BJRuttenberg;75795 said:
But there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that exogenous application of PGRs enhance growth in terrestrial plants. Why should aquatic plants be any different provided these plants do not want for the essential building blocks? It just seems illogical to me that exogenous application would be so different between terrestrial and aquatic plants. Could it have something to do with the bio-availability of the hormone? Possibly the absence of a transport mechanism to allow for the hormone to pass through the plant cell walls?
The plant organ in question, the propagules, flowers, fruits, etc.....rather than mere vegetative growth are why the plants have the hormones to begin with (in general).
Long distance organ development.
New leaves and roots with weedy herbaceous stem plants which all aquatics are.............are really not much concern.
Farmers do NOT add hormones on plants all the time...........they only add it at acritical time right before flowering/fruiting or to enhance the size of fruit /propagule production, not for vegetative growth.
In other words, the TYPE of growth is critical to the application and the targeted organ.
In aquariums, adding chemicals is very different, these are attacked by bacteria, diluted etc.
There are many folks over many decades now that have dumped pgr's on plants, and no one has found them useful, well, the ADA fanboy who believes everything ADA says perhaps............
Still, marketing can make the illogical seem logical, but that's why it's called marketing and not critical thinking and/or observation.
I'm not sure if you have seem my tanks, there's no delay in weedy growth, I cut and trim, they grow back right away.
Adding pgr's is not going to enhance this process or aid in the aquatic plant horticulture in any practical way. I would suggest you be very skeptical of that.
The other issue is that roots are growing 24/7 at a high rate anyway.........if they are hindered, it's not going to last much.
ADA general tops also, they rarely uproot, so the root angle is not a big issue with typical ADA trim methods and resprouting.
If you feel the need for fast recovery and growth, add more light/CO2/ferts..........
Many want reduced growth rates however.
I think folks get side tracked on these issues that mean VERY little in terms of horticulture and this distracts a great deal from the things that do matter: good trimming, ferts/light/CO2/care/water changes, cleaning filter, feeding fish etc.
This is not something that would help ANYONE tip the scales and lead them to plant nirvana.
I've added 6 different pgr's to plants, Crypts emergent growth was about all I could say had any significant effect. I used them for some time.
To have the best impact on root regrowth, you can dip them in root hormone products available on line or from most nurseries. This adds the highest concentration.
If you think it helps, knock your self out. It would take a great deal of convincing results before I buy it's even remotely useful for growing the weeds we keep.
And I speak of "shock" only in terms of the interval it takes for an aquatic plant to begin sending out new shoots and runners after trimming. From what I have read, this process is regulated by hormones. Shortly after the stem of a plant is trimmed, certain hormones are produced in greater abundance to signal the plant to begin further development. However there is a "signal delay" in hormone production from the time of cutting to the time of development. My though is that if such signaling hormone could be made available at time time of trimming it would expedite the re-development process.
This is where the difference between internally regulated pgr's vs external ones makes all the difference in the world.
Plants will develop new organs all by themselves, this is what plants do, they make chemicals.
No need to add them, this is not going to aid in redevelopment for such weedy species.
If you want a larger pumpkin, "gibbing" the grapes, larger flowers, more flowers etc......sure.
But the timing difference is not going to amplify this much, there's just no evidence to support this in aquatic weeds.
Even if it did, why not wait a day or two instead of being is such a hurry? The relative growth rate is still going to be defined by the basic building blocks: N, C, P, etc........
You are not going to get something for nuthing.
If recovery is slow.........I'd look elsewhere than pgr's........
I think the point is made and has been made many times over the decades where folks have added pgr's.....they had no discernable effect/impact anyone could observe or measure in any way for aquatic plants. Like the whole allelopathy business and heater cable muckery.
We use pgr inhibitors all the time in weed science to stop endogenous production to stop new organ development, but this is very different.