Plant hormones

• Auxin


  A type of growth hormone that stimulates plants to grow
• Using auxin commercially


  1. Add auxin to plant cells in tissue culture to stimulate growth and produce plant clones

  2. Add auxin to cuttings to stimulate root growth

  3. Add high amounts of auxin to disrupt plant growth and kill weeds (selective weed killers)
• Gibberellin


  A plant hormone used to control dormancy, induce flowering, and grow larger fruit
• Using gibberellin commercially


  1. Expose seeds to gibberellin to induce germination and ensure plants start growing at the same time

  2. Use gibberellin to induce flowering and encourage more/larger flowers

  3. Use gibberellin to grow larger fruits, especially in seedless varieties
• Ethylene


  A plant hormone used to stimulate the ripening of fruit
• Using ethylene commercially


  Pick fruit before it's ripe, then expose it to ethylene to quickly ripen it for sale (important for fruit shipped long distances)
• Ethylene works by stimulating an enzyme that causes the fruit to ripen