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Doff Hormone Rooting Powder
by Listerbelle
Doff Hormone Rooting Powder (75g)
+++ How I came to use this product +++
My now husband and I were good friends before we starting "seeing" each other over a decade ago. We both bought our first places within six weeks of each other, and helped each other turn the houses into homes as cheaply as possible. ...
When it came to the gardens, we realised that we would simply have to be patient as we were running low on money. A scientist friend gave me this rooting hormone powder as a (very original) housewarming present.
I never knew that such a thing existed. Commercial rooting powders usually contain auxin molecules, which coordinate plant development. Wikipedia explains that Auxins promote root initiation. Auxin induces both growth of pre-existing roots and adventitious root formation, i.e. branching of the roots. As more native auxin is transported down the stem to the roots, the overall development of the roots is stimulated.
+++ The Product & Price +++
The powder is housed in a plastic container. Mine is slightly different to the one pictured - it came with a dibber-lid. It costs £4 for 75g. (May 2013)
+++ Directions +++
The rooting powder is very easy to use. Firstly moisten the lower tip of the cutting.
Next apply powder to the moistened tip. You can dip the cutting tip into the container, or alternatively decant a small amount onto wax paper. Shake off the excess powder and plant in the chosen growing medium. I usually use perlite as it's a light product that supports plants when making roots. Ensure the growing medium remains moist.
+++ The results +++
I first used the rooting powder on various hardwood cuttings from friends' gardens. (I was particularly proud of my healthy rosemary plants, until I learned that they take well without any artificial hormones!)
I successfully created 18 new plants from cuttings in that first year of propagating with rooting hormone. I've lost track of the number of new plants I created from that one little pot of hormone.
+++ Recommendation +++
Highly recommended.
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Doff Slug Killer
by trayrope
If I was given a chicken every time I spotted a Slug or Snail in my garden I would be waist deep in chickens.
Anyone who takes even the slightest bit of interest in there garden will have noticed those horrible Gastropods roaming about the garden munching on all the soft and succulent new leaves and leaving shiny trails ... behind them as they slime there way to the next meal. I am talking about Snails and Slugs.
There are many ways of controlling the little blighters but by far the easiest, and probably the laziest too, is to buy a pot of slug pellets and throw handfuls of them onto your flower beds. You are then rewarded with a Slug and Snail massacre, unsightly but true, but at least they are not munching down on your plants.
The Doff Slug Killer I am about to review comes in a variety of sizes; I got my 450g tub from the poundshop. The tub is mainly green with a rather fetching picture of a snail on the front; on the back of the tub is a lot of information on using the slug killer safely. The tub has a very secure child proof screw off lid, but I would like to think that people would store these well out of reach of children.
The slug and snail killer comes in the form of bright blue mini pellets that look like chunky little hundreds and thousands.
You scatter the blue mini pellets thinly on to soil, ensuring you don't leave piles any where. The recommended time to use the blue mini pellets is on a warm damp evening but not before it rains. The blue mini pellets are intended as a home slug and snail killer and not for commercial use. Despite all the warnings against ingesting the pellets there are instructions for application around food crops, you are advised to take great care to avoid any of the pellets becoming trapped in or resting on the leaves.
As you have probably guessed by now using these blue mini pellets to tackle your slug and snail problem is not something you should do lightly as they contain a lot of nasty chemicals such as metaldehyde which is a poison and can kill if ingested (eaten). The blue mini pellets can also be fatal to pets if eaten. The mini pellets should always be kept in there original container away from food and drink and should not be allowed to contaminate water ways or be emptied into drains and any unused product should be disposed of safely. The emptied container can be disposed of in the household waste.
The blue mini pellets also contain Bitrex, which is the brand name for the bitterest substance ever discovered, Denatonium Benzoate. It is commercially used as a human aversive (stops people eating what they shouldn't) due to its incredibly bitter taste. The inclusion of this hopefully stops people and children from being accidentally poisoned by the blue mini pellets.
It is repeated many times on the packaging that you should wash your hands after handling blue mini pellets.
I try my hardest to avoid using slug and snail killer as I feel it is quite a nasty and potentially dangerous way to try and rid your garden of a pest.
When I first started gardening my garden was like a haven for slugs and snails, they ate all my seedlings, chomped there way through the stalks of my sunflowers and generally caused havoc. At first I did use blue mini pellets to control my pest problem but was then left with the rather disgusting task of picking up dead slugs and snail as they were attracting flies and I was concerned about the harm I was doing to the birds, frogs and hedgehogs that visited my garden.
I then tried using beer traps, they were a bit more time consuming, and I had a reasonable amount of success with them, but still had to dispose of dead slugs and snails. My husband and I also used to go out at night with jars and torches, kind of lamping the slugs and snails to be transported to a field and released. These were all time consuming so I did a little investigation and discovered that frogs and hedgehogs like nothing better than to munch upon slugs and snails, I then set about encouraging these natural predators into my garden, which was a lot more fun and makes for some really good night time nature hunts down the garden with the kids. I also put straw and broken egg shells around my edible crops and put gravel down on my paths, all things that slugs and snail don't like travelling over.
My Slug and Snail problem is pretty much cured and my garden is a much more nature friendly place. I am not saying the use of blue mini pellets is a bad thing but I think you should consider the implications that throwing chemicals around your garden can have on the little critters that live there. I do use these mini pellets occasionally, and they are effective, but only as a last resort as I don't like the potentially harmful outcome to all the friendly wildlife in my garden.
If I owned a monkey I would definitely get him to pick up all the snails and slugs in my garden.
Thank you for reading XX
(Also on Ciao under the same username)
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