I was repotting a lc haw yaun 'angel' and it had several old back bulbs that were very shriveled and had no good roots left so I decided to remove them.Having no eyes and having read about laying them on the bench to see if they would produce new growths from the old eyes I mixed up some Iba I have on hand that is very very high strenght for rooting hard to root woody plants with a dab of vegatable shortning and dabbed it on the old eyes.
I now have two new leads emerging that are about 1/8 to 1/4 of a inch long.did nothing special other than lay in a spot that stayed wetter where water liked to make a small puddle to keep them good and hydrated and soak them every day in a bucket for a few minutes.Three smal back bulbs and got two new leads ...not bad.No roots yet and still iffy as to a sucessfull end result but for just two weeks exciting results.
IBA is 3-Indolebutyric Acid and promotes rooting ,but I have read in a few places that it can stimulate eyes into growth so I have used it a few times mixed with vegtable shortning to see what effect it would have ....so far I have got lots of new leads and great roots on the few I used it on so I figured I would try it on a backbulb
why vegetable shortening? is it margarine? could i substitute it with olive or veg oils?
I have a couple of canes of a Dendrobium that I would like to try to propagate. one formed a keiki but aborted... I have rooting hormone powder.
is the shortening for keeping it on the node?