You’re probably already aware that raw honey has many health benefits for us humans. Did you know that it can also be used to help plants out too?
In this article we will cover how and why raw honey can be used to help assist plants, and how to mix up a concoction that you can use yourself, regardless of how green your thumbs are!
How raw honey can help plants
Raw honey is a natural antiseptic and contains anti-fungal properties.
This makes raw honey an excellent rooting agent to use when planting cuttings.
Not only do the enzymes in raw honey help stimulate the growth of the plant, but raw honey also protects cuttings from fungal and bacterial attacks allowing the plant to grow healthy and strong.
It is believed that the natural sugars and carbohydrates in honey assist in fueling the plant, giving it the resources to really kick-start plant growth.
Why raw honey?
You may have noticed we use the term raw honey a lot, instead of just honey.
This is not just to smash out the words ‘raw honey’ in order to rank higher on Google. This is because raw honey is always going to be much more beneficial in fulfilling any health benefits.
While we understand why a lot of honey producers heat their honey and filter it very finely, we are disappointed that so many people miss out on the benefits of real honey.
In our opinion, the only real honey is honey that hasn’t been refined to the point that it is just honey flavoured sugar.
Yes, pasteurised honey may still have some of the benefits that are required for this use, however, it is not going to be nearly as effective.
This is due to having a lot of the beneficial properties removed from it during the heating treatment it undergoes during processing before being bottled up.
For the purpose of using honey to aid in grafting your plants, we strongly suggest that you seek out raw honey, otherwise we feel you may just be wasting your time with this treatment.
How to use honey for plant cuttings
There are a number of methods you can use. We suggest trialling either one of the following two methods and seeing what works best for you.
Okay, the ‘lazy man method’ first:
- Dip your cutting in raw honey.
- Plant it out.
Pretty straightforward right?! You can either plant directly into soil or let the cutting sit in water until it roots. Either way, raw honey can be used just as easy as root cutting powder in this way.
The next method is slightly more complicated, so bear with us:
- Mix 1 tablespoon of honey into 1 cup of warm water until it is mostly dissolved.
- Dip or soak your cutting in this mixture
- Plant it out.
Should be fine with that? Good, we thought so!
Don’t ruin a good thing
We see some people suggest that you should use boiling water to dissolve the honey. This suggestion baffles us.
Why would you take raw honey and then essentially destroy it by smashing it with hot water? That’s just like paying to take your car through a car wash, then throwing a bucket of mud on it. Silly stuff.
It’s not that hard! Just use a spoon and stir the honey in until it is mostly dissolved. Do this with water at around 40°C and it will dissolve a little easier and you won’t harm the honey nearly as much.
Even if all the honey hasn’t dissolved, this is fine. You’re not trying to make a fine mead, just a honey-rich mixture for dunking some twigs in.
Summary
Sure, there are artificial cutting agents that you can use, but why would you want to when you can very easily use an all-natural product gifted to us by the gracious honeybee?!
With the enzymes in raw honey stimulating plant growth, while the anti-septic and anti-fungal properties protect the plant as it is fuelled from the sugars and carbs within, raw honey really is well suited to giving your plant cuttings the best chance possible.
Don’t just take our word for it. Grab some real honey from a store and give this a go for yourself!
