Cutting them off of flowering plants gives you less chance for success. It works and most folks have good luck with it. Something is wrong in there....
Whats the foam ?
I got one of these a few months ago and just stick cuttings in there. No ph, no food, no rooting hormones. Just plain dirty ass tap water. The first cuttings did great , after a couple weeks , i needed to refresh the water....after a month , mold started building up on the lower stems.....tossed it back in the closet and use peat pellets like always.
The first and second batch of babies rooted within 10 days ish. no problems. 4 or 5 weeks into it , i had changed 50% of the water once or twice and they just wouldnt root anymore. Problem was because i didnt clean and change the water enough. Other then that , they grew theirselves.