Novice grower got some questions, yo!

Hey guys, first time grower and poster on this forum.

I got a few questions and probably a few more over the next few days as I think of them so hopefully someone can help me out.

1. When harvesting, can you strip a ripe plant of all buds and then expect new buds to continue growing on the bare plant? If so, how many times will the plant reproduce a new crop and how often?

2. I've currently got my lights on overnight (18hrs on 6 off due to the plants only being a few days old) but I need to change so the light is on during the day instead. Is this possible to change without freaking out the plants?

3. How many weeks should I leave my 250w metal halide on the plants for? I've heard it could be up to 8 weeks before you change to hps to trigger the flowering stage. Basically I'm asking how long the vegetative stage will normally be? Does it really take 4 months to go from seed to harvest?

4. How far from the plants should my 250w metal halide be? The plants are a few days old and have little leaves and I've currently got the lights about 2ft away. The tamp at tank level is 26 - 27 degrees centigrade with lights on.

Any help with these questions would be appreciated, I'm sure I'll have more questions over the next few days too. Cheers. :)

Apologies for posting a question in this part of the forum, I will now post the question in the appropriate thread, cheers.

good amn...I will delete this then peace