Rooting Hormone?

[Bundles]

Hello All,
its coming to be the time to increase fertilization for my plants. I'm wondering if it would help or hurt the plants with weak root systems if i mixed in a bit of rooting hormone in their water along with the fertilizer?

thanks

[Izzie]

I've never heard of it being detrimental- in fact, more often than not, I hear of people doing exactly what you describe.
Chemicals like SuperThrive are actually meant to be added to fertilizer.

[Tropicgirl]

Does SuperThrive have an actual root hormone in it or just trace minerals? Would RootTone work the same or is SuperThrive more beneficial to the orchids?

[Izzie]

From what I've heard, it does. Ray commented somewhere on the specific ones and how they work.

[Izzie]

Here you go:

Originally Posted by Ray

In addition to the NAA and vitamin B1 - both root growth stimulants - there are a wide variety of other organic and inorganic "goodies" in it, such as humates and kelp extracts. Personally, I think the rooting chems are the most significant part.

Many years ago, seeing the price of the stuff, I decided to make my own version. I did a bunch of research on the effects of various vitamins and chemicals on plant growth, then mixed up my own concoction from retail ingredients. Even at that, mine cost less than 15% of the cost of ST,

I DID run a more-or-less controlled comparison using 50 seedlings each of Phalaenopsis Lemforde Novelty and Oncidium Sharry Baby for each section - all were fertilized, but one group got nothing else, one got 2 drops per gallon ST, the third group got my stuff added at the same rate - a total of 300 plants.

There is no doubt that after 3 months the plants receiving the supplements grew faster than those that did not, and it appeared that my stuff actually was better than ST, but it was probably not a statistically significant difference. I probably should have continued the experiment longer to confirm or deny that.

Instead, I embarked on trying to see the extent of treatment, so I took the two additives, and increased the dosing to a teaspoon per gallon on some of the phals - I sold the rest and the oncids to regain bench space. The plants continued to grow well, but when they bloomed, all of the phal flowers were crippled. The oncids were still to small to bloom, and after stopping the overdosing, the phals resumed blooming normally next season.

I have continued to play with SuperThrive and K-L-N (NAA, IBA, and B1) over the years, and have concluded that if there is something "iffy" about your culture, they can help, but if you're doing a pretty good job with your plants in the first place, they add little, if anything. I only use them as a soak for transplants - sort of a "kick start" to help them get reestablished.

[Tropicgirl]

Thanks for the info - very interesting!

[Izzie]

Originally Posted by Tropicgirl

Does SuperThrive have an actual root hormone in it or just trace minerals? Would RootTone work the same or is SuperThrive more beneficial to the orchids?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think someone has said that you have to do something special for roottone, or it does something funny, I can't remember exactly. Along the lines of something that made me look at a different brand of rooting hormone.

[Izzie]

Ah, I was right. It was Ray.
Rootone is for woody plants, it's not water soluble- I don't think Orchids absorb it as well.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...rmone-use.html

[Tropicgirl]

Originally Posted by Izzie

Ah, I was right. It was Ray.
Rootone is for woody plants, it's not water soluble- I don't think Orchids absorb it as well.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...rmone-use.html

Thanks, Izzie! I will just use SuperThrive mixed with my liquid fertilizer.

[johnblagg]

Originally Posted by Izzie

Ah, I was right. It was Ray.
Rootone is for woody plants, it's not water soluble- I don't think Orchids absorb it as well.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...rmone-use.html

Ray is right it is not water soluable but a drop or two of alcohol will take care of that and then add it to some water.But better is avalable such as kln I have read ....I still use the rootone myself but not often anymore