Apple & Pear winter cuttings never root

ZONE 6 stem propagation suggestions needed.

For a decade now, I have futilely attempted to grow apples and pears from winter cuttings harvested in December, January, or February.  With 2-dozen fruit trees, I usually have 200 to 400 cuttings.

Same results every year.  Stems stay green up to spring. Callus forms on most pear and few apple stems. Roots never form.  
The indoor cuttings get moved outside to a north facing wall by May. All cuttings in coir or peat get pulled out and put in sand or perlite for drainage.
They get watered with a fungicide or with creek water every week or twice per week depending on weather so they stay hydrated.  
By June, they're all dead from one of three conditions. 1) Just dried out and dead (smallest cuttings generally), 2) bases are black, 3) covered in mold even with regular applications of fungicides.

I've tried:
           - new growth up to 2-year old wood
           - stored vertically and horizontally in substrate.
           - with and without apical meristems/buds still attached
           - ends and tips waxed or left natural
           - various length ranging from 3" to 14"
           - leaving all buds on stems or stripping all but 3-4 buds
           - clean bottom cuts and intentionally damaging the bottom bark to promote callus
           - no heat and bottom heat with electric mats
           - individually and mixes of damp (well drained) coir, perlite, peat, sand, & even a damp towel
           - treated and untreated with fungicides (sulphur, lime, various retail products)
           - treated and untreated with growth hormones (Woods, Clonex, Rootone, Hormodin, & willow extracts)
           - storage outdoors in partial sun to complete shade, as well as an unheated garage, a cellar, and in a small greenhouse
 



How can I get cuttings to grow?

I have found I have much better luck taking summer cuttings.  I pick off all but one leaf then put them a bunch of them in a bucket of water with a bit of rooting hormone in it.  I leave them in the bucket for a month or so,  Any that start growing new leaves I plant,

I try to take my cuttings from apple trees that grow on their own roots.  In my area it is very common for roots not to be hardy enough for our climate so I search for ditch apple trees that grew on their own and produce a somewhat edible apple.  When I plant them I plant them way to thick,  Like two cuttings per hole, and a hole every 3 feet.  I plant them and forget them so nature and animals take quite a toll on them.

This batch of apple cuttings were done this morning and have been:
Cut to 9”
Soaked in fungicide for 2 minutes
Dried 20 minutes
Tops sealed with wax
Scarified the bottom
Soaked in a rooting hormone solution
Temporarily stored upright in perlite (filled to the top of the pot).
Set in an unheated detached garage.

Now what should I do?

Did you ever have any luck getting any of these guys going?  Are you going to do it again this year?

I had a branch that needed to come of my crabapple and so I cut all all the little side shoots off of it; the whole big branch sat around for a few days outside (weather ranging from high 20s- low 60s F) and I just finally got around to cutting them and putting them in some warm water.  Going to add some rooting hormone a little bit later, after I do a final trim and wax the tops that need it, then probably just let them go for a while.

Again, no luck getting any cuttings to root even with experimentally treating a few pots using commercially available fungicides or hydrogen peroxide. They callus well, but never root.  I even took some that appeared somewhat healthy with good callus formation and placed them in various types of soil ranging from sandy and dry to dense clay with plenty of water. No luck. If I ever have any success, I'll post what I did that made the difference.

How are the parent trees looking? Are they healthy, productive, pest and disease free? Any signs of micronutrient deficiency? My understanding is that the status of the trees is fundamental since a cutting would rely on the stored energy and nutrients to initiate the new roots. Not all can be absorbed from the medium and this might be the reason why different people have various success rates practicing the same procedure.

Although I haven't tried on apple or pear winter cuttings (successfully did a mulberry recently), I have noticed on house plants or veggies that vigorous and healthy parents also give rise to cuttings that root quickly and strongly, even without external plant hormones.

My cuttings have always failed, but I assumed it was due to my haphazard approach.
It's daunting to see someone so organized struggle with this kind of propagation.

You might want to try air layering, it is simpler than the other stuff you've tried and it can't do any worse😬

I only tried it once, and more experienced gardeners laughed at me.
I used rooting hormone and put them in dirt.
They leafed out and looked like they were growing.
The next fall when I dug them up to plant out, there weren't any roots.
They're known for not rooting. Start seeds and learn to graft.

I never try growing apples or pears from cuttings. I only graft them. They are among the easiest fruit trees to graft.  For one thing, the size of the tree will not be known. Many pear trees naturally grow to 60 feet tall. Most apples will also grow into very large trees that way. Then you have to wait 15 years for them to fruit. I'm already in my 60's, so that really doesn't make sense to me.  

John S
PDX OR

Cuttings are strange. 2 years ago I trimmed a bunch of grapes and buried them in the garden expecting them to die. No luck, spent all last year whacking them back. Did not want grapes there. Last year I removed an unfortunate crab apple, chopped it up and buried it. Now I see lots of leaves forming right where I don't want crab apples. When I was a kid we would make huts in the woods using green poles crudely sharpened and jammed in the ground as walls. They grew.

So why don't our cuttings take?

Some plants, like grapes, figs,  forsythia, currants,spirea and quince, are known to be easy to start from cuttings.  Others, like most hardwood fruit trees, are grafted, partly because the success rate is so much higher.

John S
PDX OR

Got a "what if" on this question.  What if there's a need to wait until the sap rises in order to get successful roots?  That means waiting until the first buds start to swell at least before taking the cuttings.
Not meaning to instruct on sucking eggs . . .but it's worth an experiment or two. Wishing you success.

I know this is old, but I have a very high success rate starting in water vials in my laundry room light and changing the filtered water every few days. I cut small slits around the base and remove all the leaves. Wet and sip the ends in rooting hormone powder. The water only covers 1.5-2 inches of the stem base. I move them to soil and a closet grow light when there is either a small root bud I can see or significant swelling at the base indicating impending root emergence AND there is new growth. Keep the soil pretty damp for the first 10-14 days and then slowly taper off to watering twice a week. These trees are slow to root so diligence and patience are key. If you see black form and then start climbing up from the base of the stem cut above the black, make new slits, and dip in rooting for mine and return to the water. You can get hanging propagation tubes on Amazon for cheap.