boost your roots
“
IT IS BENEFICIAL to add vitamin
B1 to sterile media where there is no
natural thiamine for the plant to use,
but there are few other situations
where it is actually needed.”
Vitamin B1
You don’t have to look hard in the root promoting marketplace
to find thiamine (vitamin B1), which is touted as either the
ultimate root growth stimulator or as a cure-all for transplant
shock. There are no verifiable studies to support these claims.
Plant research in the mid-20th century considered several
auxins that were mixed with vitamin B1 and these compounds
were indeed found to promote root growth. It has repeatedly
been proven since that it was the auxins alone responsible for
the root development, not the thiamine.
Vitamin B1 does have a place in plant development,
however, but it is usually abundant enough in nature
that additional doses are unnecessary. It is beneficial to
add vitamin B1 to sterile media where there is no natural
thiamine for the plant to use, but there are few other
situations where it is actually needed.
Organic and Non-chemical Alternatives
If you are concerned about using artificial hormones or
just aren’t sure which product to use, you can make your
own organic root promoter by using willow tree branches
and leaves. Fast-growing trees like willow produce large
amounts of auxins. Willow tea, or willow water as it is
called by some, is easily prepared with young, thin, willow
branches. To make a gallon of willow tea, cut four cups worth
of thin branches with leaves into one to two-inch sections.
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