mother question

so i have four dank seeds and im about to plant them but i need help with a couple things. what i plan on doing is taking the females from the four seeds i have now and making them my mother plants. i only want to clone the female plants, so how would i go about finding out what sex my plants are without having to go into the 12/12 period and flowering them? also, which lighting time is better for mother plants 18-6 or 24-0?

1 - Take a few clones off each plant and lable them , root the clones and flower 1 or 2 of each to find out the sex , if any of the clones flowered are a male kill the clones off of the male plant and the male plant.

2 - I've done 24/0 and 18/6 for moms and I perfer 24/0 because I notice more growth with the 24/0 plants

thanks for the help frostickzero. haha alright now anyone know of a good cloning thread? i tried the search thing up top and it didnt work..