How does this product work?

The beneficial microbes in our inoculant naturally produce the hormones your clones need to develop roots and grow quickly. Our endophytic microbes (more below) form symbiotic relationships with plants that help them throughout their lives instead of giving them a quick chemical injection of synthetic hormones.

What are endophytic microbes, and how to they help plants develop stronger root systems?

Endophytic microbes are microorganisms that live within plant tissues and have a symbiotic relationship with the plant. The plant and the microbe both positively benefit from the interaction. Almost all plants have been found to be associated with endophytic microbes. However, the endophytic microbe population can differ vastly based on many factors, including but not limited to the plant type, the climate conditions, and the geographic location of the plant.

Endophytic microbes provide many different types of benefits to plants, such as producing compounds that stimulate plant growth, inhibit detrimental microbial growth, encourage nutrient cycling, breakdown harmful soil contaminants, prevent animal grazing, and help with biocontrol.

Therefore, the interaction between the root system and endophytic microbes is key for the establishment of this symbiotic relationship, where the microbes can assist the root system’s uptake of nutrients such as N, P, and K, modulate production of helpful hormones such as Indole Acetic Acid, and discourage growth of pathogenic microbes simply due to their own presence.

Replace harmful synthetic hormones

What are the differences between synthetic plant hormones and naturally occurring ones (why are naturally occurring ones better)?

Hormones are produced naturally by plants, whereas plant growth regulators (synthetic hormones) are applied to plants by humans. Plant growth regulators may be synthetic compounds that mimic natural hormones, or they may be hormones that were extracted from plants. They are often applied as a spray or gel and their effects are short-lived. One example of an important plant hormone that is often synthetically made is the auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA); the synthetic version being 1-Napthaleneacetic acid (NAA). These compounds differ slightly in their molecular structure, and this can change the way the compound interacts with the plant. In particular, some studies have shown that NAA may interact with plant cell wall membranes in a weaker way, potentially resulting in smaller effects from the synthetic hormone compared to the naturally produced hormone. Therefore, you would need to apply synthetic hormones at higher doses than naturally occurring hormones that are produced on a consistent basis by microbes and are more readily taken up by plants, providing more long-term benefits to the plant.

The differences are felt by humans as well. The Safety Data Sheet of popular synthetic rooting gels will tell you that their components are classified as Ag Chemicals, Pesticides and Mutagenic, with dyes classified as harmful, carcinogenic, irritant and dangerous to the environment.

Sources:

Oregon State Extension; Flasinski et al 2014