Just jump in and start cutting. You want tender banches doesn't mater how long as long as they fit in the cloner and leave the tips alone if it's that tight.
We don't cut anything off that doen't need to come off and have rooted 12 inch cuttings with 8 or 10 nodes. We just took over 50 cuttings of papaya and the mother is 14 months old. we thought we would take her down and keep a clone but she won't give up. Must be another 30 to 50 coming on her now.
We don't use a dome since the RH is so high here. Just try it will get easy.