well u can def just leave the bud and sugar leaves,,it wont do nothing but survve for a few weeks then u will see it reveg itself..kinda amazing how hardy this plant is...as far as cloning..u just take ur cuts and dip in gel and str8 to happy frog?if so tht will work..i have some buddys tht put there clones str8 in coco with a 2 liter bottle top with the cap on like a humidity dome,but to m tht just is such a waste of time if ur doing a bunch of clones,,i switched from rockwool after i tried rapid rooters years ago ...they r awesome,,,i recommend u use root riot or rapid rooter plugs..makes cloning the easiest thing to do...no matter the strain just flat out easy loland ya once u lock in ur phenos u want in the stable then i would just out one strain under each light to give u even uniformity under each light and still have more then one strain growing..give ur patients a little variety..least thts what i do..as of now im in a pheno hunt so i have 20 plus different strains going so its a bitch keeping girls level and uniform,being i only ran like 3 phenos already and the rest r new...so it tests' ur growing skillz for sure haha..ur gonna do good,i can tell ur trying and thts all it takes man