I just checked out a cloning demo on YouTube that is completely different from what I've been doing. I've always understood that you take clones from the branches lowest on the stalk but this guy takes a topping just below 3 nodes. WTF... did I sleep through something?
edited to add link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T07--heDYHc
I can explain that.
He is talking about topping on a mother plant. He is taking the top part to keep it smaller. And he is taking a really good part to clone off of a Mother plant.
Now, if your just going to clone the plants you are going to put into flower, you don't want to use his method.
When you have your tools and accessories ready and have soaked your medium, you should select a soft, small branch from the bottom of the plant, one that wouldn't amount to much anyway. If you are planning to keep the plant in vegetative growth to continue taking cuttings then you should take cuttings from any shoots that have two or three nodes. I take cuttings that are between two and four inches long, but some people prefer to take cuttings as long as eight inches.
That would be the proper way to take a clone from a plant that your going to put into flower. Not a mother. Some people prefer to take clones this way with there mother too, and let there mother get bigger for more clones.
Then some people who have a mother want to keep it smaller, so they take Big clones from the tops.
That would explain why he was talking about taking a clone from the top, not everyone does that.
I take them from the bottom too