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market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] Rooting hormone...

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  • From: "Alex McGregor" <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Rooting hormone...
  • Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 12:42:37 -0400

The following is from a gardening discussion list (Maybe too much
information for you). I heard of using "willow water" for rooting from my
grandmother. There's many different ways to do it from soaking to steeping
to placing a cutting in water with what you're rooting.

Alex McGregor
Walden Farm

All plants contain the necessary hormones (IAA, NAA, and IBS) to root,
otherwise how would they root in the first place? The only reason some
cuttings are hard to root, or won't root at all on their own is because of
the plants natural process of damage control, i.e. wound response.
Abscisic Acid is a stress hormone that plants use to automatically dieback
injured areas in response to wounding or disease such as occurs at the
severed end of a cutting. Adding additional hormone to a cut stem to induce
rooting is one method of counteracting this response, but essentially all
you are doing is disinfecting the area while providing enough additional
hormone to maybe (maybe not) develop more mass than the abscisic acid
released during the wound response can cope with. Eventually, if you're
successful, it's because you reach a point where the wounded area is either
partially closed, and/or the root material has eclipsed it, and abscisic
acid stops being produced.

Why explain all this? Because there is another method (already mentioned)
that works just as well without stressing the plant by forcing it to grow
both more mass as well as fight the effects of abscisic acid, willow water.
Someone already mentioned aspirin being the same thing, well it is and it
isn't.

Aspirin, which as we all know comes from the bark of the willow tree, does
contain one of what appears to be two necessary/active ingredients in
willow water for successful root incubation. This is Salicylic Acid.
Salicylic acid is an abscisic acid inhibitor. That's to say, not only will
it stop the affect of already present abscisic acid on wounds, but it stops
the wound response and production of abscisic acid all together. On top of
this it acts as an anti-coagulant keeping the fresh cut open and allowing
the cutting to wick much needed water and nutrients during this vital
stage.

The second vital ingredient, a substance that you won't get from aspirin,
is rhizocaline. A mysterious yet naturally occurring compound of what is
thought to be vitamins B, H, boron, sugar and/or other nitrogenous minerals
that act in conjunction with IAA, and IBS. Research has found that this is
the key catalyst to promoting root formation. All plants contain and use
it, but willow has such an abundance as to make it king of rhizocaline.

If extracted and used properly, willow water can be the most effective way
to produce rooted cuttings. There are many recipes for making it; leaving
willow branches in water for 4 weeks to root; steeping 6 inch willow
cuttings in cool water for 72 hours; or 1 inch cuttings for 24 hours;
boiling the cuttings; mashing and splitting the cuttings and brewing them
in bot recently boiled water. There are loads, and some of these may be
more (or less) effective than others. But to get the real expert's advice,
go to Dr. Makota Kawase who in the mid 1960's discovered rhizocaline by
experimenting with willow and has been developing the process ever since.

Dr. Kawase's advice: "cut current year's growth from any Salix species.
Then, remove the leaves and cut into one inch pieces. Place these right
side up (Eireann: direction is important since rhizocaline and IAA move
polarly down the stem of any cutting) in a glass, add 1/2" of hot water,
cover with a plastic bag and let sit 24 hours. Steep your cuttings in this
for and additional 24 hours, and then place in the rooting medium with or
without rooting hormone, as needed (Eireann: My suggestion is without). The
willow water may be stored in the refrigerator and covered to prevent
contamination, but is best used up within three days."

Additionally Dr. Kawase encourages the use of etoilation in promoting
rooting. Total darkness, he found, increased rooting "sharply" up to four
days, which is three days faster than anything I ever did with store bought
rooting hormone. The basal tips MUST be in darkness for rooting to occur.





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