The Effects of Plant Growth Regulator Types and Planting Media on the Growth of Moringa (Moringa oleifera L.) Stem Cuttings

Moringa cultivation in Indonesia faces a practical bottleneck: there simply aren't enough quality seedlings to meet demand. One solution is vegetative propagation — growing new plants from stem cuttings rather than seeds — which produces genetically uniform plants faster. But getting cuttings to root successfully depends on two things: the rooting hormone or substance applied to the cutting, and the soil mixture the cutting is planted in. Researchers in Banten, Indonesia, tested five different rooting treatments against three different growing media to find the best combination for moringa stem cuttings. The rooting treatments ranged from a commercial synthetic hormone product (Rootone-F) to natural alternatives like shallot extract, mung bean sprout extract, and young coconut water. The growing media were three different soil mixtures, each blended 1:1 with either rice husk charcoal, compost, or cattle manure. After running the experiment from October to December 2025, the researchers found that Rootone-F at 0.03% concentration outperformed the natural alternatives across several key growth measures, including shoot length at six weeks, leaf count, and root length. Among the growing media, rice husk charcoal mixed with soil produced the strongest shoot and root development. When Rootone-F and rice husk charcoal-soil were used together, the combination delivered the best overall results across shoot number, leaf number, and root length. These findings matter for Indonesian moringa farmers and nursery operators who need reliable, scalable methods to produce consistent seedlings — a prerequisite for expanding moringa cultivation and its associated nutritional and economic benefits.