"Steroid" for plants

Has anyone had experience with gibberellic acid, known under such trade names as ProGibb, WonderBrel, and Botane? If so, will you please post your results?

Gibberellic acid is a growth "regulator" -- super stimulator in my limited experiments -- NOT a fertilizer.

It's extremely expensive and difficult to obtain.

Thanks.

--Luise (I posted a similar message in the General Discussion folder but had only one response, so I'll try here. If a second post on the same topic is against the rules, I apologize, but I'm *really* curious about this stuff.)

I'll answer myself as much as I can based on very limited experience with gibberellic acid. (Maybe no one's responding because very few know what gibberellerin is.)

I stumbled on it by accident when I moved into a house with an attached greenhouse. The previous owners had left behind a bottle of Botane, which I'd never heard of. Ever curious, I tried it in its recommended dilution on a few houseplants. Jeeze! I didn't keep records then, so the results were just "jeeze!"

Then I bought some ProGibb and tried it on petunias in deck planters and ground-planted delphiniums. The petunias had blooms five and six inches across, and the delphiniums grew to seven and eight feet in height when previously, three-foot tall delphiniums had been the norm at a then elevation of nearly 8,000 feet. The soil at that location was dirty sand because, I guess, it was once river bottom.

Now I'm at nearly at 5,000 feet with the most disgusting clay imaginable that passes for soil. So I'm gonna try gibberellic acid again.

If this topic bores you, please say so, and I'll shut up. You'd think, however, as dedicated to gardening as you seem to be, that you'd jump at the chance to learn about -- and share any experiences you might have had -- with something as fantastic as gibberellic acid *seems* to be.

No, I'm *not* a sales rep for the stuff. It took about three hours of searching online a couple of weeks ago to find a source to buy from.

doesn't bore me, I've heard of it, but have never used it. I know that Cala has and there has been a little talk in the brug forum about it. If you do a search, you can probably find what there is here on Dave's. and it's very possible that you're getting no responses because we just don't know :) and the ones who do aren't seeing it!
welcome to Daves!!!!

wow! where do you find this ??

I would really like that stuff, but we can't buy it here. Nor rooting hormones! Isn't that stupid. :/ My friend in UK sent me 2 packets of homebase rooting hormone though, and have been happy with it =)

<< wow! where do you find this ?? >>

I bought ProGibb at DWF -- Grower Supplies & Services in Denver. Phone number is 303 399-3235. I ordered on a Friday and had it by Monday afternoon. ProGibb is a product of Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago.

Burgess Seed & Plant Co. once carried WonderBrel, manufactured by Southern Mill Creek Products in Tampa, but it's not in this year's catalog.

ProGibb isn't cheap -- $71.90 for a quart -- but the 10 ppm dilution recommended for houseplants "maths out" to 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water.

Gibberellin isn't just for houseplants, annuals, and perennials. ProGibb's use instructions are for fruits and vegetables on a "per acre" basis, which tells me it isn't your basic home gardener's magic toy, but magic it seems to be. Because plants treated with gibberellin grow so fast, they require more water and fertilizer than usual.

Found semi-records for gibberellin treatment of a few perennials in 1992.

First treatment was May 20. I kept sorta records only for the tallest lupine and the two tallest delphiniums at time of treatment. Lupine was 20 inches and delphs were 30 and 26 inches.

Six days later, the lupine had grown three inches and the delphs seven inches each. By June 3, the delphs were 41+ inches and 39+ inches, respectively. Must not have measured the lupine.

On June 9, the delphs were 46 and 43 1/2 inches. Note says the lupine had been smashed flat by heavy rain.

The delphiniums continued to grow at that rate until I quit recording growth on July 3. On that date, they were 61 and 72 inches tall.

Flower size corresponded with growth rate -- huge. Flower color on annuals and perennials didn't change, but an iris accidentally sprayed with gibberellic acid solution did. It went from yellow to partially peach -- partially, because I didn't hit the entire blossom with the spray.

what happened the following years Sounds like you quit using it.Pictures?

<< what happened the following years Sounds like you quit using it.Pictures? >>

I quit using it only because my interests changed to hiking. I still gardened, but not avidly. And no, no pictures.

Now, "hiking" means walking city sidewalks, so I'm back to avid gardening -- in containers this year (scary) -- and will experiment with gibberellic acid again. And take pictures.

Gardening here is a challenge, but not nearly as much of a challenge as I thought after seeing Winnipeg Debbie's Web site discussed in another thread. A couple of inches of snow in late May accompanied by frost is *nothing* compared to gardening in Zone 3. By the way, the poor tomatoes , one an heirloom, my first, survived. Whew!

no pictures of a 72 inch delph or a 41 inch lupine?! :(

<< no pictures of a 72 inch delph or a 41 inch lupine?! :( >>

I know. And "The shoemaker's child had no shoes." :-/ I made part of my living at one time as a photographer. I have the necessary cameras and lenses.

Now that I think back to 1992, those suckers were taller than seven or eight feet by the end of the summer. The deck floor at its highest point was close to seven feet above ground. Add a railing of perhaps, what? two or three feet? (Didn't measure.) Some of the delphs topped the rail by a foot or so.

I'll document this experiment with measurements and photos.

J.L. Hudson sells Giberellic Acid:
http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/GibberellicAcid.htm

and they also record some information on their website regarding the effects: http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/GerminationUpdates.htm

Evert, if you have willow trees in your vicinity you can make your own rooting hormone by soaking pieces of stems in water (some recommend heating the water, others just say to steep the pieces.) Also, old-fashioned aspirin contains salicylic acid, which is also supposed to be a rooting hormone. Haven't ever tried it, but if I couldn't buy hormone powder, I'd be willing to :)

Willow water does a great job rooting new roses! I got the idea after reading about the Texas Rose Rustlers. Hadn't heard about using aspirin. Might try, since I have to "borrow" the willow -- don't grow it myself. Nasty roots.

No, I don't steal the willow -- cut as much of my neighbor's as I want at her offer. I just can't give it back :)

If I would of had flowers that big. I would of been wallpapering the house with pictures of them.

Well, I think I will order some. to me, it sounds like for people living in areas where the growing season is short, this would be an ideal additive to encourage flowering sooner/bigger?
quite frankly, I was hoping to use it on my brugs, by the time I can get them outside, and get themselves in gear and produce a flower it is already september, bu if I were to use this, I am thinking that I would get blooms much sooner.
Anyway, this is what I understood from the different studies that have been done and publised on the web.

am I correct in my assumption?
I hope someone knows, cause I am going to order some tomorrow.

sounds neat but kinda spendy for me. i use birth control pills crushed in my water sometimes. it helps them grow. :)

do you spray this stuff on the plants i would like to try it but the website said for use of seed germination study only
i need all the help i can get with my garden and steriods for plants sounds too good to be true
i live in a zone 4 with mostly beachsand for soil i have been ammending the soil for 10years and still can't grow much here it used to be a christmas tree plantation before i bought it
anyway i would love some information on exactly how to use it and i will give it a try the website only gave instrustions on seed germ use

<< do you spray this stuff on the plants i would like to try it but the website said for use of seed germination study only >>

Yes, you spray it on. The instructions for ProGibb are for treatment of specific fruits and vegetables, usually on a per-acre basis. I found some 10-year-old notes based on info on a bottle of Botane -- same stuff, different brand name.

To summarize those notes: For houseplants, recommended dilution of a 4 percent gibberellic acid solution is 10 ppm (parts per million). That translates to 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water.

Recommended dilution for outside plants (fruit trees in orchards and commercial vegetable gardens) is 25-50 ppm, though I think is used 20 ppm in the 1992 experiment -- 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water.

Plants treated with a gibberellin solution grow fast, so they need more fertilizer and water than untreated plants. My guess is that they'd get quite leggy without the extra fertilizer.

I plan to play around with the stuff this summer on perennials, annuals, and a few container veggies, but have waited until all danger of frost had passed. A week ago, we had night temps in the low 30s. Now we're in record-breaking heat mode with night lows higher than day highs last week. Go figure. :-/

thank you for the information i will order some right away anything that helps out in this poor soil and climate is welcome