"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in message
...
gOn Tue, 6 Jul 2004 08:28:14 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

The time for taking summer cuttings is approaching. This raises
the
perennial questions which bother me at this time of the year:

Is the shelf life of last year's purchase of "Strike" powder long
enough for me to risk using it again this year?

I think I've read that the active ingredient decomposes fairly
quickly and that you should buy fresh powder annually.

I had a feeling that that was the case.

Do I
myself do this? No.

Ditto.

I've also read commments (perhaps here in urg) that for most
plants, rooting hormones are an irrelevancy, so the potency or
impotency of one's hormone powder is also irrelevant.

My success rate with powder is markedly better than without.

Still, I use the stuff just in case, but as time goes on my
methods become more and more primitive. Right now I've got rose
cuttings underway, powdered and dibbled directly into the soil
with a glass jar over them, just like grandma used to do.

What'a so primitive about that?
I do it exactly like that, putting two cuttings close together under
the jar, inserted at the place I want the rose to grow. That spares
the rose the shock of being transplanted. Usually at least one of the
two root. And if neither take, so what, there's nothing lost.


(Never mind how long it had been on the shop shelves before I
bought
it)

Which is preferable, "Strike" powder or Bio "Roota" liquid?

I never had any luck at all with the various rooting-hormone
gels. The cuttings seemed to rot away almost instantly.

I'll stick to the powder then, unless some other urgler comes forth
with a watertight case for the gel stuff.

YMMV

What is "YMMV"?

Franz