Maximum Yield USA August 2017 | Page 58

featur boost your roots BOOST ROOTS YOUR THE SCIENCE OF ROOT PROMOTERS Though plants naturally produce their own root promoters, there are a variety of ways a motivated grower can stimulate root propagation safely and effectively. But which ones are most effective? Chris Bond explains how to separate the facts from the hype. T here are hundreds of products on the market claiming to stimulate, boost, enhance, or promote root growth, but with all the hype, how can you figure out what really works and what is a waste of your precious dollars? There are products on the market that are designed to stimulate root growth, but you need to know what you are looking for before getting suckered by pretty packaging and unverifiable claims. Why Use Root Promoters? Most growers, from hobbyists to professionals, use rooting promoters as a matter of course when propagating plants. It may make one ponder the need, though, since plants have evolved to develop root systems on their own (otherwise they would have gone extinct or never developed to begin with). While that is certainly true in nature, the propagation of plants introduces a wide range of variable and artificial conditions that a plant cutting’s natural counterpart may not ever encounter. The natural counterpart has the benefit of numerous symbiotic relationships with beneficial flora and fauna; they are also not operating on anyone’s time table but their own. 56 feature