Boosters comprise a large family of products and they come in various types: growth boosters, flowering boosters, rooting boosters and so on. The technical term is actually elicitors, and most of the time they are natural extracts from plants. A large number of plants synthesize molecules that are not directly linked to their metabolism. Some of these molecules are useful for plant survivalfor instance, they can give the plant a bitter taste, making them less palatable for grazing animals, or they can help the plant survive temperature fluctuations. They are also the chemical weapons used by plants in their never-ending fight for space, light and food. Although the benefit for the plant is clear in the case of many of these booster molecules, the reason why the plant spends energy to manufacture some of themreferred to under the generic name of secondary metabolitesis actually far from obvious. These include essential oils, tannins, alkaloids, latex, glycosides, terpens and many others. These secondary metabolites provide us with a number of medicines, essential oils and resins, as well as tannins for leather, natural insecticides, spices and flavors for the kitchen and much more. Nature provides us with thousands of these compounds and a single plant species can produce a large variety of them. It is among the secondary metabolites that we find the building blocks for the boosters, which are extracted from one plant or another according to the desired effect. Here is a simple example that anybody can try: willow contains molecules that will help a cutting during the rooting stage. Cut some young twigs of willow about four inches long and soak them in water for a few days. You can then use that water as a root booster by watering your cuttings with it or by soaking the stem of cuttings in that water before putting them in place. You will be amazed how efficient the maceration can be! According to the plant that you choose for extraction as well as the process used, you can achieve a large spectrum of effects. Generally speaking, not only do boosters increase a plant's intake capacity for nutritional elements but can also help to move them inside the plant. Boosters can also promote the growth of a vigorous root system, improving the general health of the plant as well as its capacity to fight harmful fungi and pathogens. On top of this internal effect, boosters also play a part in the surroundings of the plant, tending to favor the development of beneficial micro-organisms in the root zone. Elicitors are still a novelty in the agricultural world, however. At first, they were used primarily by greenhouse growers, nurseries and plant collectors on plants, which generated a large added value, but they are now slowly starting to gain ground in field agriculture. Although they can be expensive, in many cases the economic benefits of using elicitors largely offsets their cost, and it is regulations rather than price that are slowing down research progress. At the same time, it is a sad truth that lobbies from large chemical groups are not keen to see natural elicitors coming on the market and displacing some of their own products.
