That $3 thrift store book on plant propagation I nearly passed up

I grabbed a beat-up guide to rooting cuttings from a bin in Portland last weekend just because it was cheap, figured it'd be full of outdated nonsense. Turns out the section on using cinnamon as a natural rooting hormone actually works, I tested it on a dying pothos and now it's sprouting roots like crazy. Has anyone else found legit gardening advice in random old books or was this just a lucky find?

3 comments

3 Comments

tarabell1d agoTop Commenter

Hold up, let me push back on this. Cinnamon as a rooting hormone is one of those things that sounds great on Pinterest but falls apart under actual science. I tested it side by side with a basic store brand powder, and the cinnamon cuttings actually rotted faster because it trapped moisture against the stems instead of drying them out. Those old books are full of folklore that worked once by accident and got repeated forever. Most of the "old ways" people swear by are just survivorship bias - the stuff that failed got thrown out and nobody remembers it. You probably just got lucky with a hardy pothos that would have rooted in a cup of tap water anyway.

mark_carr71d ago

Glad you gave that old book a chance, I've had similar luck with a 1960s guide on composting that turned my pile into black gold. It's amazing how much solid, no-frills advice got buried in those cheap paperbacks before marketing took over. Sometimes the old ways just work better than all the expensive new stuff on the shelves.

hannah4001d ago

I mean, it's just composting right? I don't think you need to get all romantic about it.