Rooting cuttings with honey - Is it the bees knees?
Ooh, I love plants and want so many plants that every space I see needs a plant in it. preferably an edible one too. This could get expensive or take a long time to establish from seeds so let's talk about rooting cuttings.
What are cuttings
Cuttings are a piece of the plant either the stem, leaves or root could be used. Certain plants do better-taking cuttings from certain parts of the plant so it's worth reading up on the specific plant you want to take cuttings from.
Why use a rooting hormone.
Just to be clear many of the plants you would look to clone in the garden may do just fine without using rooting supplements. However, if you've tried you'll know that rooting cuttings isn't always easy. When I first started gardening it was common for my cuttings to shrivel up and die which is never fun. This can be down to a few things but its often an issue of disease or infection due to the cutting process.
One things the rooting hormone often contain are ingredients aimed at stopping this bacteria while the plant has a chance to recover.
Another key ingredient is auxin. This hormone is what influences water absorption as well cell division and other things.
Why not just buy a commercial rooting hormone
I have done in the past, i tend to use an organic one by westland but man does it smell and as i learn more i like to work with less and this is where the super properties of honey may come to help this quest with plant cuttings and sustainability.
This stuff may be great for plant cuttings but it smells like death!
What makes honey a good substitute.
Honey has some great natural anti-septic and anti fungal properties that could really help protect those plant cutting during this process.
its also much more readily available to people and has so many more uses than the specific rooting hormones available to growers
I use half a tea spoon of natural honey mixed in to a cup of warm water till dissolved then allow to cool, ill then leave the cutting in for a few hours to hopefully let them absorb the goodness.
Some people use the honey neat and dip the cuttings in but i want to stretch my honey as far as possible as its so so tasty, and i don't have my own bee's (i'm wish i could find a space for a hive or two)
My rooting cuttings with honey experience!
Its been a bit of a learning curve, one thing I've noticed as it doesn't contain auxin its much slower. previous experience of plant cuttings and commercial rooting hormones have seen roots start to grow in a few days. With honey this can be 7+ as its main benefit is to stop the things that would harm the plant.
However the success rate seems higher than just water alone, maybe i need to do some controlled tests and actually work out if this is fact or my wishful thinking.
Have any of you had success with honey or other home made rooting solutions?
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All the best
D.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://electronicgarden.co.uk/2019/03/26/rooting-cuttings-with-honey-is-it-the-bees-knees/
Whilst I can't prove it, I've had sucess with honey too. I just like the fact you don't need to go buy it or pay for the packaging bollocks. Look at that gorgeous basil with the roots! Well done there - you're going to have an awesome plant very soon! Basil au go go!
Thanks, and i agree if it works ok and i've got it to hand im happy need to test on some more hard to root plants soon. i will have a basil forest soon!!
Can't go wrong with a basil forest!
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it would be interesting to see it vs water, I bought some of the commercial rooting hormone but reading the label made me not even want to touch it much less dip plants into it. I find cuttings do well in potting soil that's formulated for seed starts or cuttings.
Bee hives on a platform on the greenhouse. Like a small deck or something up a couple meters with stairs so you can access it. That way it's not taking up ground space.
Love this, ill have to start planning my greenhouse loft extension for the bees 😅
Tell the wife I'm sorry for giving you a new idea! ;)
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I had never thought of using honey before, absolutely love this idea - thank you for sharing!
It´s a very nice idea to use honney for rooting cuttings. I´ve never proven honey in this purpose, instead I´ve used Aloe vera, it produces excelent results. Have you proven aloe?
Interesting choice to use on roots, IMO. As you mentioned, honey has antifungal properties and root systems rely heavily on fungal relationships. Wouldn’t you want something that harbors beneficial microbial health?
Great post though, thanks for getting me thinking!
Hey @alchemage when i looked heavily in to fruit trees i learnt alot about the symbiotic relation between root systems and fungi etc so i agree with you, but i think in this instance id rather have something to protect from the damaging bacteria/fungus while they recover from the cutting process and the natural rooting process takes place
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Basil roots readily in plain water ;) Use some hard or softwood cutting from a berry bush for example and set up a control - 10 with distilled water, 10 with added honey. The best results this far we've gotten using cut willow branches added in the water.
I have used willow tips infusion for rooting bay laurel and it worked well.
I know it does but its all i had on the go 😅 willow sounds like a great substitute as it has Auxin in it which is just what plants need to root. I need to find a free source of it though. im keen to do more tests with softwood cuttings of gooseberries and currants that i want to clone this year so its on my list.
Currants root very easily as well, stuck directly in the soil, in a shady area, thick straw mulch. Last year I had 60-something out of 70 cuttings take root!
Gosh, that's so simple! Ill have to give this a try and it's something we've always got in the house. I've added this post in the Homesteaders - Living Naturally, newsletter.
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Great post @digitaldan! I have used honey in the past as well and I have had roots sprout from cuttings with honey. However, I have brought it up in plant propagation talks and was told that honey isn't a rooting hormone but it is antibacterial. So I am not sure what to believe! Now I have access to willow and am using willow water. It would be interesting to see if you did do some controlled tests, what the results are. Those roots sure do look nice!
Hey @sagescrub thanks for stopping by! Looking at the post i could of possibly made it clearer that the honey isnt a rooting hormone as it doesnt contain auxin that encourages cell stretching and root root growth unlike the willow you mention which does. From what ive seen the honeys main purpose is to protect the from bacteria as you were told, while the plant does it natural thing and sprouts roots so may not be the best choice for hard to root plants. Im trying to find some local willow trees that i can use as a comparison and use nothing as a control. Exciting times and hopefully a plant forest soon 😅
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That makes a lot of sense now... thanks for clearing it up for me :)
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