By Technicality....is it an Autoflower?

[Smoking Lamp]

So I have a girl that was preflowering under 18/6. [Vegged from seed for about 5-6 weeks]

I decided to throw it into 12/12 and seem what happened.
10 days She has done alright, growing, sucking up a lil too much nitrogen, but hasn't really increased preflowering at node sites.

I put it back under veg again @18/6 and it seems to have resumed.

I also experimented with 24/0 when it first started to preflower, but this seemed to have ill effect as well.

Is this the "current" definition of what is called an "autoflower", that it wants 16-18hours only to flower?

I thought an autoflower was just an example of a plant using a chemical response other than light to trigger flowering?

This has me confused, anyone willing to shed some light?

 

[midowo]

You are right, true autoflowers are not triggered by light cycle, and if your plant flowered under 18/6 then you should have let it grow at that cycle, but true autoflowers can flower under 24 hours of light with no ill effects and can produce even more buds than under 18/6.
But for those autoflower plants that don't flower well under 24 hours of ligHt, as I understand they are not truly autoflower and by breeding them some of the light sensitive cells are still in the plant and they give mixed signals to that plant!
source:

 

[Outdoorsguy]

oh, it is so EARLY in the morning...

so no it isnt autoflower and it isnt normal, it is 16/8 flowering early strain.

ex. in southern Finland ppl can grow early strains and sometimes get 1 kilo on 1 plant, in northern parts they are lucky to get autoflower finished before weather fucks all up.

normal strains dont have time to finish in Finland.

 

[offthehook]

If it doesn't flower under 24 hours of uninterupted light it is not an autoflower.

I also never found any preflowers on my auto's. They seem to go right into full bloom straight away.

You shouda let it go under 12/12 and it would have got into flowering eventually.

Most auto's show first pistills between 3 & 4 weeks if circumstances are optimal.

 

[FirstTracks]

Is the plant flowering because of stress, nutrients, or being root bound? that's the first question I'd ask myself with something that wasn't supposed to be an autoflowering strain. You said it's a girl, so it's not just flowering early because it's a male.
It might be a photo period sensitive strain that just triggers for flowering earlier than a 12/12 photo period.

edit.........little baked and couldn't understand the question completely.

 

[Mr Jay]

showing pre-flowers is not the same thing as actually flowering. In my experience every single photoperiod plant I have grown has shown sex in vege. You have a standard photoperiod pot plant on your hands.

 

[aridbud]

Like offthehook, I think you may have quick flowering photo...nothing wrong with that!!! AF's tend to veg early, and show their sex within 14-21 days. From then on....mild solution of both veg/bloom....every other watering, just water...or Epsom salts (diluted). At 5 weeks, straight BLOOM....then decrease and water only last 2-3 weeks so you don't taste the chemicals. Bleachhht!

 

[Sandnut]

many elite strains show pre-flowers before they are set into the actual flowering stage, its hard to mistake pre-flowers with actual flowering. The defenition of autoflower its simply that it will go into flower regardless of the light schedule, normally this happens around 15-20days

 

[Smoking Lamp]

Like offthehook, I think you may have quick flowering photo...nothing wrong with that!!! AF's tend to veg early, and show their sex within 14-21 days. From then on....mild solution of both veg/bloom....every other watering, just water...or Epsom salts (diluted). At 5 weeks, straight BLOOM....then decrease and water only last 2-3 weeks so you don't taste the chemicals. Bleachhht!

Thanks for the advice! I only use the organic panic though. So no worries of chemically taste [fingers crossed], just worm casings and other animal/ plant poopage.

Have to read up on organics and autoflowering, probably not a huge change in feedings, but it seems like speeding up the feeding can't hurt?