Garden Safe Take Root Rooting Hormone

I am 73 and my interest in propagating plants of all kinds began when I was in grade school. Since then, I have propagated a multitude of different varieties, both with and without using rooting hormones. Like all other living things, they have a desire to survive. The rooting hormone, though, is not a magic powder. You have to learn how to prepare cuttings, and each plant species can differ in the method or rooting medium used. Many of the soft stemmed plants root easily with or without a rooting hormone - for example basil, African violet leaves, or others with soft stems. For this type of cutting, it's a good idea to put a gallon baggie over the plant and pot to create a greenhouse effect, especially if the cutting has larger leaves. For plants that have woody stems, a rooting hormone helps a lot in the production of roots before the leaves dry out. For all cutting, there are basic techniques that help to ensure success. Don't try to root a cutting that is too large as the leaves will die before the cutting can grow enough roots to support them. In general, a cutting should be no larger than 6-7 inches as the leaves should be removed from the bottom 3 inches or so. New roots will start growing at the leaf nodes (where the leaves come out of the stems). The very bottom of the cutting should be cut at a 45 degree angle as it allows more area for water absorption by the cutting. Soft stem cuttings do well in potting soil, but woody cuttings do better in a soil-less medium that retains moisture without being soggy or wet. A soil-less medium, such as coconut coir, also drains well. I don't recommend rooting cuttings in water since water roots are thicker and more fibrous than soil roots. When plants rooted in water are planted in soil, they have to grow new roots to adapt to living in soil. This usually isn't a problem for soft stemmed cutting that easily grow roots, but it can kill woody or hard-stemmed varieties. Since using this rooting hormone, I have rooted 36 Genovese basil cuttings, 12 pineapple sage cuttings, 5 rosemary cuttings, 5 thyme cuttings, 3 green sage cuttings, 2 lemon basil cuttings, and a number of cherry tomato cuttings. 100% of these cutting survived and grew. Prior to using this rooting hormone, I still had a good success rate with most of these, but the success rate was not quite as good. I also, had not tried to root some of the woody cutting, such as lemon basil, prior to getting this rooting hormone. By using this hormone, both of my lemon basil cuttings grew. To put all of this in a nutshell, a rooting hormone of any kind is not going to magically work without proper preparation of the cutting, consideration of the plant species, and consideration of the best rooting medium for the species. All things considered, I would definitely recommend this rooting hormone as an aid to successfully rooting cuttings of any plant species. To use this rooting hormone, simply prepare the cutting as described above, moisten the end of the cutting, dip it into the rooting powder, tap off the excess, insert the cutting at least 3-4 inches into the soil in a hole made by a pencil or potato baking stake, water until water comes out the bottom of the pot, and cover the cutting and pot with a gallon baggie that has holes cut at the top for air circulation. If done properly, the cutting may wilt the first couple of days, but it will come back as the roots develop. If you grow herbs outdoors in the summer and want to have them available for the winter, this is a great way to produce new plants that can also be planted outdoors next summer. You will also have fresh herbs for the winter. I have included pictures of a few of the plants I have rooted using this hormone. UPDATE 7/27/21: I have been using this rooting hormone for over a year, and root quite a few cuttings rather than starting plants from seed since this produces larger plants more quickly. In this time, I have used less than half of the jar of rooting hormone. I have found that it is not at all necessary to dampen the stem of the cutting before dipping it into the powder. More than enough sticks to the stem, and it is still necessary to tap off the excess. Using this rooting hormone, I have had 100% success in rooting all of my cuttings. The latest cuttings I have rooted are thyme, lemon thyme, pineapple sage, rosemary, basil, Greek oregano, spicy oregano, Italian oregano, garden sage, and a few others. Rooting new plants with this hormone has been so successful, I would never use another one. I hope this review was helpful for you. I will update the review if I have other helpful ideas.