This is the only way I was taught.. no matter what it was my mom would clip it at an angle and drop it in water. No ph maybe changed the water twice a week ... jus waited on roots... I have some plum and peach clipping I’m doing in water now... I have new shoots and small roots on a couple... I did find however the powder made some of the clipping stick better.. so it leads me to believe the process WAS faster...I placed the cuttings in a peat pellet and could feel the tension as I slightly pulled the cutting... jm2c also I started adding a low dosage of flowering nutes in the water.. to hopefully build roots...