The Stimulation of Root Production in Cuttings by Synthetic Growth Promoting Substances

Abstract

The extraction of pure plant hormones from the plant during recent years, and their identification with certain chemicals that can be synthesized in the laboratory, has stimulated the attack on problems connected with the growth and rooting of the plant. The synthetic hormone had been found to be as effective as the natural product. While the production of certain growth reactions in the stem of a plant appeals only to the more academic research worker. the stimulation of rooting has an immediate practical appeal to the planter. By the application of these chemical substances to plant cuttings it ought to be possible to root them more quickly and easily than by any known horticultural practice. Workers in the Boyce Thompson Institute and elsewhere showed that plant tissues responded readily to these chemicals and could be easily stimulated to grow on cuttings of many plants.