Is Rooting Hormone to Establish Fruit Faster Safe?
Someone told me I should use rooting hormone on my fruit trees to make them establish faster. I've never heard of this before. Is it OK to do that? Is it a bad chemical at all?
Hi Sheila,
If you've got half decent soil and healthy trees I think using Hormone powder is a good way of wasting money, and, depending on the formulation of the powder, can be detrimental to the root system too.
We spend at lot of our time trying to slow our trees root growth down as they seem to prefer to grow rather than fruit if the option is there. It's so easy to get a tree to grow too strongly and then you have a constant fight to get it into a balanced between growth and crop.
A good mulch..a general feed in the fall and spring ...and a balanced pruning is all a fruit tree needs to give you a regulat crop for the trees life.
As I keep saying on here....make sure the tree you plant is the best quality you can afford in the first place. A fruit tree can be there for the rest of your life...and your children's too....so make sure it's a good one when you put it in the ground!
If you've got half decent soil and healthy trees I think using Hormone powder is a good way of wasting money, and, depending on the formulation of the powder, can be detrimental to the root system too.
We spend at lot of our time trying to slow our trees root growth down as they seem to prefer to grow rather than fruit if the option is there. It's so easy to get a tree to grow too strongly and then you have a constant fight to get it into a balanced between growth and crop.
A good mulch..a general feed in the fall and spring ...and a balanced pruning is all a fruit tree needs to give you a regulat crop for the trees life.
As I keep saying on here....make sure the tree you plant is the best quality you can afford in the first place. A fruit tree can be there for the rest of your life...and your children's too....so make sure it's a good one when you put it in the ground!
Last edited by JONA on Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
I only use rooting hormone to root cuttings. If you want a growth hormone you can use superthrive. One drop per gallon, usually only 1-3 times a year. Only when the plant is actively growing and has enought space in the pot and has been well fed. Anymore and the plant will die as superthrive will force growth but does not provide food or space.
We do keep newly grafted trees in a nursery. They need more tending to in terms of water and they have to be fed and potted up regularly. The suckers have to be cut out so the energy will go to the graft.
We do keep newly grafted trees in a nursery. They need more tending to in terms of water and they have to be fed and potted up regularly. The suckers have to be cut out so the energy will go to the graft.