Hi Brooke,

Darkenss initiates the flowering due to the presence of a hormone that breaks down when subject to light (you probably know that). After 12 hours darkness the level of the hormone is enough to tell the plant to flower.

"Absolute" darkness is not necessary - I guess people say that just to make sure - frequent bright light interruption during flower can cause hermies if the plant has started flowering, or prevent flowering starting if it's not already doing so.

What is important is that there is enough darkenss on enough of the plant for 12 hours to ensure the level of this hormone is high enough. You can actually flower individual branches on a plant if you want to by just making sure that those branches are kept dark for 12 hours.

Once flowering has started low levels of light, or short exposure of bright light (less than a couple of mins) will be tolerated in my experience.

WIth regard to the moon, don't forget it's only full for a few days a month, so it won't have any real affect on flowering in the wild. Wavelength of light is also important for the breakdown of the hormone - you can shine green light ok on your plants during the dark period. Stars are way too dim - like Brad Pitt, Madonna etc.

MG is cool, I used to use it until I found some super cheap stuff. Lets face it if you spend shitloads of cash on the 'best' nutes, your gonna want to feel good about it so you disrespect those that ain't expensive. N-P-K is N-P-K, it just cames in more fancy bottles I guess. The stuff I use now is £5 ($10) a kilo, has all the micro nutrients and lasts for ages.

Ta Ta for now, -MP.