Kind of makes sense. On wikipedia (and other sources) say that they (auxins, which include IAA) if treated heavily can create the production of ethylene. And a coworker pointed out to me that florel was used to keep sweetgum trees from flowering and forming the spiky seed balls. Interesting how hormones can influence different plants differently, as well as how they can have different effects at various levels...little bit can help root, etc. Now I need to go check what the specific chemical/hormone my rooting hormone is. Which reminds me to ask, does anyone use rooting hormone on their pups?

Hi everyone - Yes sdandy, I have tried rooting hormone powder to encourage quicker rooting on pups. I had four pups from the same plant which were of similar size so I did a little test.

I tried one pup without hormone powder as a control plant. The second one was treated with hormone powder as per the instructions (I don't remember what brand the powder was as this was some time ago).
With the third pup, I dipped the cut end in honey (I read somewhere where honey is good for promoting new roots quickly on (some) plants.
With the fourth pup, I dipped the end in honey and then coated it with hormone powder as well just to see what would happen.

After six months of spring and summer weather and the pups planted in my usual potting mix and located in a shade house under 50% black shade cloth, the root growth on all four was much the same.

I realise a proper trial would need to be carried out with a much larger number of plants to get an accurate result, but that's the best I could do at the time.

All the best, Nev.

Aren't roots overrated? I routinely cut away most of the roots when I repot; not that I repot all that often.