To make a natural organic rooting powder to use when taking cuttings you will need to find a willow tree, any of the Salix species is fine.
Cut off some of this years growth, remove the leaves and cut into one inch pieces. Place these right side/way up (direction is important since rhizocaline- catalyst to promoting root formation travels down the stem of any cutting) in a glass, add 1/2″ of hot water, cover with a plastic bag and let sit 24 hours. Steep your cuttings in this for 24 hours, and then place in the rooting medium. The willow water may be stored in the fridge and covered to prevent contamination, but is best used up within three days.
Ive used this method many times and had excellent results. Also another method I use, which comes in dead handy if your out and about is to take the cutting and lick your clean fingers and gently rub them over the end of the cutting. Not sure why or how this works but it does.
If you have any other organic gardening tips we could use on our allotment please let us know.
Willow does get results – but I didn’t know why. I’ve just used cold water but I ‘m going to try making the tea using hot water as you do. Interesting about your second method – never heard of it before and will try it out. Thanks for the tip.
Find a willow that is growing on the side of a river. put your hand in the water and pull the willow root tips. put in a bucket. pund them into a mulsh. i useally can smell a distinctive smell when crushing them. soak in cold water fo an hour. use the water, or take the muched roots, and use them as’floor’ to where you will transplant to.
Top tip – thanks aj
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[…] If you’ve got a willow tree, you can make your own organic rooting hormone treatment – willow tea – by cutting up young willow branches and leaving them to soak in water for a while. I don’t […]
willow is absolutely phenomenal!!
The reason is quite simple: willow has a superabundance of growth hormones in its young branches because it has adapted to lose them easily in a storm so that they get washed downstream and take root on a mud bank. These hormones are common to most plants (pretty much all trees, anyway) and so we can transfer them usefully to any cutting we like. Simples!
I put what I think are White Willow leaves & branches in a large pot with hot water to make my rooting hormone. Does willow smell like tea tree oil? Even though the leaves look similar to a tea tree, I don’t think tea trees are very large, as the tree I took the branches from.
yeah smells like witch hazel i think theyre are similair plants produces the base substance for aspirin but in smaller quantities i think
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I don’t know what willow tea is. So explain bit with a picture
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I saw this after coming up with my own method. I took the leaves and the young stalks and blended them with the NutriBullet. I dunked the cuttings in this juice before I planted them in coconut husk pots. Then, i sat the coconut husk pots in a saucer of this juice. Do you think this will work? Others I am rooting in water with some of this willow slurp.
I’m reporting back to tell you of my progess – it worked incredibly on goji berry twigs, passion fruit, and raspberry as well as tomatoes.
Two months ago I left a willow cutting in the same jar as grape vine cutting, not on purpose, just because there was free space in the jar at the time and in this period the grape vine developed absolutely insane root growth.