Hi Mac07, well luckily were almost at june 21st our longest day in northern hemisphere.
Cuttings clones is a bit of a personal thing dependant on how you wish to clone.
Myself I have always taken cutting that when in their rockwool or peat cubes measure 10 cm from the base and I take all off but the top few sets of leaves, I dont leave branches as such, just the growing tip and may be 1 or 2 internodes below the top/tip of the clone. Some people make them smaller, some bigger. I suppose it depends on the height of the propogator you have that you can use.
I hope that helps, there are threads just about cloning / cuttings if you use the search tool at the top right corner. 
I personally always used clonex as my rooting compound, its a gel, others are available in powder form etc.
PS it must be good because when ever I go to Holland they always want me to take boxes as for some reason its banned in Holland, may be to do with edible crops. But I always used clonex a purple gel, dip the cutting tip into it and let it soak for about 10 -20 seconds. I only took the extra internodes / leaves off after I had got the cutting into its rooting block. So I would cut further back down the branch I wanted, then trim to 10 cm with a scalpel, dip in clonex, put into cube, then trim excess off, spray with a mister and put in propgator. Best is to get the scalpel cut at base of an internode as there are more hormones there:wink: