every time i have cloned a plant in early flower, the new growth was always very branchy and resulted in a plant that yielded well
I've taken clones LATE in flowering. They did fine. Don't forget you can always revert your "keepers" after harvest by simply leaving a few leaves and a bit of the bottom branching and then throwing her back into 18/6 or 24/0 for a month or so until she begins to revert.
UPDATE:
100% of my cuts survived and have been hanging out in beer cups.. getting ready to be transferred to 1gal pots. i am on day 32F of the disel kushes and the criticals. i already have a keep picked from each strain. this is purely going on healt, vigor and buddage. obvisouly i havent had a chance to smoke them yet. but in time that will be taken care of too..
holler!
moral of the story. humidity, patience, and all clones will root. awesome plant we have here guys