yeah the new growth is because actually on a good amount of plants that the flowering phase grows 2/3rds of the entire growth size of the plant. some strains are different than others.

just cuz she's in flower doesn't mean she stops growing completely. and if i recall most stop growing new shit twards the end of thier flowering cycle. funny thing about plants, they know when to die. i wish thier was some way of flowering a plant forever and getting kick ass fucking watermellon buds. bud sadly the plant puts all it's energy into flowering and will plan to die and stops all new growth. that is why you have to take a microscope or magnifying glass and look to see when the trichs are hazy red more red than hazy. if they are clear then you got a while before cutting them. otherwise this is one of the aging signs of the plant. letting the grower now when the plant itself is ready to start to die, and then you kill it prematurely and smoke that mother fucker down. if you had a microscope then the trichs would almost look like upside down watter droplets about to fall (ball on the end of a clear hair).

oh and the reason why mothers stay alive longer is cuz they are in a veg cycle and do not flower.

oh and that other dud is right, doesn't matter what light you use, they are in 12/12 then they are flowering. now the hps is better since plants absorb more red than blue in flower (ie bigger buds) but the mh isn't going to reveg it (just not as good buds). and if you want to get technical both lights cover the others spectrum, they just don't focus at that spectrum (ie hps does have some blues but it focuses 10 times or 20 times more reds, and vise-a-versa)

sorry rambling, fucking stoner!