rooting hormone.

I found this blog during my research on rooting hormones and found this to be a bit far fetch. Is there any merit to this concept for root growth? Check it out here.

Clickity --> Strange Rooting Hormone Bonsai Blog

Also I found a rooting hormone made by Schultz while out searching for a tree for my next project. The active ingredient of it is indole-3-butryic acid 0.1%, other ingredients were not listed but it was the remainder of the 100% of ingredients. My question would be is this. For my acer air layering project is this sufficient or should I look for something else?

My apologies if this is a rudimentary question but this will be my first time air layering.

Calvin

Yes, artificial growth hormones, in this case synthetic auxin, have been proven to trigger root development in cuttings.

How and Why here: http://www.biology-online.org/11/10_growth_and_plant_hormones.htm

One point that might be helpful, these products have a shelf life, about a year if my memory serves correctly. So if its old stock you will need to buy some fresh.

The store bought rooting aids do contain hormones but some also contain fungicides.

One factor in rooting plants from cuttings is to prevent them from rotting instead of rooting.

Honey is thought to prevent fungus.

Billy M. Rhodes wrote: Honey is thought to prevent fungus.

How?

ScribbleJ wrote:
Also I found a rooting hormone made by Schultz while out searching for a tree for my next project. The active ingredient of it is indole-3-butryic acid 0.1%, other ingredients were not listed but it was the remainder of the 100% of ingredients. My question would be is this. For my acer air layering project is this sufficient or should I look for something else?
Calvin

When air layering Acer palmatums I have found it unnecessary to use a rooting hormone. Instead plenty of good quality sphagnum moss works just as well. If you wish to use some rooting hormones as well it can not do any harm but there is no need.

ScribbleJ wrote:

Also I found a rooting hormone made by Schultz while out searching for a tree for my next project. The active ingredient of it is indole-3-butryic acid 0.1%, other ingredients were not listed but it was the remainder of the 100% of ingredients. My question would be is this. For my acer air layering project is this sufficient or should I look for something else?

Hi Calvin,

You never specified what kind of Acer you have for your project and that does make quite a difference. If your maple is a Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) it still makes a difference as there are different rates of success even between cultivars. In general however, most Japanese maples will root with decent success with IBA or NAA. There are liquids out there that are a combination of IBA and NAA that use alcohol but I would not recommend them for the unitiated as they do have a tendency to burn. I recommend that you use a power based 0.3% concentration rather than the 0.1% which is only used for easy to root plants. Most of the other ingredients are inert (usually talc) and just used as a carrier for the active ingredident. Some also include a fungicide. I'm rather skeptical of the honey treatment even though it is known to have some fungicidial characteristics. Using good quality long spagnum moss which is the standard material used for air-layering also has fungicidial characteristics as well and will elimininate most chances of rot taking place during the rooting process. One other note is that I also recommend that you wrap your air-layer with a black plastic or other opaque material as light does have some influence on rooting. Good luck on your project!

Mike, thanks for the info regarding the shelf life. I never thought about that. I'll have to go out and buy some new before I start my projects.

Randy_Davis wrote:

ScribbleJ wrote:

Also I found a rooting hormone made by Schultz while out searching for a tree for my next project. The active ingredient of it is indole-3-butryic acid 0.1%, other ingredients were not listed but it was the remainder of the 100% of ingredients. My question would be is this. For my acer air layering project is this sufficient or should I look for something else?

Hi Calvin,

You never specified what kind of Acer you have for your project and that does make quite a difference. If your maple is a Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) it still makes a difference as there are different rates of success even between cultivars. In general however, most Japanese maples will root with decent success with IBA or NAA. There are liquids out there that are a combination of IBA and NAA that use alcohol but I would not recommend them for the unitiated as they do have a tendency to burn. I recommend that you use a power based 0.3% concentration rather than the 0.1% which is only used for easy to root plants. Most of the other ingredients are inert (usually talc) and just used as a carrier for the active ingredident. Some also include a fungicide. I'm rather skeptical of the honey treatment even though it is known to have some fungicidial characteristics. Using good quality long spagnum moss which is the standard material used for air-layering also has fungicidial characteristics as well and will elimininate most chances of rot taking place during the rooting process. One other note is that I also recommend that you wrap your air-layer with a black plastic or other opaque material as light does have some influence on rooting. Good luck on your project!

Randy thank you very much for your advice. I do have a Japanese maple that I am going to do the air layering on. I will make sure to be more specific with these types of questions from now on. I was not aware of the long spagnum moss having that quality. I did buy some last night while out in preparation for the air layering. I'm going to be doing it this weekend. I'm hoping to get at least 3 trees from this project but I will be doing one at a time. I would assume if I tried more than one air layering at a time on the tree it would be too stressful. Is this true? If not then I would love to do two air layers at once.

ScribbleJ wrote:
I'm hoping to get at least 3 trees from this project but I will be doing one at a time. I would assume if I tried more than one air layering at a time on the tree it would be too stressful. Is this true? If not then I would love to do two air layers at once.

Hi Calvin,

If your tree is large and the areas that you want to air-layer are on different branches then you can easily do multiple try's simultaniously. If the areas are on the same branch one above the other then start from the top of the tree and work your way down the branch over multiple years.

Randy_Davis wrote:Hi Calvin,

If your tree is large and the areas that you want to air-layer are on different branches then you can easily do multiple try's simultaniously. If the areas are on the same branch one above the other then start from the top of the tree and work your way down the branch over multiple years.

Thanks Randy. I will be doing different branches for this project so I'm good to go on the multiple layering. The third tree will be the base trunk. The tree currently has new growth coming from just above the base of the trunk. So I'm going to let them continue. Once I cut it off just above the new growth after the air layer I should have a nice setup for a group of trees.

Calvin