How to Make Homemade Rooting Hormone?

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Do you want to get the most from your propagating efforts?

Then you may want to use a rooting hormone, which seriously increases the chance of propagation success.

The good news is that you don’t need to spend any money on a good rooting hormone. In fact, you may find the ingredients to make a homemade rooting hormone inside your kitchen cupboard…

How to Make Homemade Rooting Hormone?

Now, you can buy rooting hormone from most garden centres, but why spend money when you can make some with your own ingredients. The main ways to make a rooting hormone is with honey, willow, aloe vera, and rosemary. As most of you will have honey in your kitchen cupboard, this is the most recommended method. In fact, I’ve found that making a honey rooting hormone to be just as effective as the shop-bought rooting hormones.

Honey Rooting Hormone Recipe

  1. Boil 400ml of water
  2. Mix in one tablespoon of honey (raw is best)
  3. Optional step – add in one teaspoon of cinnamon
  4. Once thoroughly mix, although the solution to cool
  5. When the solution has reached room temperature, you can dip your cuttings into the mixture before placing into soil or water

Honey is a natural rooting hormone that works due to its anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. Essentially, a honey rooting hormone will protect the cutting from negative pathogens.

What Is Rooting Hormone?

Rooting hormone is a solution that stimulates and protects new roots. It increases the chance of successful propagation. Although not all plants require additional help, using rooting hormone makes it easier to cuttings into full-grown plants.

How to Apply Rooting Hormone?

Applying rooting hormone isn’t too difficult, but there are a few steps to remember if you want to get the most from your new formulation.

Step 1: Collect cuttings

Use sterilized scissors to make 45-degree cuts towards the bottom of the stem. Move onto step 2 once you have collected a handful of cuttings

Step 2: Make your rooting hormone

Follow the steps in this guide to make your homemade rooting hormone. Make sure the solution is fresh or kept in a sealed container to avoid contamination

Step 3: Apply the hormone

Dip the cuttings into the rooting hormone one by one. The honey should stick to the bottom of the stem

Step 4: Plant the cuttings

With your honey rooting hormone now dripping from your cutting, it is time to plant the cutting into soil. I recommend using organic peat moss for your soil. Start by making a small hole in the middle of the soil, and then place the cutting inside, being careful not to rub the honey off as you do so.

Step 5: Allow the cuttings to root

Now your cuttings have been planted, you need to look after them. This means making sure they are moist at all times. The lack of roots means the cutting will struggle to take in the water they need.

Types of Rooting Hormone

Liquid

Liquid is the most commonly used rooting hormone around the world. This product comes in two different types, which are concentrate and standard-strength. The first you dilute with some water, whereas the second can be poured straight onto the root.

We don’t recommend dipping the root straight into the bottle, as this can spread contamination between different batches of root.

Concentrated rooting hormone is more work to apply, but it works out a lot cheaper than buying a bottle of the ready-to-use stuff.

Gel

Gel rooting hormone is extremely convenient and easy to use. Simply pour the gel into a container, dip your cutting into the gel, and then plant your cutting. Gel sticks to the root extremely well.

Powder

This type of rooting hormone is ideal for the hobbyist who plans to use their rooting hormone for a long duration. It doesn’t go bad as quick as gel and liquid rooting hormone.

It’s a simple process of dipping your cuttings into water, sprinkle some powder on top, and then plant your cuttings.