Plant propagation, testing a natural rooting aid (aloe vera)

Where to buy & price

Just examples of where to look and roughly what to expect to pay, get everything from wherever works for you, at whatever price you find.

Aloe leaves, often free from a neighbor's garden, or ~KSh 50–100/leaf at a nursery.

Cold storage / timing

None.

Reagents & materials required

Procedure, step by step

1. 1

   Take several similar cuttings from the same plant, a leafy stem cutting from a hardy houseplant or soft-stem herb works well.

2. 2

   Cut a fresh aloe vera leaf and squeeze its clear inner gel into a small cup.

3. 3

   Dip the cut end of half your cuttings into the aloe gel, coating the cut surface, these are your treated cuttings.

4. 4

   Leave the other half of your cuttings untreated as controls, with nothing applied to the cut end.

5. 5

   Place all cuttings, treated and untreated, into identical containers of water or moist soil, under identical light and temperature conditions.

6. 6

   Check every 3–4 days for roots emerging, recording the date roots first appear and roughly how many have formed, for each individual cutting.

7. 7

   Keep tracking for at least 2–3 weeks, comparing root development between the aloe-treated and untreated groups.

8. 8

   Remember that little or no difference is a genuinely valid result here, aloe's rooting-hormone content isn't standardized like a commercial product, so write up whatever you actually observe.