Hi All, Willow water is a safe and organic method for helping plants root. willows all tend to grow in stream beds or near them, as heavy rains come and wash them over sideways they have a tendancy to root back into the ground as they lie. For this reason alone willows seem to be very adept at rooting and have higher levels of rooting hormones naturally. Willow (salix) was the species that was first used to make asperin (Salicylic acid), which is now synthesised artificially. So if you have a plant to root here is what you do: 1) go get some willow branches, you can use florist types like pussy willow or twisted willow, you can go to a creek and cut your own white willow, black willow or other locally available willow plant. Make the stems about 1 cm thick and at least 1 foot long. soak these in regular water for 1-3 days in a 5 gallon bucket 1/3 full. Now you can use this water to help root whatever plant materials you would like to root. 2) you may want to cheat....you can also use regular asperin (Bayer or your favorite) do not use an asperin substitute like tylonol or excedrin as it needs to say asperin. disolve 3 asperin tablets in 1 cup of luke warm water and you can use that as a rooting solution. There are other rooting mixes as well, Dip and Grow and Hormex are 2 commercially available (chemical?) products. Also you can use liquid Kelp products, which is what I use. it is organic and seems to be a great rooting complex as well as a good seed soak and all around fertilizer for micro nutrients. I do prefer to use organics whenever possible. A note on asperin, very few people know that asperin (real or artificial) works topically, you can crush asperin and add water to make a paste and put it on a burn, bee sting or tooth ache and it works the same as swallowing a few pills and have it go into your bllod stream without the stomach irritation. also and lastly, if you want new willow trees simply leave them in the bucket and they will root in the water, after they root simply move them to a pot or a permanent area of the garden, just watch out as willows can become invasive pest plants, although you cannot beat a nice big weeping willow for shade. - Matt ~~ From: "Matthew Boeck" Date: Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:38 am Subject: Re: what is willow water Jon? Message 96033