I have one plant that is very branchy and is about 2 1/2 feet tall that I am going to put into flower today. I want to take some clones off of it lets say 4-6 clones now will this effect my yeild when I harvest because now there are 4-6 less bud spots or will the result of taking these clones just make my other bud spots bigger?
A bit of both I'd say. Ofcourse 4-6 less tops is a dead give-away, but the remaining plant/tops will have more space/water/roots/nutes/light etc. Still, since the plant was in 'balance' to begin with, taking parts off will destabilize the rest and make it perform less good. I'm pretty sure cuttin' tops beflore flowering will lower the overall yield.
why not just wait an extra 2 weeks before flowering for the branches to grow back? then you'd have the budsites back + more that branches off from the cuttings + clones to root for new plants.
If you haven't done a lot of trimming, I'd say take your clones from the underside of the plant. Some growers trim off lower branches to increase bud size on the top of the plant (where light is). I do not trim, because I like to keep it simple. Usually bottom branches don't produce much bud anyways, so I wouldn't think you'd lose too much yield.
You dont take clones from the tops, take it from teh underdevelopped branches at the bottom of the tree that will only make small budlets. Or select a main branch and cut it in the middle to get multiple slips while retaining the branch which will bud just find that way as well.