Yes this is true, honey. To make the honey a rooting hormone agent you will need to take a few very simple steps: 1) boil 2 cups of water -- 2)add 1 TBS(tablespoon) of honey-- 3) Let mixture cool then put in an airtight container -- 4) Store out of light, either sunlight or artificial -- 5) Dip cutting in solution then pot up. The shelf life of this solution is approximately 2 weeks.

NOTE: I personally have never used honey as a rooting hormone. I ran across this at Dave's Garden. I also found it all over the Internet. I am going to try it to evaluate how well it works. - Millet (670-)

Interesting,,
I'm wondering how that will work on my stone fruit rootstocks. In the past the best I ever get is about 50% strike, if I can jump that to 85 or better my whole operation would change..

I've used honey to propagate currant bushes.
I'm also trying it on on an umbrella tree branch

So far so good.
I've used the honey raw.
Too me using raw honey(unpasteurized) makes more sense, since pasturized honey doesn't have the same anti-microbial properties.

I'm curious, Millet, if the honey worked for you! What did you try it on?

gotro, Ive never actually used honey, I only produced the post as an item of interest, but honey is commonly used as a rooting hormone. I rarely, root citrus, other then lemons and a very few varieties of sour orange. - Millet (518-)

While I can't provide data to prove that it doesn't work, there is no physiological reason that I know of why it should work. I suspect that reports of success, had they been done against an untreated control, would have shown no benefit. Certainly, honey is not a significant source of auxin, the only hormone class known to promote root formation in plants.

Thanks Millet- I just found it interesting and wanted to see if you had actually done it... Seems like something just to try- for giggles

Thank you, too Dr. Manners for your insight as well!

Strictly speaking, you wouldn't think honey had any true plant hormone effect.
There may be reasons why it might help, honey has anti microbial properties. It may protect the cutting wound from infection. Some melaleuca tea tree honeys are used medically for skin infections.
Cutting hygiene is also important to success rate, not just hormones.
Low rate bleach, or other chemicals are also used to stop cuttings getting infected.
I don't know if the sugars in the honey can assist the striking cutting.

True, pure honey is antiseptic; however, that effect is due almost exclusively to its very low osmotic potential -- it simply dehydrates the bacteria. In this case, it's being diluted to only about a 3% solution, so that effect pretty much goes away. It would also be slightly acidifying at that pH, and roots do form better under acid conditions, but as with the vinegar and pH argument, I'd expect this dilute solution to biodegrade very quickly and the effect would be lost.

If the effect were due to anything other than osmotic dehydration or pH, then one would logically expect that different varieties of honey would behave differently -- that is, if there were some phytohormone involved.

I'd still like to see some actual data from an experiment run with a control to demonstrate that it actually works at all; I suspect not. I'll be teaching my Plants and Society class this fall; I may have them set up and run such an experiment. Sounds like fun.

In doing a quick Google search on this subject, I got another idea as to why it may be working -- the honey, osmotic substance that it is, "sucks" water from the soil toward the base of the cutting. I'm not sure of the potential benefit of that -- it seems to me that it would also suck water from the cutting itself, and that if the soil is that dry, you ought not to be rooting cuttings in it anyway (our cuttings media stays at field capacity or a bit above, in the intermittent mist bed).

I've done a rotting hormone , honey based , in which I added 1 aspirine (500mg)

Also applied it pure like it is on a air layering cut

1. The roots seems to form faster and the plant is less stressed

2, In air layering method I never got a wilted leaf

I know that many nurseries will tell you that is just a myth and it does not work at all, but shouldn't we go for a Myth Busted?

And I forgot to tell my method

1 Take 2-3 tablespoons of raw untrreated , unpreocessed honey as naturala as it gets and place it a container , black is better so that no light enters the container

2 Take 1 aspirine and crush it then pour few drops of water only to disolve it not much more


3 add the aspirine on the honey recipient and shake it until they are mixed togheter

4 place the container in a fridge but remember to remove it 2-3 hour before taking cuttings since the honey is much melted at room temperatures than it is in the fridge


The shelf life ...endless.

I think you will find that Asprin will act as a plant hormone. Salicylic acid(Asprin) was originally isolated from willow bark. Willow bark water was often used to strike cuttings faster.

Yes , I belived it too.

Well , the cuttings that had regular rooting hormone took 1 month to root , but 3 of the cutings were in honey with aspirine also with one bougavinllea , all of them have roots after only 2 weeks , could be luck , could be science , could be coincidence , I've done it and had succes

So now I use only honey , and I will try to make a batch of concentrated water willow which I will mix with the honey and use it only in that day , or increase with one more pill of aspirine in my recipe.

Sounds interesting!! Think I will give it a try next time I try to root some cuttings..
Gina *BabyBlue*