Yes, you can propagate without rooting hormones and still get great results with many common species. Plants like pothos, mint, and coleus root well on their own in plain water or damp soil. Rooting hormone helps speed things up for harder species, but it's not required for the easy ones.
I ran a side-by-side test last fall with twenty rosemary cuttings to see how much difference hormone makes. Ten got a dip in IBA rooting powder. Ten went into the soil with nothing. After six weeks, eight of ten treated cuttings had roots. Only four of ten untreated ones made it. The treated stems also grew thicker, denser root systems. For rosemary, the hormone made a clear difference. But when I ran the same test with pothos, both groups rooted at the same rate and looked the same.
The science behind this is simple. Your plants make their own growth hormone called auxin at wound sites. When you cut a stem, the plant sends auxin to the wound to start healing. Easy-rooting species produce enough auxin on their own to trigger full root growth. Harder species don't make enough, and that's where a boost from synthetic IBA powder or gel fills in the gap. The cutting doesn't care where the auxin comes from, it just needs enough of it.
Research from the Canadian Journal of Plant Science puts some numbers on this. They found that IBA gel produced 2.1 times higher success rates than willow water extract. That's a big gap. Willow water does contain natural auxin, but in much lower amounts than what you get from a bottle of IBA powder. Natural rooting hormone alternatives help with easy plants but fall short on tough species.
Willow water is the best of the natural rooting hormone alternatives you can make at home. Soak fresh willow twigs in water for 24-48 hours and use that liquid to soak your cuttings before planting. Honey and cinnamon are two other home remedies that people swear by. Honey may help seal the wound from bacteria, and cinnamon fights some fungi. Neither one adds much auxin to the cutting though.
My advice for rooting cuttings without hormone is to match your method to the species. If you're working with pothos, mint, coleus, or spider plants, skip the hormone and save your money. If you're tackling roses, lavender, or any woody shrub, grab a bottle of IBA rooting powder for a few dollars. It doubles your odds of success and pays for itself with the first batch of cuttings that survives because of it.
I keep a small bottle of IBA powder on my shelf that cost me about five dollars two years ago. It's still half full because I only use it for the tough species. For every batch of pothos, mint, or coleus I root, the powder stays in the drawer. You end up using it far less than you'd think once you learn which plants need the help and which ones can handle things on their own.
Start with the easy species that don't need any help at all. Once you build your skills, add hormone to your toolkit for the harder plants. You don't need fancy gear to get going. Clean scissors, a glass of water, and a healthy pothos vine will give you your first rooted cutting. You won't need to spend a cent on hormone products for those easy wins.
Read the full article: A Full Guide to Grow From Cuttings
