Plant propagation is the easiest way to grow an extensive garden by multiplying the mother plant into several cloned varieties that take weeks to develop. But if you want to speed up the process, learn How to Use Vodka to Propagate Plants and brainstorm your gardening journey!
Click here to know how coconut water can benefit your plants!
How to Use Vodka to Propagate Cuttings
Vodka can help to keep the cutting safe from bacteria as it has Ethanol, promoting the plant to propagate in a safe manner. After taking the cutting, you would like to grow in water; keep it in a solution made by mixing half a teaspoon of vodka in a gallon of water.
If you’re propagating cuttings in soil, you can also dip the cut ends in a similar diluted vodka-water solution mentioned above, which will act as a fungicide and also increase the callusing process. After that, plant your cuttings in the growing medium the way you usually do.
Caution: Do not add more than half a teaspoon as alcohol overdose will cease the root production.
How Does Vodka Help in Propagation?
After a day or two, you’ll notice visible changes in the nodes and will be full-fledged with new roots in a week that would have taken a minimum of 12-15 days otherwise.
Vodka contains 40-50% Ethanol that acts as a fungicide and kills the bacteria that inhibit in the open end of the cutting. This process expedites the propagation leading to faster root growth of indoor plants you grow in water.
How Does Vodka Help in Seed Germination?
A study by the Shiraz University, Iran, reports that the germination percentage of seeds increases with the use of ethanol. It does so by the breakdown of carbohydrate reserves in the plant seed.
Another report by the Institute for Biological Research of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore states that excessively small amounts of alcohol help to penetrate the embryo and cotyledons, stimulating the growth, either by influencing cell division directly or indirectly through improving the metabolism of the stored cotyledonary food in the seeds.
Mix half a teaspoon of vodka in a gallon of water and soak the seeds in this solution for 20-30 minutes. Rinse the seeds thoroughly with distilled or RO water before sowing. This will increase the germination rate by a considerable margin.
Vodka for Cut Flowers
As vodka has the ability to reduce ethylene production, a natural gas responsible for the ripening of fruits and flowers, adding a few drops of it in your cut flower vase can keep them fresh for a little longer.
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