Charlie Pridham wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
On 12 Sep, 08:35, "Charlie Pridham"
wrote:
With Pelargoniums it causes splitting and rotting of the stem base, plus
if
used incorrectly hormone rooting powder can act like weedkiller, I have
found during the season its not really necessary but often has a
fungicide
in with it that is of benefit. To be any use at all it has to be fresh.
That is a terminal side effect! During a C&G in gardening practices
course I attended, we did lots of cuttings of hypericum and had to use
rooting powder. A course fellow and I decided not to use it as we
wasn't really happy about it and wanted to experiment. The following
summer we realised that it wouldn't have beent necessary at all as all
our cuttings took. That same year I did over 200 lavender cuttings for
a garden centre and they all were very successful without rooting
powder.

Like most tools its as good as the person using it!

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cultivars


Years ago I went to a talk on cuttings, there they recommended that a
seed of corn was pushed into the bottom of the stem of the plant. Later
when the corn had germinated simply pull it out. That was thought to
greatly assist the root growth.