Look close. You can see the nodes popping out

That is great! Please keep us up to date with the growth. Kev

Super cool, please keep us updated

Looking it up Keiki paste is a cytokinin based product

Cytokinin is a hormone used to force branching, its great on most plants, It is what is used in micropropagation in agar to grow many genetic copies of a shoot, before changing agar solution to one containing an Auxin such as IBA ( used as rooting agent )

I have used it for years, its great on most plants, roses etc

You can get the pure chemical on ebay kinetin or cytokinin , or use coconut miilk as a natural alternative

You can mix it with tiny bits of GA3 ( gibberelic acid ) to make the shoots grow longer at the same time, but best stick to just cytokinin

There are loads of videos on youtube under micro propagation that shows what each hormone does in vitro , all can be used on a growing plant as well

i am very curious, how would you use coconut milk?
i went and read about cytokinins.
does it have to be freshly made (soaking grated coconut)?
do you need to filter it somehow (coffee filter?)
do you paint it on the branches?
i read that solution needs to be 15ml coconut milk per liter - that is used as a foliar spray? or soil drench?
i also read that it might start molds... so probably not a soil drench?
i am playing with ficus lyrata. i have many plants, one over 20 years old, some propagated from the old plant, about 6-7 years old. and i am constantly air-layering/cutting off more tips.
branching them is not easy, i am managing ok so far using notching prior to pruning the branch, but having an aid like keiki paste would be great. especially for my older one.
i also just air-layered 6 year old calamondin seedling, because it was getting very tall (i prune it regularly for shape).
i considered developing it as a triple popsicle standard :)). but the bottom part was growing rather sparse, all the growth was going on on top (naturally). so i finally cut off the top 3rd of the trunk (after air-layering). it's doing good. the cut-off trunk produced enormous amount of new shoots. but all on top (naturally), umbrella fashion.
i would love to beef up the bottom of the trunk with more branches too.

Well, I just bought some based off of this thread (well, I did some other research first of course, but this thread started it!) - I am hoping it works on my little potted olive tree, which was sold to me with the entire bottom 90% bare and the very top with a few branches. If it doesn't work, I see it's usually used for cloning orchids, so maybe I'll use it on mine and give the resulting baby orchid as a gift! I too can pop in and update this thread when I see if it works. :) The more testimonies the better, right?

-Courtney

Where is the graft union on this tree?
I cant tell from the picture.
I just hope you are not propogating the rootstock.

Make sure you have a decent root system when using things like this or use just a bit on one or two buds you want to grow
if you root a cutting for example and dont wait long enough for a decent root system the plant will not be able to hold all the branches that grow and the cutting will/may die ,
on an established plant it shouldnt be a problem

A lot of nurseries producing. plants use this to produce the very tight branched ornamental plants sold

I find pure cytokinin works best , a bit tricky to dissolve but I use kinetin

There are a few ways to use it

Buy benzylaaminiopurine powder and for a paste you warm up lanolin and stir in the powder at 2% to make a cream to put on buds you want to grow

or

Again get the benzylaminopurine and dissolve it with a tiny drop of isopropanol and a drop of baby shampoo ,, when it has cooled add to water while stiring rapidly

use this as a dilute mix to spray your plant with, different concentrations work on different plants so best to search for info on concentrations

Coconut milk seems to work well as well but being natural its harder to know how much cytokinin is in it, i use the stuff from cans sold for cooking , diluted , never had a problem with flies

This post was edited by starloc on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 8:36

i can get keikiGrow fast, but until then i'm willing to try coconut milk :). i am about to cut a few old branches - so need to ensure good multi-budding.
when i notch sometimes buds are formed even before i cut-off the branch. but sometimes a whole month after i prune. that's kind off nerve-wracking. i am always anxious in june-august 'cause of this! even though i have never had less then 2 buds with notching/pruning technique. still, would love to relax a little more....
if i can develop branches without pruning that would be just fabulous!
unsweetened canned coco-milk? i have plenty of that! how much do you dilute? and then do you paint the bud or is it for foliar spray of the whole branch or section of the branch? do you repeat sev times? how fast will buds start forming?
i have seen mentioning of this, but no specifics. i am very curious, especially since i can practice endlessly on my calamondin/avocado/ficus lyrata.

The graft is at third oily spot from the bottom. Oddly there are no new shoots growing off the root stock. I purposely put some below the graft just to see what happens.

it's too early to tell. i figure you'll need sev weeks to see buds?
but you'll need to pop them off the root stock - otherwise you'll have unsightly scars.

Petrushka,
It only took 5 days for the first buds to appear.

some buds can sit for weeks without doing anything.
just saying...
it's great that they formed that fast though. i am very curious how this will go.
i need me some buds too :).

Mine came in the mail. I applied it to several different plants - Moro blood orange, Arbequina olive, bonsai Elm, Jade plant, and some flowering thing that I don't know the name of. I will update in a few days and see if anything happened!

This is a great find. Let us know how it turns out (everyone who tries it).

The growth has slowed if not stalled. You can see the graft and the oily spots are from the hormone. It did not bud below the graft. I used very little hormone. Maybe 1/4 pea sized ball total. I swiped some up with a q tip and then wiped it on a dozen or so nodes. Every node touched above the graft resulted in New growth

normal buds might sit for a month before growing. or more.
since citrus grows in flushes you might need to wait for the next one before these buds will grow.
depends on growing conditions, e.g. mine start another flush approx in 6-8 weeks.
also i would pinch off the tips with like an inch of top stem on all branches - i actually pinch more, may be half the new growth, to shape the tree. but i am not concerned with fruit at this stage.
but a couple of new leaves will do. this will encourage all side buds to grow, including the new ones.
normally with good water/fertilizer there are water sprouts from the main trunk occurring anyway even without pinching. mine produces a fair amount of those since i prune for shape often. i don't remove them, i push them gently to desired angle when they are very young and bendable. and then hook them up with wire clips in position, then prune/branch.
i have some dormant buds that developed on 1yr seedling avocado on main trunk very low (3-4 inches) - but they just sit there doing nothing for 4 months.
you can also trim off that top growth that is bending sideways.
i ordered keikigrow too. and sprayed all my trunks with kelp solution as for reg foliar feed AND watered it in too. seems kelp has a lot of grow factors too.

Did the bud ever sprout?