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Homemade Rooting Hormone – 7 Recipes to Make Your Own

By Annie

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 Homemade rooting hormone is ideal for propagating plants and shrubs – here are 7 recipes to make your own!

There are plenty of different ways to make homemade rooting hormone. These are used to help significantly improve the growth of roots when you’re cloning a plant or growing from root cuttings, a stem cutting or leaves, such as begonias or primroses.

While I typically use willow water for my organic rooting hormone, sometimes these other options prove to be easier for a lot of gardeners. If you’re interested in growing healthier and stronger roots, then check out these different ways to make homemade DIY rooting hormone today!

Homemade Rooting Hormone – Different Ways to Make Your Own

Rooting hormone on end of plant cutting being placed in soil.
Rooting hormone recipes that make propagating plants successful.

We’ve got seven different recipes for making rooting hormone for plants listed below. So make one (or more) of these recipes and give it a try. Want to buy it instead? We’ve even got a recommendation for what we feel is the best root hormone available on the market and you can buy it online.

How can I make natural rooting hormone at home?

You can use the below ingredients to make do it yourself rooting hormone at home and increase your chances of success when propagating plant cuttings. I have listed a handful of ways to maximize your root growth from cuttings with simple supplies most of you have at home.

Honey Rooting Hormone

A honey pot and honey stick with summer flowers on rustic wooden table
Honey works well for plant propagation.

To make honey rooting hormone you’ll need to place 1 tablespoon of honey into 2 cups of boiling water. Allow this mixture to cool and store inside an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. You’ll need to store this honey rooting hormone away from light when storing it for later use.

Apple Cider Vinegar Rooting Hormone

You’ll want to be careful when using apple cider vinegar for homemade rooting hormone; too much will kill the plant. Mix 3 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar into one gallon of water.

You’ll need to keep this stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Then, when you are ready to use, dip your plants into the apple cider vinegar rooting hormone and transfer them to a rooting medium.

Using Aspirin 

While this option isn’t as natural as the other options, using aspirin as a rooting hormone is doable for people who may not have access to use the other more natural mixtures right now.

You’ll add one regular strength 325 mg aspirin to 1 gallon of warm water. You’ll need to let your cuttings soak in this liquid rooting hormone for several hours before planting.

Aloe Vera Rooting Hormone

Aloe vera leaves cut sit in a bowl, with the gel exposed.
Fresh aloe leaves and aloe gel can be used for rooting plant cuttings.

Take some of the natural gel from your aloe vera plant and place it in the blender with some water. You’ll only need a little aloe vera gel and a little water mixed together.

Then take root rooting hormone and allow the cuttings to soak in this blended-up mixture for several hours before transferring to your potting soil.

Using Saliva 

Homemade Rooting Hormone Recipes with cut aloe leaves
Aloe Vera can be used for propagating new shrubs and plants.

This is one of the options that may not be as fantastic as some of my other recommendations, but using saliva on plants works. I’ve heard of people licking their cuttings to help enhance root growth, but that could take hours!

Instead, simply spit on the bottom of the cuttings and place in your root medium to use this saliva homemade rooting hormone option.

Willow Water Rooting Hormone

A weeping willow tree growing by a pond.
The stems of willows make an excellent rooting hormone.

This is by far my favorite homemade rooting hormone option; willow water or willow tea as some may call it. It’s a little trickier to make homemade willow water, but you can follow my DIY willow water rooting hormone recipe here. If you’ve got access to willow trees, try it!

Using Cinnamon

Cinnamon as a rooting hormone works best along with some other method, so this is used in conjunction with one of the homemade natural rooting hormone options listed. This spice will help naturally fight off fungus and bacteria on your cuttings so that the roots can grow healthy. You can mix a little cinnamon with your willow water or apple cider vinegar to maximize root growth.

 

Shrub cutting dipped in rooting hormone.
Our favourite brand of rooting hormone.

You can purchase commercial rooting hormones from a local nursery or an online garden shop. This brand of rooting hormone is excellent (we think it’s the best rooting hormone available commercially). We used this years ago when we grew an entire laurel hedge from cuttings. Want to see how we did it? For under $10 at the time, we grew an entire fast growing hedge.

You can also buy various types of rooting hormone powder, like these brands. However using natural remedies to boost root growth from cuttings is an ideal option for keeping the plants healthy and minimizing the pesticides or non-natural poisons that can be included in some store-bought rooting hormone options.

Use any of these homemade rooting hormone recipes to grow plants from cuttings this year.

I hope that this list of different ways to make organic rooting hormone has encouraged you to think of new ways to boost root growth with your cuttings. 

Rooting solution used on a now growing healthy berry bush.
DIY Plant Rooting Solution Recipes

 

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