Root Stimulator

[chrisa]

Hello everyone,

What are your thoughts on using a root stimulator on newly acquired cattleya divisions?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

[Cjcorner]

When I receive new divisions I soak them in a container of warm water with; physan, superthrive or kln (to help with roots) and I also add a tablespoon of honey per 3 liters of water...or just slightly less than a tablespoon in a half gallon. The water needs to be room temperature to enable the roots to easily take up the nutrients. Any plant coming into your collection will also need to be evaluated for possible bugs, and if needed you can also add a systemic bug killer into the soak. Others have different methods...and after awhile you will develop your own mixtures as well. No one thing works for everyone...and sometimes what has worked in the past has to be changed up when bugs become immune to what you are using.

[orchidbaby]

Sounds complicated! All that work
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[pipsxlch]

I started using a liquid fertilizer/root stimulator (auxin) product this spring. I can't say for sure that it's that product being used with new plants and as a general fertilizer, or the wet summer we've had (maybe even that I'm better able to pay attention to them in this place than before), but I have seen a noticeable positive result- in both the newbies and ones that have been with me for years.

[tucker85]

I always use a root stimulator on my orchids. My favorite is Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed. I use it at a rate of one ounce (2 tablespoons) per gallon of water, every two weeks. I recommend you only use one root stimulating product or you can give the plant too much. Superthrive, Mega Thrive, KLN and Maxicrop are all root stimulators.

[stateless]

I second the seaweed

[gardenguysorchids]

And here is a third on the seaweed. Talk about a miricle root stimulator! You can almost see new roots grow.

[raybark]

I have been a proponent of auxins for a long time, as they stimulate the growth of roots. I started with SuperThrive, and got mixed results, then later moved to K-L-N.

I have surmised that the "mixed success" is due to degradation of the synthetic hormones in those products. If you get nice, freshly made stuff, they are great. If it is old, has been exposed to sunlight, or stored at elevated temperature, they degrade rapidly. Dave Neal, owner (former owner?) of Dyna-Gro, told me that a fresh batch, stored cool and dark, will remain active for about a year. Stored at room temperature, maybe six months. Keep the bottle in the greenhouse (as I used to do), and it can be as little as a few weeks. Don't disregard the conditions to which material is exposed when shipped from the factory, and when stored at distributors and retailers, as they can affect the efficacy as well.

About three years ago I started resaearching kelp/seaweed extracts, and learned that a lot of the same concepts apply, but as we're dealing with natural sources of the hormone, in addition to storage concerns, one has to look at the processing used to extract the active chemicals.

Some seaweed materials are crushed, shredded, enzyme-etracted, pressed, or cooked - all of which can degrade the solution right away, and any that are dried products get even further degraded. There is a product made in South Africa called Kelpak that is cold, vacuum extracted, and they add a preservative to it to give it a lot longer shelf life (they state "at least two years"). It is sold in the US as KelpMax, and I tried it on my plants about 18 month ago with astounding results.

This is a vascostylis a few weeks after a single treatment:

[stateless]

thanks for the info, especially storage, something I know I have to work on.

[orchidsal]

Great thread and I'm readily convinced of the use of 'good' Kelp Extract. Havr ordered some. AL