I have been conducting some rooting experiments indoors this summer. My objective was to try to determine the effectiveness of several substances touted to improve rooting results and to achieve an acceptable rooting percentage indoors. I was able to achieve both to my satisfaction. The substances I used in the experiments were water for a control, Captan 50% WP, Miracle Gro plus Baking soda, Miracid, Consan Triple Action 20, Hydrogen Peroxide and Honey.
All the experiments were conducted indoors in an almost clear Rubber Maid container that states in the label that it measures 15.24
When rooting indoors in the propagation chamber, the pot containing the planting media was placed inside another pot of the same size with a
The control group received only tap water and the results were poor resulting in less than 50% takes. . Cuttings receiving a mix of 1 oz Hydrogen peroxide/19 oz water were approximately equal to the control. Both the cuttings misted daily with a mixture of 1 teaspoon honey/quart water and a mixture of 1/8 teaspoon Miracid/quart had a lower success rate than the control. Cutting receiving 1/8 teaspoon Miracle Gro plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda/quart and the cuttings sprayed with a
Very successful rootings consistently occurred when the cuttings were disinfected with the Consan Triple Action 20 prior to sticking and the media was saturated with the Captan mixture and the cuttings were fertilized weekly after the first week with the Miracle Gro/ Baking soda mixture. Consan Triple Action 20 is basically agricultural grade Lysol and should not be confused with the fungicide Triple Action. I suspect that a diluted bleach or a diluted Lysol solution could be an effective disinfectant to help prevent rot, but I have not experimented with either.
The amount of available light seems to limit the speed of the rooting and quicker results were consistently achieved outdoors under the intermittent system. The fungicide Captan 50 consistantly yielded higher percentage takes whether used indoors or outdoors. The results were equally high when 1/8 teaspoon Captan WP 50 was placed on top of the media prior to wetting the media.
It is my hope that you may be able to find some useful information in these results and use this information to perform additional experiments to custom fit a rooting procedure that meets your situation. Your comments and suggestions are invited and welcomed.
How do you protect your lungs when misting indoors with Captan?
Very good point Henry, I used precautions outdoors when mixing the product, but not indoors when misting the plants. I have read the label several times and could not find a recommended precaution for spraying other than allowing contact with the product. The indoor mist was one reason that I switched to drenching the media in later experiments. I should add that I recommend everyone read and follow all label directions when using all products.
Thanks for the reminder.