Why and How Fake Propagation Videos are Made 

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to expose these fraudsters. In these times of fake news and fraudulent claims, their voice seems to be getting louder ( I guess the internet helps crazy find crazy) , and the voice of reason and truth is getting harder to hear over the din of stupidity. I appreciate and applaud your efforts.

There’s a saying that says it’s easier to fool someone than to convince them that they’ve been fooled. I find this to be very true, and some ppl just seem to want to stay blind. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Those r the ppl I don’t waste my time on bc they’re not interested in the actual truth. Thanks for doing these videos for those of us who ARE interested in the actual truth, Jason! Merry Christmas! ❤

It’s so frustrating seeing people fall for it in the comments

Humanity sold in the greed of money, too much disappointing but glad that you entered as a light ..now everything is clear🙏 Means alot sir to exposing this fraud Indeed this is it .. Love from india ❤

You’re right. This is also our community. We should make it clean and healthy. Thank you, Jason!

Yes, these are pure SUPER GLUE TRICKS. Because no one stop them and it's easy to fool us, now more and more clips similar to those come out. We definitely need to do something...

I have to thank you. I am a beginner, watching gardening videos these days. I got totally fooled and I saved those faking videos in my library, thinking I will try them out. You really save time and money from my upcoming trials. Thank you a bunch!

Far before this, I was scolded by some of their "likers" after I posted some comments about their cheats! It was so unbelievable that STILL HAVE PEOPLE BELIEVED IN THEM~! Thanks Jason for posting these videos... to open those people eyes!!!!

Saw one of these videos on FB this morning... and was astonished. Someone posted a link to this video. Thank you so much!

Jason is becoming the Ann Reardon/How to Cook That of the gardening world! Love it! Want to see more debunking videos...

Thanks for Opening our Eyes 🧐

Thanks Jason for exposing those fake videos! What I also noted in one of the videos in which 2 yellow rose buds were used for (faking) propagation using pieces of Aloe vera as a rooting medium is that when the cuttings were dug out after 18 days, the Ale vera cuttings were nowhere to be found -- at least the skin of it should have been there. But it vanished in just 18 days -- which is impossible!

I love the way you answer the questions in a calm and informative fashion. You do well as a teacher and I appreciate the way you deliver your information. Have a great Holiday season. Looking forward to more great videos next year! 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Go after the fake roses next. Weird colors.

Thanks for bringing all this nonsense out into the light and 1) your right about RU-vid vs the gardening community and 2) I think I’ve finally decided that if ppl really don’t want to believe truth then l guess they have to learn from the school of hard knocks. As for me I keep trying to seek knowledge from experts and ignore the nonsense.

Thank you for making these debunking videos, I started seeing more of those fake propagation vids recently, I realised they were fake but I did find it bizarre that they put in so much time, effort and quite frankly creativity to make those videos. I guess it makes sense that those videos really work as magic shows where purposefully outlandish methods are used to capture attention. I also blame RU-vid itself for promoting misinformation by disallowing downvotes, back in the days you can quickly gauge the quality of the video by the dislike ratio but now everything is purposefully obscured allowing these scam vids to flourish.

Good videos explained about fake gardners doing unimaginable gardening technics, I was worked as a gardner for 16 years,I never saw in my life such a fake gardners in my garden experience.Really i am surprised.Thankyou for your precious time to explain your experiences with us. In this Era All the people need the instant results no matter what it this.This is not good.

Thank you so much for this video; it all clicked for me. I do not grow roses but some of your video's are more about ethics and as such incredibly valuable on their own. I need time to proces the information, because I am afraid I was really naive. I did not expect this to be so widespread and elaborate and now I am thinking: who can I trust?

You cannot reason with some people. I am thankful that your channel popped up in my suggestions a few weeks ago. You probably saved me a lot of trouble, because I am not a gardener and with such little knowledge I would assume the error would be in my execution rather than the whole method being phony baloney. I am sure many other people will thank you for showing the man behind the curtain as well.

Thank you so much for debunking these fake videos, and saving us the time and effort!

Thank you! I watched your other video where you linked to this one, and honestly, this one calmed me down quite a bit. You're right, most likely this will continue to sucker people in, who will then be discouraged from gardening, but that happens and there's really nothing we can do about it. Those who were fooled who really want to grow plants will continue to learn the right ways to do it.

Your analysis on a subject without issue is rich in lessons for so many other subjects where the same practices can be observed. I will share your video even for other scams having nothing to do with roses, because it shows how far it can go!

Well done for having the courage to speak out about this and name & shame. You're doing such an important job. Thanks Jason.

If the RU-vid content screeners and editors are smart, they will realize that people like your readers who are irritated by fake videos will begin to distrust everything they see on RU-vid, as I am starting to do. It is an insult to viewers that lies and trickery are allowed to persist; life and effort are too short to waste on fake science. Thanks for your genuine and unbiased interest in opening the eyes to those more naive gardeners like me: you deserve applause and recognition. Yours will be my go-to site for advice, henceforth. :)

Thank you for taking the time to debunk!

I can confirm that the “do not recommend channel“ button or even “not interested“ button for that matter does not work, because after a certain amount of time YT will still try to wiggle in the same garbage channels and garbage topics despite me clearly saying NO.

THANK YOU for pointing out these frauds..... and doing it in a scientific and classy manner...

Merry Christmas Jason. The prove is in the pudding as they say. I've hundreds of roses growing following your methods ( an a couple others you have recommended) . Really enjoy working with plants. Grateful for honest advice,from cuttings,growing and even your business advice Your a good man Jason. Thank you and as always Thumbs up

Magical thinking and people who loath the phrase "no scientific proof" are the two key elements why some people believe in the fake propagation, and honestly in many cons that the con artists scammers are running on people. That is why I don't give them the click because I loath being manipulated and that is what these scammers are doing. I guess some people have nothing better to do all day than watch that sort of garbage but for me I got so much I need to be doing that I find it hard to find time to watch the channels I trust and enjoy, your channel is one I make time for. Thanks for being there.

The best way we can encourage viewers to see that the fake videos are, well fake, is by watching a video like this right after it. RU-vid runs on an algorithm, so if viewers tend to watch certain videos together, one after each other, RU-vid will automatically be prompted suggest this video as an optional video after the fake ones.

I'm not brand new to gardening and I was still initially fooled. It didn't look 100% right but who pays such close attention? I had it playing while doing other things and was like hey that looks interesting. Thankfully your video also popped up on my feed.

Thank you Fraser for this lesson I try it with anthurium leafs and it didn’t work. Love you for speaking the truth

Thankyou for professional video. Opened up my eyes!!! Hod Bless you & your integrity. Love your videos!!!

Just found your video. Thanks for doing this one! I get SO tired of seeing faked propagation videos and all the other types out there ("free electric" comes to mind first) that are nothing but clickbait and fraudsters angling for a cheap income scheme.

Thank you Jason. Again I applaud your honesty. 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄❄️💚🙃

Very glad you did this video, I think it helps a ton and sheds some very needed light on those clickbaitey fakes. The whole topic very much so reminds me of the fake and impossible seeds you can even to this day buy online. Flowers and Vegetables in impossible, crazy colors, sizes and forms, clearly photoshopped and in bad image resolution, yet many people fall for it. In that case it's even more destructive, since people are actively loosing their money to a scam behind big promises. Quite sad that such a nice, highly interesting and heartwarming hobby is also a breeding ground for evil intentions, but just as with anything. Nothing is sacred, especially not animal rescue it seems... And very true, youtube removing dislikes really plays into scammers cards...

excellent videos with superior tips - thank you so much!

I think you should do more of these videos exposing those scumbags..I wasn't fooled by them but as you said many new to gardening for sure did. People need to learn not to click on these click bites..I never do because I know that would generate them more money and views. Keep inspiring young man. 👍👏

Bravo👏👏👏, Love the video, I have watched few videos one of the chanels that you pointed out, I was amazed about how many subscribers they have, and the technique was totally impossible. Thank you for making this video, hope their viewers will understand about their stricks.

Thank you. Merry Christmas and happy new year to you all.

Thank you for calling attention to this. I have pointed out and noticed there are alarming fake plant propagation & gardening videos. They are doing it for the ad revenue income they make..

Again, you rock! These videos almost fooled me!

Greetings from Nepal I salute your keen observation and effort to make a critique. it saved our time. It's high time to do something against those fellows who operates these channels.

I am so grateful you revealed this “tricks”. Dirty business.

Jason, today it's snowing gently so I'm not in the lawns or gardens cutting things back or weeding w. my fish knife. Was an amazing January. For the past month I've had a few hundred 4 foot or shorter branches in many large wide mouth jugs & jars in every nook & corner or counter space where I could bend things beneath the upper cupboards. Each container has willow w. new leaves & long white roots, on which I have been practicing my bonsai wiring/shaping skills. Then I added into each jug somewhat shorter cuttings of: double white lilac, mock orange, 3 type of honeysuckle, quince, forsythia, 3 type of roses, deutzia, 2 type of Spirea, & from houseplants, bougainvillea, shrimp plant & hoya. I always put cin sticks into the containers & find that I do not have to change the water as much. Also put some small amount of spag moss that I collect & dry in summer frm my woods. These large heavy containers tucked amongst furniture to be near windows in my small house are not easy to empty & refresh, especially now tht so many other cuttings are leafing out. Some have such sharp thorns...quince, 3sisters rose being just 2. I FEEL that the cin sticks help keep the water clean & I just top it up for new oxygen as the many good sized cuttings use up water. As you know, willow works as rooting hormone so having that established in the containers 1st is my 'system'. I sometimes ladle out some of that water for my houseplants to encourage further root dev. in my wide deep pots & commercial hanging baskets. In the past, some cuttings have done well to root this way with only 1 willow with a dozen cuttings of other but now 6 or more larger willow branches R my test w. the various other bunches. Forsythia often did not do well in water for some reason but 200 knee high branches stuck in my garden callused & rooted just fine over one year. They did leaf out & bloom in water which was lovely in March indoors. (I planted a very long hedge years ago from cuttings just stuck into the ground at end of center lawn, from 2 bushes, the only originals to the property a dozen yrs ago & now have thousands of cuttings each Spring & late Fall or mild winter. Basically, when I can get to shortening the hedge with no leaves on so that I can see what I'm doing.)

Thank you, I wanted to try one or two of these, glad I didn't waste my time.

Thank you! I wasn't sure if these videos are fake until I saw one of these "roses from seeds" videos. Then it was clear!

Thank you for this video !

Hi Jason, this is a great follow-up. While watching it, it triggered a thought in me. I've been doing my gardening channels now for three years and I've barely broken 500 subscribers and then you look at these channels with the fakery on them and you see they've only been going for six months yet have tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers - and they're all in the Far East. So I'm wondering if there is also some regional "gaming" of the RU-vid system. This would work by everyone, or even by a few thousand people, in a country or region collaborating to generate thousands of accounts each, subscribe to the channels and run up watch time artificially. Then once they reach a critical mass, that is the social proof perceived by new viewers seeing the number of subscribers, then more people will be drawn in to subscribing, boosting those numbers further. The RU-vid algorithm then takes over and pushes out advertising to new viewers and thus revenue to these channels. So really, it's a mechanism to drive ad revenues from West to East.

Thank you for daring to expose these fake videos, very useful! Thank you for your honesty and outspokenness! Good job!🧐🧐💕💕💙💙👍👍🌷🌷

Thank you for your explanations. You saved me a lot of time. Yes, some videos looked suspicious but since I’m not an expert I was willing to try some. You got one more subscriber. 😊. Cheers from Angola ✌️.

The simple truth is that people like to be tricked, fooled, and otherwise fascinated. Most of us like a good magic show, slight of hand, and many other types of sensational possibilities. Your comment to Joel about freedom of expression is really an important factor in this conversation. The real question is: Should something be done? Or Does something need to be done? We go to movies and shows for the experience. The best shows do the impossible in a way that gives the impression it could actually happen. Right now we are in the holiday season and the general message is Hope. We want to see families reunited, every homeless person get a home, and good things to happen. Human nature is a curious thing. As many comments have mentioned and you yourself Jason, people will choose to believe what they want. Most growers dismiss these videos much like all the false advertising. Yes, it is annoying and many times deceiving, but little can be done to change it because the RU-vid community rules allow it. The effort you put into exposing these fakes is worthwhile for your channel and people looking the truth about growing roses and other plants. Just like all the other channels doing the same thing. It is disappointing that content like this is out there, but life is full of disappointments and life goes on. I will point out that most of these channels are in India, China, and very impoverished countries with enormous populations with billions of people, so getting a couple million views is not really much of an accomplishment. These fake channels are actually some of the best advertising for good quality content.😉 Merry Christmas and Happy holidays to all!🎄🍾🍻🎊🎉🤙

Thank you for saving me the time I would have wasted with these.

Thank you! Once we know we când avoid them ❤! Happy Holidays!

Well done!

I am new to this. Thank you for saving me from wasted time and effort.

Danke für deine Videos, und tolle Arbeit.

There is a rare family rose brought to Tennessee in the 1830s, maybe from Kentucky but more likely from where the family came in Virginia in the 1810s, very similar to Cl. Cecile Brunner. It is the dickens to root, in August, in perlite, with a mist sprayer in full sunlight works somewhat, but an older technique that I have used is a LONG shoot, half hard or in February fully hard, 4 feet or more buried horizontally and with some 6 areas by nodes having the outer bark scaped away and rooting hormone applied, willow tea also works, and buried about 12 inches, here in zone 7. You may get more than 1 shoot come up and root. 1 is most common but 2 is also fairly common.

To answer those wondering ~why~ people do this--If you come across a video that uses a computer voice narrator, instead of narrating it themselves, it is likely created by someone outside the US. People in different countries are trying to tap into the social media ad market. On every platform we use, accounts can become monetized, and start to earn revenue from views. This is because for every view they pull in, the app earns one more viewer for their clients running ads. Now these people in other countries have a means to earn money from social media that may not be available / popular where they're from. So again, why specifically make up lies about propagation of all things, even if this is your goal? Well, these guys have to not only compete with all the real content that's out there, but also with each other. They're all trying to come up with the next new viral craze video with the same short quick template. There's music, it's a series of fast slide shows, the only context is given through a computer generated narration that doesn't speak in an American cadence, etc. Because they're competing with each other they have spread into every niche on the internet, and unfortunately this is one that has a lot of viewers looking for new tactics they haven't seen. TLDR: International scammers make fake content in every niche imaginable to try and garner views in order to earn ad revenue.

수년간 장미를 키워오면서도 그 영상에 속아서 하마터면 시도해볼뻔 했어요. 😂 Jason님이 지난 영상에서 가짜라는걸 알게해 주셔서 다행입니다. 오늘도 잘 보았어요. 전부 다 알아들을수는 없지만,분명 도움이 되는 영상 늘 감사합니다. 즐거운 성탄절 보내세요~^^

Thank you very much for enlightening the newbies and preventing time waste for them and discouragement. It is very important to help each other and spread the 'true' knowledge, and bewaring he fakes. Best regards.

Thank you very much for sharing, greetings from Indonesia

Thank you for doing this. I just watch one the other day. Think umm that would be cool. It was the 1st one you showed.

Well said bravo

Thank you so much for this video.

Channels debunking videos, like yours, are very helpful for novices like me who wish to verify a claim.

The video of horizontal propagation you shown might be fake. But the horizontal rooting actually happened to my rose plant by accident. Funny story is, I actually wanted to plant some short chrysanthemum plants near the base of my rose bush and so cut few of its lower branches. Somehow one of the cut branches was buried in soil and a few weeks later i saw 3-4 rose shoots in between my chrysanthemum plants.😅

I only just saw this snd was so disappointed about those fake videos, because I honestly thought they were for real. Feel really foolish. For someone who's been growing roses in my garden for over 30 years I feel really foolish to have been taken in by these people. Not nice people, very unkind and unscrupulous, in my opinion. Thank you for shedding light on their dishonesty.

Thank you for sharing the truth.

you're right. thankyou

Another excellent video.

Thank you.

You tell em Jason 👏

The reason these fakers can benefit is that they are using the mindset of a gardening beginner that ‘gardening or growing is somehow mysterious’, like, why am I doing the same thing but I failed? Why I follow the tutorials but the others succeeded? Why the same plant grows better in others’ home but not mine? …. In stead if digging into the science and botanical common sense, many people turn into superstition or ‘alternative method’, and believe that miracle will happen in a short time. I think that for every beginner, there needs to be a lesson on this mindset to be taken. Tell yourself that: Don’t be superstitious, don’t believe in miracles, science is science, if you failed, try to observe and eliminate other factors. That’s a normal learning curve. There is no shortcut in science, why would there be a shortcut in growing?

Moved to lower mainland from south eastern On. Really glad I’ve discovered your channel. Just moved into a rental 60 year old home. It has numerous old roses planted. My question is how to correct legginess on a 45-50 year old peace rose.

Another good video. How do you deal with thorns? I'm afraid of them.

Thanks, I fell for a few of those. The problem is that the some of the videos are such short clips one can’t really scrutinize them.

I was even fooled, was trying today one of them. Hopefully I saw your video ❤

Hi Jason wow I am sorry to say I am one of the people who believed what I was seeing was really real. 🤨 Thank you so much for making your video to educate all of us on what to watch out for , I really appreciate you !

Only seed pod I have seen grow into a plant with the seeds still inside are eastern prickly pear seed pods, probably can do that with more cacti plants with the weird way the plants evolved

I actually found some cuttings today that absolutely have to be from an heirloom Rose that's at least 75 years old. I am currently sterilizing my rooting medium. Leave no chances 😂

The other problem, I suspect, is that it's difficult for RU-vid to maintain a moderation team with the expertise and sufficient headcount to accurately moderate all types of misleading information. If someone tries a method that you'd think would fail, cuts out some of the stuff they think viewers wouldn't be interested in, and gets a good result...it can be hard to tell if it's a fake video particularly if you're not experienced in the relevant area (example below). This is why I'm quite annoyed that RU-vid has decided to hide the dislike count - it was a great way to get a quick idea of whether a video was worth watching, given creators are able to delete critical replies. (Example) I have a gardener friend who's a chemist, and they've decided to try modifying the Bordeaux mixture by adding citric acid to the blue solution (after straining out the remaining hydrated lime). Now in theory I would not expect this to work; a lot of copper fungicides/bactericides explicitly tell you not to mix their product with acids as the acid will make the copper way too soluble and it may end up hurting the plant. However, apparently citric acid is a chelating agent, so it locks onto the copper and only allows a small concentration of copper to be released at any given point; additionally citric acid is itself a fungicide/bactericide so it may also increase the effectiveness of the mix. In any case, their plants don't seem to be suffering from any copper-induced damage (chlorosis, dead spots etc), and they've remained disease-free for a while in our tropical environment - so I guess it works. Prior to seeing this work in person, if I saw a video from a small channel telling me to add an acid to the Bordeaux mix, I would be highly skeptical (due to the acid increasing toxicity of copper theory). I can't imagine how a RU-vid employee would be able to determine that the video was real unless they had a high level of expertise in both horticulture as well as chemistry.

All those that I have seen, I click do not recoment and I report them, I hope if more people do it on these fake ones, they will notice them and take them down.

I like you for being honest! That's the way I wss raised so I'm subscribing to your channèl! Ps, I have a rose situation down the line I hope you can help me with. How does utube get clicks and can we take them back? How can we stop these CHEATS! because I'm really pissed off about it!!!

Buscando videos para programar rosas, encontré su canal. Le agradezco muchísimo este video de desacreditación porque, como principiante que soy, creí y guardé alguno de ellos. Gracias por el tiempo que le ha dedicado a este tema tan importante. Nuevamente muchas gracias y felicitaciones por su canal. Soy su nuevo suscriptor. Saludos cordiales desde La Plata, Argentina 🇦🇷

You don't have to disprove them, it is their responsibility to prove that it works. Which they can't.

Highly appreciate your work! It was an absurd video showing a banana (yes an actual banana) take root and growing a shoot that got me here.

I knew it was too good to be true when I saw a few of the videos from those gardening channels.

Others below have commented about the idea of "gardening as a form of magic", wrapped around with gardeners' myth, folklore and magical thinking. I think it's dangerous and true that the whole field is shot through with woo. On one gardening forum I admin, I suggested that gardening, at its most basic, is a matter of science - a beautiful fusion of physics, chemistry and biology - botany, zoology, entomology, soil analysis etc. The backlash, from experienced gardeners, amazed me. "No", they said, "I was born with Green Thumbs". "Not just anyone can garden, you have to have the right genes". It was as if some people thought they had special eyes that only certain people had in order to work well with plants. I hear this all the time from friends and neighbours - "I just can't grow cuttings", "I kill all the plants I try to grow, so there is no point in trying". "Not just any old person can grow plants". I get upset when I hear this nonense. It's just learning, patience, experiment and having support. There is no magic in it. The fact that fake videos are exploiting this woo is infuriating. RU-vid should have been non-monetised and non-profit from day one.

Grazie, non ho nessuna esperienza con le rose e quei video mi stavano affascinando! Non li aprirò mai più. 😊

Congratulation ! Merci. 👍 👏👏👏👏

These fake videos make me so upset. They have millions of views and for what, for misleading people? And all the comments of people thanking them and giving them praise. Common sense has seriously left planet earth.

All we can do is share this information and report those fake videos. Northing else is in our hand.

Ann Reardon from How to Cook that does debunking videos (mostly food related) but she always speaks of content farms and she said that every interaction with these videos promotes it. Whether that’s a dislike on their video or a negative comment. The fact that people are interacting with the video is a clue to RU-vid to recommend it to more people. So she suggests doing nothing after seeing these fake videos. Don’t dislike, done comment, just report it and move on. We feed into it if we interact and give RU-vid a reason to recommend it to more people

im growing tradescantias and they will root happily horizontally, but theyre naturally creeping plants that root like nothing, roses are a totally different beast 😂 thanks for the video

I haven't had any luck with rooting hormone so can you tell us what brand to buy? I have had rose hip seeds in my refrigerator since fall, what should I do with them now?

🌎❤️🕊😊 😊 Hello Jason, Thank You So Much From The Bottom Of My Heart For This Video & All Others Videos! I Love All The Videos You Have On RU-vid Video! I Hope You Will Continue Making The Videos. Enjoy Your Life! God Bless You & Your Family. Stay Safe!

One good thing about the fakes is they ended up bringing you new subs!

Thank you for your time in clarifying our confusion over the magical videos. But I do not think there is any way to know that someone is fake without giving them a click on their fake video (and thus adding to their $$).

I find it really annoying to see these videos and to think that people genuinely believe that they will have success in growing. On that note I also get really annoyed when people on ebay, etsy etc are selling seeds for plants that will never grow from seed. I was recently looking for crazytunia and sweetunia plug plants when I found someone that was advertising /selling crazytunia seeds. They don't actually produce a seed at all and they were priced at nearly £10 for 150 seeds. It would be great if you could do a video on this type of scam to let people know. Keep uploading the videos they're fab x