I have a few hundred pachysandra plants I dug and need to pot up, to be planted elsewhere later. Some have good roots, many do not. I'm wondering if dipping all in rooting hormone (liquid) is safe, or will it injure existing roots? Is it a moot point, as new roots will be created anyway?

catman, willow water has been known for a long time as something to use when rooting cuttings from various plants and shrubs. But when talking about using it for tomatoes I can't see how it would help. Tomato seeds germinate, seedlings are raised, transplanted and put out into the garden or a container. Root development is just fine as long as you transplant the seedlings at the 1-2 true leaf stage b'c doing it then shocks the root system and allows for greater vegetative growth , initially, at the expense of root growth, in order to get as much foliage as possible b'c it's the photosynthesis that supplies the whole plant with energy to grow. If you were to take cuttings from mature tomato plants you still wouldn't need to use willow water b'c tomatoes are somewhat unique in forming roots from any stem that's buried in soil or artificial mix. Which gets to your system of trenching plants, which many do, and many have to do if their plants get too tall, LOL, b'c new roots will automatically form all along the buried stem creating an extensive root system for the plant. So I can't see watering inground plants with willow water to "help the stems root faster", I think you really perhaps meant to increase root growth, b'c it happens naturally with tomatoes. For rooting cuttings from stuff like geraniums, and lilac cuttings, and on and on, it may well be helpful b/c they don't form roots along stems as do tomatoes. Hope that helps. Carolyn

In all my many years of growing tomato transplants I can honestly say that I have never needed or used any kind of growth hormone and/or root stimulator. On some flowers and soft wood cuttings, yes. But never on tomato plants. And if any other regulars here are using them, they aren't saying anything about it in public discussions here. ;) Your plants look fine now but I fear they are going to be awfully large come plant out day in your zone which is what - at least 6 weeks away? So slowing down growth would be a better goal than stimulating more growth, right? Good luck. Dave

I wrote something many years ago about what I've personally observed what Superthrive does or doesn't do. It was published in an online magazine called (I think) Stemma (Stella?) Anyway, it was for Hoya aficionados. Superthrive or Superjive The question regarding the value of Superthrive as a miracle tonic for plants is often bandied about in horticultural circles. Over the years, I had read claims that ranged from, “I put it on my plant, which had never bloomed, and it was in full bloom the next day.” to, “It was dead - I put Superthrive on it and the next day it was alive and beautiful, growing better than it ever had before.” I decided to find out for myself. If you look for information on the net, you will probably only find the manufacturer’s claims and anecdotal observations, both so in want of anything that resembles a control. Though my experiments were far from purely scientific, I tried to keep some loose controls in place so that I could make a fair judgment of its value, based my own observations. Here is what I did, what I found, and the conclusions I made about any value the product Superthrive might hold for me. On four separate occasions, I took multiple cuttings of plants in four different genera. In each case the group of cuttings were taken from the same individual plant to reduce genetic variance. The plant materials I used were: Ficus benjamina, (a tropical weeping fig) Luna apiculata (Peruvian myrtle), Chaenorrhinum minus (a dwarf snapdragon), and an unknown variety of Coleus. In each instance, I prepared cuttings from the same plant and inserted them in a very fast, sterile soil. The containers containing half of the cuttings were immersed/soaked in a Superthrive solution of approximately 1/2 tsp per gallon of water to the upper soil line. The other half of the cuttings were watered in with water only. In subsequent waterings, I would water the “Superthrive batch” of cuttings with a solution of 10 drops per gallon and the others with only water. The same fertilizer regimen was followed on both groups of cuttings. In all four instances, the cuttings that I used Superthrive on rooted and showed new growth first. For this reason, it follows that they would naturally exhibit better development, though I could see no difference in overall vitality, once rooted. I can also say that a slightly higher percentage of cuttings rooted that were treated with the Superthrive treatment at the outset. I suspect that is directly related to the effects of the auxin in Superthrive hastening initiation of root primordia before potential vascular connections were destroyed by rot causing organisms. In particular, something I looked for because of my affinity for a compact form in plants was branch (stem) extension. (The writer is a bonsai practitioner.) Though the cuttings treated with Superthrive rooted sooner, they exhibited the same amount of branch extension. In other words, internode length was approximately equal and no difference in leaf size was noted. As a second part to each of my “experiments”, I divided the group of cuttings that had not been treated with Superthrive into two groups. One of the groups remained on the water/fertilizer only program, while the other group was treated to an additional 10 drops of Superthrive in each gallon of fertilizer solution. Again, the fertilizer regimen was the same for both groups. By summer’s end, I could detect no difference in bio-mass or vitality between the two groups of plants. Since I replicated the above experiment in four different trials, using four different plant materials, I am quite comfortable in drawing some conclusions as they apply to me and my growing habits or abilities. First, and based on my observations, I have concluded that Superthrive does hold value for me as a rooting aid, or stimulant if you prefer. I regularly soak the soil, usually overnight, of my newly root-pruned and often bare-rooted repots in a solution of 1/2 tsp Superthrive per gallon of water. Second, and also based on my observations, I no longer bother with its use at any time other than at repotting. No evidence was accumulated through the 4 trials to convince me that Superthrive was of any value as a “tonic” for plants with roots that were beyond the initiation or recovery stage. Interestingly, the first ingredient listed as being beneficial to plants on the Superthrive label is vitamin B-1 (or thiamine). Growing plants are able to synthesize their own vitamin B-1 as do many of the fungi and bacteria having relationships with plant roots, so it's extremely doubtful that vitamin B-1 could be deficient in soils or that a growing plant could exhibit a vitamin B-1 deficiency. Some will note that I used more of the product than suggested on the container. I wanted to see if any unwanted effects surfaced as well as trying to be sure there was ample opportunity for clear delineation between the groups. I suspect that if a more dilute solution was used, the difference between groups would have been even less clear. It might be worth noting that since the product contains the growth regulator (hormone) auxin, its overuse can cause defoliation, at least in dicots. The broad-leaf weed killer Weed-B-Gone and the infamous “Agent Orange“, a defoliant that saw widespread use in Viet Nam, are little more than synthetic auxin. Al