Flowering and budding are the same thing. If your asking how long after switching to 12/12 (flower) until you see bud .... its generally a week or two.
Okay. There are two cycles in growing. Veg and flower. Vegging is the period where your plants grow slowly and do not bud. Flowering stage is where plants grow quickly, produce buds, and mature. For vegging, keep the light cycle on 24/0 or 18/6. For flowering, you need 12/12 and NO LIGHT LEAKS! You can veg a plant as long as you like, but remember this, a plant can double or triple size during flowering. So if you have 6 feet of space to work with, growing your plant to 2.5-3 ft before flowering would get you a good harvest.
