Rooting Hormones / Auxines: How much IAA into Rooting-Powder?

[Twilight Person]

Hello there

I aquired some IAA = Indol Acetic Acid

That is a phyto hormon that would shorten the time for cuttings to create roots. Apparently people mix it with talkum or sulfur or any other *drying powder* which they apply on a cutting after cutting to not only help the plant dry out and heal, but also decrease the waiting time for new roots.

So now my question is:

How much IAA should I add into the powder?

One guy told me 0,25 % is normal, but he uses 0,5 % and it is still fine.

I now measured 350 mg to put into 100 g of Talkum. That would be 0,35 % ... something in between.



But before doing any adventures like this, I wanted to ask if maybe other people have experience with that and can tell me what seems meaningful.

There are many plant chemistry papers out there, but it's not directly comparable. They do stuff like adding X mol of IAA into an aqueous solution and let the plants rest inside etc ... nothing that I can translate to cacti cuttings, so will need some values from people directly based on the same usage.

CHeers!

 

[Twilight Person]

It seems 0,25 % is fine, 0,5 % would be already quite high.

 

[Exitwound]

I am also curious about this topic, but I am only using Clonex gel at this moment.

What is the reason for going custom rooting powder route, general curiocity or price factor?

 

[Twilight Person]

So this Clonex has IBA (indol butyric acid) instead of IAA (indol acetic acid) which I read is no difference in practice.

But the reason why I did not just go with a commercial product is that the commercial products are always a gel and a gel obviously is not dry.

I guess most effective is if you apply it just after cutting, because then it will diffuse into the plant much easier. That is why it makes sense to pair it with the powder you wanna anyways apply to it for easier healing (cinnamon / sulfur / talc).

But if you would apply a gel instead you would do the other way around and keep the fresh wound moist. So I guess this would be exactly the opposite of what the plant want to have, considering it just received a fresh wound I think?

Not sure, that was my motivation to create my own "dry gel" with the talc + IAA.

But it was just based on theoretical thoughts, I am totally new to cactus care and just started learning when I registered here