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[PermieGing]

http://deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/home-made-plant-rooting-hormone-willow-water/

-this article goes fairly in depth about the many uses of the willow tree, one of which is a base for a rooting solution. Enjoy

" “Willow Water” is a homebrew plant rooting hormone that is easily made and can be used to increase the strike rate (growth of roots) of cuttings that you’re trying to propagate.

The way that it works can be attributed to two substances that can be found within the Salix (Willow) species, namely, indolebutyric acid (IBA) and Salicylic acid (SA)."

"Coppicing a willow (that is cutting it back to ground level) will result in numerous rods growing from the base that will grow at an amazing rate of 1.2-3.0m in a single season. A broken willow branch left in water will grow roots. Willows successfully root from very thick pieces of stem, this method is known as taking “trunk cuttings”, and a stem as thick as a human thigh will take root of put into damp ground. Willow cuttings can even grow if put in upside-down (but please do the right thing and put them in the right way up)! This property of willows is due to the naturally occurring plant rooting hormones that they contain. We can take advantage of this naturally occurring hormone, and make extracts that we can use to induce rooting on cuttings of other plants."

6 Likes Mandrake, Seed Collector, hereje, Da-1, Divinorum and 1 more people like this.

[Sunshine]

Good article. I've known about this for a while. I'd love to have a willow tree in the back of my yard for this purpose. From what I remember, the growing tips have the most rooting hormone.

[PermieGing]

My dad pointed out a wild willow tree the other day on a walk. Ill see if it has seeds later

[New Wisdom]

Sweet. I have a willow tree. I'll have to try this.

[Sunshine]

It would be best to grind up the tips as much as possible and soak them for 1 week+ to make sure all the goodies come out. ^^

[PermieGing]

The article says its debateable as to whether or not to steep the stems first.

Id think grinding/blending, steep, then pour into a jar for a week could be best. Apparently the solution can be stored for a month until it goes bad, but maybe longer in certain conditions?!?
Maybe an evap to a resin could help the goodies last longer?
Then one could just dilute the resin to whatever concentration when ready to use

[Sunshine]

What do you mean it goes bad? Like gets mold and stuff? I think a little propylene glycol or alcohol could solve that or maybe the addition of some type of anti-microbial oil...

[fairdinkumseeds]

If you cut a piece about 2foot long and as thick as your thumb, stick it in a pot of soil with high clay amount(at least40%), then sit the pot on a plate of water it will strike every time no matter what, all year round.(make sure you put them in the soil the right way up or they look mangled when they grow out.)
Used to sell them at the markets so if you can find just 1 tree over there, you should be able to start hundreds. The cuts store for a month or so just in a cool dry place too, so you can head out into the scrub collect a couple hundred drag them back, and pot them up over a few weeks.
Old folks would buy them and cut the shoots and juice them as needed when rooting roses mainly.
1 little plant on the windowsill regularly tipped should keep you going indefiantely I'd say.
Like a lot of things, they made them a weed over here as they grow too easily and choke the waterways with big mats of roots.

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[Sunshine]

What exact species of willow should be used? Pussy willow or weeping willow?

[PermieGing]

The article says any species of the salix genus can be used

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[Divinorum]

Wow. Glad to find this article. Thanks! Will definitely get some willow productions started

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[hummus]

So I did a bit of a plant trial with rosemary cuttings a while back:
12 semi-softwood cuttings of each:
1 control
1 with 'strike-2' bayer chemicals
1 with boiled macerated willow shoots
1 with soaked macerated willow shoots
All cuttings were taken at the same time and shoots soaked overnight floating on top of dishes of the above solutions on cardboard floaters.
and long story short all the willow ones died and the control and chemical ones did fine
What I think probably happened was that I used too much willow (about 1 cup full to 1L water) and either:
pH was too low and too acidic and simply killed it
or the iba/salicylate levels were too high and it overstimulated the plants acting as a weedkiller.
So watch your concentrations and hopefully I can get another trial done soon with different concentrations to quantify the effectiveness.

1 Like Greentoe likes this.

[PermieGing]

Thanks for sharing!

I think more experimenting would definitely clarify the matter.

[zeker]

I have corkscrew willow and dapple willow that i  grew from cuttings last yr/ once the snow gets gone, i will see how well they survived the winter but i suspect they should have been fine because we had lotsa snow b4 we got serious cold.

[Carnival]

Salicylic acid you say...

I wonder what would happen if I threw a crushed up an aspirin tablet in a cup of water and tried to root a plant in that...

1 Like New Wisdom likes this.