I'd take clones before you initiate flower. Wait until you are certain that the clones survive and make it alive through their first transplant before flowering the donor. This is especially true if you don't clone very often, or haven't before. Then, you can decide whether to flower the CLONES or the DONORS. And that just depends on your space and grow style.
Another thing to remember is that removing the prime growing tips from a flowering plant hurts yield. You should only remove low branches if the donor is in flower, but low branches have low auxin levels and are very slow to 'take' compared to upper branches that get strong light.
stinkyattic Reviewed by stinkyattic on . Taking clones from unknown sex-finding a mother I have 12 plants grown from seed (different strains) that are about 1 month old, 6-7 inches tall, with alternating nodes. They are under a 400MH. The purpose of this run is the find a mother plant. Now, should I pinch the tops of the plants to encourage more branching, take a clone, and flower them, removing the males. or Put them into flowering, take clones from the females that show, vegging the clones until the doner plants finish flowering. or Take clones of all the plants now, Rating: 5