It's been a while since I have grown but when I did about 15 years ago, I was growing hydroponic. Anyway, when I first started cloning I was using powder, moved to gel and eventually stopped using anything at all. In fact I stopped using it when I tested two trays of clones from the same mother, one with hormone and one without and there was no noticeable difference in rooting time between the two trays. Eventually I was just giving them a spray a couple times a day with a very dilute seaweed mixture with no tent or anything. Just in the rockwool rooting cubes out of the direct light.
So my question is: it's been a few years, is the hormone actually doing anything more these days? Has there been any change in the formulas that would make me want to actually buy this overpriced snake oil? Has anyone here actually done side by side tests and noticed any real advantage to using gel or powder?
As a sort of aside rant, I suspect that many things people spend money on when growing are not really needed. I think people just like to have all the fancy stuff so they can feel like they "grew" the best plant they could when really the plant is programmed to do what it will do and all you can really provide is an optimal environment to make the most of the genetics you have. If you have crap seeds all the money you spend won't help and if you have dank seeds you can pretty much just put it in some dirt and make sure it has good drainage, light and water and it will be 90% the plant it would have been with all those extra bottles of junk. In fact the more you add to your grow procedure the harder it is to tell what happened when something goes wrong.
/rant off.
Root hormone, yea or nay? Ever tried rooting without?
