There exist rooting powders, liquids and gels, yet there doesn’t seem to be even as much as an anti-fungal, never mind an auxin or other product for encouraging callus growth.
Never mind anything with might help overcome graft incompatibility.
Or do such products exist?
Just wondering, and I know perhaps if anyone would be to know… It’s likely to be one of you
Scott
I wonder what the percentage of takes are for a typical commercial nursery. I suspect it is too high to create demand for the kind of product you seek. With practice, the demand diminishes even for amateurs and the mistakes beginners make might not be corrected by such a product. But then, I’m not talking about those tougher assignments like nut trees, persimmons or even paw paws. I have about a 75% failure rate with paw paws, failed the only time I tried persimmon- on these species I’m still a complete beginner.
Stonefruit were a big challenge at first but I seem to have overcome the hurtle with them.
I think the product you’re looking for is hydrogen peroxide diluted in water with aspirin. Just due to the mechanics of what is going on, there’s not much you can do for that brief period besides keeping it moist, oxygenated and sterile.
Chills,
Through the years, I’ve seen reports of folks dipping scions in various rooting hormone preparations at the time of grafting… with some claims that callusing in accelerated or % of ‘takes’ is improved. I never have gotten around to trying it.
I’ve grafted some pawpaw and persimmon seedlings and I’m tempted to see if I can keep the scion from drying out by using water-polymer gel with rooting hormone secured to the base of the scions with a plastic bag. I’m just wary of disturbing the grafts at this point.
Or am I risking rot or something by diving it?
Scott
I’ve read a university study on the use of rooting hormone on the cut surfaces of grafts. The results showed improved results on apples. I tried it with pawpaws, dipping the cut surface of the scionwood into the hormone. I found no significant increase in take percentage or growth. But…my take percentage that year was already very high without the hormone. I should try it on something really challenging, like walnuts. I don’t know why the university tried it on apples, which generally are easy to graft.
Chills, where is your pawpaw scion drying out–after it is placed? I find if you wrap the scion in parafilm you won’t have a problem.
I’m wary of trying to wrap it now. It had a speck of green which seems to have turned brown 
Scott
As a “continuing education needed” student, my efforts are certainly not required/advised/wished for, but I still am willing to try a potential “better mousetrap’ when helping scions survive my non-pro grafting. When scions are pretty new, look perfect, and have not yet been in the fridge long enough to lose internal moisture, I usually just graft away. However, if they are even a bit non-moist when I slice into them, I will postpone grafting for a day and let them get a chance to get more hydrated by wicking up some nutrient-enhanced water while standing in a cup with maybe 1/2” of fluid in the cup and after having sliced off the bottom’s wax coating with a 45 degree new bottom tip. Like the celery stalk in a glass jar with red food coloring to show the reddening celery as the fluid is wicked up. The particular nutrient that I juice up the water with is the loved/hated Superthrive, and I squirt several drops in the shallow cup puddle. Yeah, I know, The industry does not recommend such alchemy. By the next day when I am ready to graft, I clip off the waterlogged bottom tip and graft the MUCH MORE MOIST scions. As for the anti-fungal idea, I regret that I can’t provide an anti-fungal something-or-other to the cutwood beneath the tape wrapping, but the above-tape scion gest a light coat of acrylic clear coat spray paint to both preserve internal moisture until sap busts upward from healed wounds, as well as to instantly poison pathogens on top of the bark/buds. The clear coat has been wonderful on many kinds of fruit scions, with the only (so far) limitation being that when the brown, velvet flower buds are puffing out on paw paw scions, the clear coat snuffs out the bud, but that is OK with me because I only graft paw paw scions that have at least 1 or more leaf buds, which are the real horses that I am betting on. Not being a loyalist to any particular company’s product line, I will not waste time/effort/$ if what I have tried does not work when I use it. Whether the “industry” approves or not. My kettle of boiling hot water would never be recommended by Black Flag, but it swiftly slaughters mounds of fire ants anyway. So, I use it when practical. My basis for the ST possibly being scion-beneficial is that if it can make a Christmas tree with no more roots attached to grow out a full set of new sprouted shoots all over the tree in a couple months, then it might help my grafted scions to grow out new sprouted shoots when grafted to a tree that STILL HAS it’s root system attached. Been there. Done that. I appreciate the many good tips provided here to help me to eventually graduate from pre-K fruit growing to (hopefully) first grade.