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

  2. Add auxin powder to plant cuttings to stimulate root growth

  3. Add high levels of auxin to disrupt plant growth and kill weeds
• Most commercial plants like cereals are narrow-leaved, while most weeds are broad-leaved
• 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

  2. Apply gibberellin to induce flowering or produce more/larger flowers

  3. Apply gibberellin to seedless fruit varieties to increase fruit size
• Ethylene


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


  Apply ethylene to ripe fruit to quickly ripen it for sale, after transporting unripe fruit
• Plants naturally produce their own ethylene, which is often blocked during transport to prevent premature ripening
• Ethylene works by stimulating an enzyme that causes fruit to ripen