A few customers have noted that some of their cuttings had small white dots on them when they arrived, like these:
Those are not roots or mold or fungus; they are lenticels.
Lenticels are natural outgrowths that cuttings grow to facilitate gas exchange. The lenticel growth is due to spending a few days sealed in baggies during transit. They are not harmful at all---the cuttings are all still perfectly alive, healthy, and viable. You can either rub off the lenticel growths, or simply leave them (they quickly dry out and flake off once the cuttings are exposed to better airflow). I don't think there's any need to wash them; I never wash them before I root them myself.
Lenticels are most common when cuttings are extremely fresh and there is an abundance of sap and moisture in them (resulting in very high humidity within the baggies during shipping). My cuttings will sometimes arrive with the beginnings of lenticel growths, especially at this time of year when I'm pruning super-fresh cuttings straight off the trees to fill each order.
To reiterate: the little white lenticels that sometimes form due to being in the baggies for a few days never negatively affect the success rates of my rooting each year (I root thousands of cuttings each year). It's just an early warning that the cuttings will eventually 'suffocate' if left in those baggies without any fresh air for a really long time.
I ship in sealed baggies because it guarantees that the cuttings won't dry out, even if lost in the mail for a while. Cuttings will die far faster from drying out than from diminished gas exchange.
Happy rooting!
