Rooting hormone
Bewurzelungshormone also Bewurzelungspulver mentioned are powders or tablets, and aqueous solutions or gels based on potassium hydroxide neutralized polyacrylic acid which a precisely metered amount of synthetic plant hormones and fillers or solvents contained.
Active ingredients and filler
Rooting powder mostly contains rooting hormones belonging to the group of auxins :
- Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)
- 4- (Indol-3-yl) butyric acid (Indol-3-butyric acid, IBA)
- 1-naphthylacetic acid (NAA)
- The filler is mostly talc . In the case of talc as a carrier, preparations with concentrations of 0.1 to 2 percent by mass are commercially available.
use
Rooting hormones are used in the vegetative propagation of plants, since many plants can only be propagated poorly or not in a single variety via seeds, but such plants can usually be propagated vegetatively. The callus and root formation are significantly improved. The hormones promote the rooting of freshly sown plants or cuttings . Above all, plants that are not native to a certain area (e.g. tropical ornamental plants in Central Europe) can be grown better this way. Numerous plants, which normally cannot be propagated by cuttings, can be stimulated to develop roots using rooting hormones.
dosage
An overdose of rooting hormones leads to root degradation and death of the cuttings.
Tissue cultures
The same hormones are also used in tissue cultures to induce the formation of the roots.