So OK I?m sitting here in the middle of winter thinking of planting grapes.
I have a source of grape cuttings in mind and am wondering how to start the rooting
process.
A internet search finds that although they will root in water its best to use a rooting
hormone.
Now the rooting hormone is called auxin and is available in willow bark.Just soak
mashed twigs overnight and presto. Well here it is now wintertime and I?m wondering if
the chemical is available in the twigs even in wintertime.One explanation of the tea
making process said do it in spring.
Also
So if the willow branch tips contain the auxins and primitive aspirin is made from willow
bark can I use aspirin for rooting compound?
I’m not certain, but I don’t think so. Commercial aspirin is synthetically produced acetylsalicylic acid, and has probably never been within 100 yards of an actual tree of any species, unless you count the 5 minutes it was in the bag in the consumer’s car before she drove home from the parking lot. While willow branches contain auxins and salicylic acid, auxins are not salicylic acid.
Natural auxin is indole-3-acetic acid. There are also several manmade auxins, such as indole-3-butyric acid or indole-3-propionic acid. Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is not an auxin.
While the tips of willow shoots do contain auxin, I can’t find a reliable cite that says there’s enough there to promote rooting in plants. This is about as close as it gets:
I ran across several sites that claim that if willow water doesn’t work for you, aspirin might. That’s BS. Commercial aspirin should not contain auxins.
The most common rooting compound in the US is Rootone®. I have used it with good results many times. I also endorse the willow branch stuff, but sometimes it’s inconvenient in winter to trudge up to a neighbor’s door to ask permission to clip a bit of willow branch. Don’t let any willow pieces get into your project, or you’ll have a young willow among the grapes.
Just in general, I’m not sure January is the best time to be propagating anything – if you could wait till March (or later, in Iowa), when plants are starting to come out of dormancy, you’d probably have better results.
Aussies use the word root to mean a sexual act. If Vice President Cheney had been an Australian, he might have told Sen. Leahy to get rooted, instead of, “Go F___ yourself.”