Damn that's a nice thick stalk! Glad you caught it early enough, that would suck to go in there only to find the nutrient flow's been cut off because the stalk grew too thick for the lid. I'm really liking how the kushberry I have is doing, very tolerant of little stresses and the perfect hybrid for a christmas tree shape.

As for the trimming, I like to remove the bottom set or two of branches and a few other runty offshoots and have noticed that it doesn't really affect yield positively or negatively, like str8 said you will come upon your own style with a little experimentation.

How long are you going to veg the clones or are you turning them into mothers? I vegged mine for maybe 5 days after roots formed and she's about 20" tall right now with 10 nodes and her stretch is done. I think it would make a great SOG with some of that bushmaster...