# Root hormone?



## McBobs (Apr 26, 2007)

How do people here do cuttings off of different plants? I know that there is a root hormone that can be used to stimulate root growth, but so far on this board, i havent seen anyone mention it at all. Is there any trick to it that i should know about?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

No need for it.

Most of the time, vivarium plants form aerial roots, and when you take the cuttings, they already have roots, or at least the precursor to roots.


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## McBobs (Apr 26, 2007)

what do you mean by aerial roots?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

exactly how it sounds...roots coming out of the plant's stem, growing into the air.


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## roxrgneiss (Sep 30, 2007)

Even when aerial roots aren't present the high humidity, moist substrates, and temps above 70F usually do the trick and most plants will start rooting within days or a couple weeks for slower ones. There are few plants which can be propagated by cutting that have given me trouble in a viv - rooting outside of the viv has been a different story. Strangely, the hardest plant for me to root sometimes is creeping fig... really high humidity seems to be the key for it. Also, low light has been an issue for me a couple times.

Edit: As far as how to take a cutting, it depends on the plant. For many, like figs, peperomias, philodendrons, etc you can trim off a growing end with several leaves and lay it on moist substrate until it roots. If possible, have a couple nodes of the cutting touching the substrate too. Hope that answers the original question.

Mike


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Taking cuttings very much depends on the plants involved, and varies widely both by they plant type, and certain plants have certain genetic backgrounds that can only be preserved via certain types of "cuttings". It's not something easily explained as a whole, as it could be written in a small book! What plants in particular were you thinking about?

Rooting hormone... ahhh, always a fun topic. Some plant people use it religiously. I personally don't think it's worth the safety hazard (have any of you guys read the label?! Scary stuff!) especially since taking cuttings correctly for the plant involved and giving it the correct rooting environment does the job just as well for every plant I've tried to propagate so far. Also, rooting hormone has been said by some to put a little too much effort into rooting rather than leaf growth... not always a good thing.

Mike - another trick to try is to plan ahead a bit... with vines I'll sometimes cheat a bit and place the section I want to eventually trim on some sphagnum moss I want it to root on... rooting happens quickly on moist (mostly wrung out) sphagnum moss when the vine is still attacted to mom... after the roots are established, then I cut it from mom. Poof, perfectly rooted cutting, and it takes much less time to bounce back from being cut from mom. Root before cut


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## Leap (Mar 19, 2008)

Just read the label... Holy mother of brom!! :shock: That makes me want to toss it out!


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

Well, the hormone you are refering to is auxin, comes in liquid or powder forms... but as others have stated, there almost never is any use for it. I might try it on some of the harder to propogate species, most of which you probably wont have to worry about right now. Also, its not real good for even humans, so I dont even want to think about using it around amphibians. When they tell you to not get it on your skin, especially when working with the higher concentrations, that's usually a good indicator this wouldn't be a good option for our "canaries."

You can try air layering, which is essentially what Corey is talking about. Many people will do this for non tropical, or house plant bound plants as well. The usual method for outside the viv (if thats where you decide to do this) is to take moist spagnum and wrap it around a node (these are usually little bumps that you can see protruding from the stem, mostly where leaves connect to the stem) then take a plastic bag or saran wrap and wrap that around the moss first then a rubber band around the edges where the stem comes into the plastic. Just make sure it isnt too tight. If it is in viv, do just like Corey said, place some moss by one of these affore mentioned nodes. Even if you cant see them, with most common plants, if you just stick it by where couple sets of leaves attach, this is a pretty safe bet.

Generally though, as long as you have some air movement and it isnt soaking wet just about anything will root by cutting it off and laying it on some spagnum thats moist (not dripping wet.)

After that it's just a hair bit of patience. No auxin needed :mrgreen:


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## Leap (Mar 19, 2008)

Noticed something neat. I trimmed my pilea mollis a bit a couple weeks ago, mainly leaves that were cracking and not looking 100%. A couple were left on the viv floor. One fell in such a way that the stem is pointing up and the leaf laying flat.. and a dozen aerial roots have made their way from the stem to the floor, returning color to the damaged leaf.

Amazing.. making me look forward to my botany class.


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## Manuran (Aug 28, 2007)

I'm partly repeating what has been said already, but I'm going to post anyway 
Usually rooting hormone is needed when working with woody (stemmed) plants.
With the majority of commonly used terrarium plants(and even most uncommon ones) not falling under this category, the use of a rooting hormone is not needed. Although on occasion you come across a tough to propagate plant and a little help from rooting hormones is appreciated. Also, some of these have a fungicide added, which can also help.

So, if you can make a cutting with a few roots or a node or even just a stem or leaf (depends on the type of plant you are working with) and you lay it on some good media. Then your challenge is to keep it humid enough so that the cutting won't desiccate while it is trying to grow roots. You also don't want it so wet that it rots. That balance varies from plant to plant. Again, in most cases this can be achieved 
without a rooting hormone.


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

Manuran said:


> Usually rooting hormone is needed when working with woody (stemmed) plants. With the majority of commonly used terrarium plants(and even most uncommon ones) not falling under this category, the use of a rooting hormone is not needed.


Good point, forgot to mention this.


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## McBobs (Apr 26, 2007)

Okay....I now know what a "node" and "aerial roots" are, but when you guys say that you take a cutting from the node up and just lay if on moist sphagnum, is it really just that simple? There's no planting involved? I know that the new cutting may have few to no aerial roots yet, but just laying it on moist sphagnum will get it going? I'm sure that if this is the case, after the aerial roots have established themselves, if upright plants aren't standing upright, you'd have to plant it correctly, but this sounds much easier than i thought it was originally. 

By the way, I just bought a cheapo pothos because i thought it would be easiest to try my hand at propagation. The 2 plants that i bought already have some small aerial roots going and for the first time, i can see what you guys are talking about. As if it wasn't easy enough to grow pothos in the first place! :lol:


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

Pothos couldn't be easier to propagate in the viv! Take a cutting and place it in your viv- you will start seeing rooting within days.


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## housevibe7 (Sep 24, 2006)

Not always, but many times, you dont even need to replant them... A lot of times they will start to grow upright on their own if that is their usual habit. Although unless their anchor roots are strong enough sometimes they will get a bit wobbly.


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