Growth hormones

I've always wondered - does any of you use growth hormons (= pyhtohormones, growth regulators) in Sempervivum cultivation?

Which one and what are the results?

Like most of you have noticed, some Sempervivums are simply a lazy growers!

For example, I have this S. wulfenii subsp. juvanii ex Donačka gora and S. wulfenii subsp. juvanii ex Resenik (Slovene endemic plant!) but they are terribly slow in growth. After cultivating them for few years it seems I'm going nowhere - some plants flower and only few new are produced.
Any idea what to "feed" them to induce growth and making new plants?

The only thing that should be given to any kind of sempervivum is a small amount of "horn and hoof meal" (that should be actually the right translation) mixed into the soil/substrate. It contains enough nutrients for a long time, at least for a year and can be renewed when the sempevivum are planted elsewhere, but due to its characteristics there's never overfertilization. The natural property of Sempervivum is growing on nutrient-poor soil, so any other fertilizer/growth hormones will either cause an abnormal growth and/or squishy leaves. But as an effect in most cases the result will be a plant which won't survive the next winter. So I'd highly recommend not using any other substances than the one mentioned above to keep your plants healthy!

Great topic!
I had some idea that I could treat 'lazy growers'' with plant hormones cytokinins. This is a group of hormones and some of them have property to induce growth of lateral buds which are dormant in normal conditions. Overexpression of cytokinins makes plants look bushy.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Sempervivum's offsets are also lateral buds. Some plants (like Renata's S.wulfenii) produce this offsets very rarely. This could be because of too strong apical domination (because of this other hormons, auxins).

The idea is to treat plants with one or more concentrations of some tipe of cytokinins to force them to produce more offsets.
This is something I'm thinking for some time. I have to make some more research about this, but will try this for sure.

I might try this first on some Sempervivum that I have a lot...just in case

I don't know about these hormones, but that's sounds interesting anyway. If you could indicate only these special types that are responsible for the growth of the stolones, it might work, but only if it is not touching and changing the whole DNA or at least parts of it that are especially responsible for the sugar molecules of the plant. If you want to try it, I guess now the time is right to document this behavior from now until the longer periods of rain begin and the first time temperatures reach below 0° C, that will be the point when it should be more clearly recognizable if the sempervivum's cells are still in its normal condition, so that they can stand the humidity and extreme temperatures. Good luck, I am curious about the results.

I was right!

http://www.gpnmag.com/articles/stimulatingplantgrowth.pdf

In this article there is even concentration that should be used for Sempervivums.