question about lighting

i have a quick question about lighting for flowering. my plants have been flowering for a few weeks now. i had a male in the group and i took him out and just left him in darkness for a few days. when i checked on him a few days later it seemed the darkness had accelerated his bud growth by alot. i know that the buds grow in the dark, so i guess my question is, is it safe to just turn my lights off for a few days and see what happens? they are about as big as i would like them to be, so wont the lack of light just stop vegetation growth?

Males don't 'bud' in the sense of producing a cola. They do produce flowers, and these tend to develop quickly compared to female flowers.

Lack of light will not initially stop growth, it will induce stretch as the stems elongate in search of light.

You would be well served to purchase a basic book on botany. Also if you don't kill that male soon, it will fertilize all your ladies-- it may already be too late.

the male is already gone. he was in a different area

Won't hurt them much but then again will not really speed up your bud cycle all that much either.. I had an issue with my ballast not long ago which forced me to leave my girls in the dark for a week. They recovered but only after most of the old leaves fell off & were replaced by new growth. You can speed up maturation of existing buds by increasing the hours of darkness but this will be to the detriment of bud mass. In other words the short answer is yes but you may get smaller and/or underdeveloped buds or even hermied branches if you do not observe a 12/12 schedule. I have gone down to 13/11 towards the end of flowering but ended up with more popcorn bud than desired. Stay the course- 12/12 is recommended for a reason... Cuz it works best.

fair enough thanks for the info