Survival Gardeners Headache: How to make your own plant propagating hormone? Aspirin is the Answer!

Hello!

I was reading a thread on the BTS side of ATS ...

16 fruit & veg that you can grow from scraps

... and I wondered if I could improve my chances by using a plant rooting hormone and could I make that hormone myself?

After a short while researching I came up with the following ...

Cutting (plant)

If the plant is unlikely to grow then a rooting hormone to "encourage" the plant to grow and mature may be administered. Though not essential, several compounds may be used to promote the formation of roots through the signaling activity of plant hormone auxins, and is helpful with especially hard plant species. Among the commonly used chemicals is indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) used as a powder, liquid solution or gel. This compound is applied either to the cut tip of the cutting or as a foliar spray. Rooting hormone can be manufactured naturally - one method is to soak the yellow-tipped shoots of a weeping willow tree in water, or to prepare a tea from the bark of a willow tree. When using the shoots or bark, they should be soaked for 24 hours prior to using. Honey, though it does not contain any plant hormones, can also aid in rooting success through its antiseptic quality.

Indole-3-butyric acid

Since IBA is not soluble in water, it is typically dissolved in 75% or purer alcohol for use in plant rooting, making a solution of between 10,000 to 50,000 ppm. This alcohol solution is then diluted with distilled water to the desired concentration. IBA is also available as a salt, which is soluble in water. The solution should be kept in a cool, dark place for best results.

This compound had been thought to be strictly synthetic; however, it was reported that the compound was isolated from leaves and seeds of maize and other species. In maize IBA has been shown to be synthesized in vivo using IAA and other compounds as precursors. This chemical may also be extracted from any of the Salix (Willow) genus.

Willow (Salix)

Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft, usually pliant, tough wood, slender branches, and large, fibrous, often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to life, and roots readily grow from aerial parts of the plant.

The leaves and bark of the willow tree have been mentioned in ancient texts from Assyria, Sumer and Egypt as a remedy for aches and fever, and in Ancient Greece the physician Hippocrates wrote about its medicinal properties in the fifth century BC. Native Americans across the Americas relied on it as a staple of their medical treatments. It provides temporary pain relief. Salicin is metabolized into salicylic acid in the human body, and is a precursor of aspirin. In 1763, its medicinal properties were observed by the Reverend Edward Stone in England. He notified the Royal Society, which published his findings. The active extract of the bark, called salicin, was isolated to its crystalline form in 1828 by Henri Leroux, a French pharmacist, and Raffaele Piria, an Italian chemist, who then succeeded in separating out the compound in its pure state. In 1897, Felix Hoffmann created a synthetically altered version of salicin (in his case derived from the Spiraea plant), which caused less digestive upset than pure salicylic acid. The new drug, formally acetylsalicylic acid, was named Aspirin by Hoffmann's employer Bayer AG. This gave rise to the hugely important class of drugs known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Using ASA (Aspirin) in plant Culture

So aspirin can be used as a plant rooting hormone!

Phew! That is one less headache to worry about!

reply to post by ZonedOut


My wife and I use willow (particularly the buds) as a rooting hormone all of the time( there are more salycilates in the bud than the bark). We grow it in between our elderberry trees(stops viruses from replicating, 15000 ORAC units /fresh 100 grams, wine) and use it on snapped off elder twigs to get them to root. No need for the actual aspirin. Willow can also be used to grow a living shapable hedge, where you can weave the branches an any number of patterns and they grow rapidly.

Wouldn't mulched poplar leaves do the same thing? How about mulched birch leaves? They are both high in silicates. and they grow around here.

They actually use aspirin in a Bayer products to bring the fungicide into the tree. I use this sometimes. It protects the trees against some bugs also, and as long as you do not consume the fruit it is ok. Overusing the product is not good, it kills the symbiotic fungus in the soil which many trees need to fix nitrogen. A little to control overburdened fungus's is good, it did wonders for my big oak tree in the yard, there were weird mushrooms around it and too much of them. I use it about half the strength and dose that they say to do, don't want sick deer and squirrels. I do not know the composition of the soils here.

Aspirin allows minerals to flow into the plant better. Each plant has DNA that tells it what nutrients it can take up. Some plants take up arsenic, like rice and apples and some pit fruit trees. By giving these plants aspirin they can pull up more of these mineral complexes in them also. So the content of these undesirable minerals in the soils is very important.

I am thinking that since the rutabaga takes up bromides that giving aspirin to the rutabaga may increase this element in them. Bromide has some good medicinal properties when consumed occasionally, it can calm people and is the basis of some medicines that calm people. Now increasing the concentration of this may not be a good thing, especially if you eat it more often. Messing with things without examining all the evidence can cause problems.

I think that cyanide increases in some fruits with aspirin also. Although our bodies do not break apart many types of cyanide, based on the enzyme combinations that most people have, they can become a problem if too much soil amendments are done also. If we break down a cyanide compound, it makes us extremely thirsty and the thirst is not easily quenched. If our kidneys are working well, the added water will flush the cyanide out. I am not afraid of cyanide, I know how it works. If we consume more cyanides, we pee more....this can cause electrolyte problems though. Cyanocobalamin has this effect, methylcobolamin does not. Cyanides do help us make energy though in the right forms. Methyl cobolamin does not give us more energy for some reason.

It all depends on what your desires are. One man's poison is another man's medicine.

reply to post by ZonedOut


Great thread and thank you for bringing this to my attention! S&F! Always wondered what the rooting gel contains. Won't be using that costly product anymore!