Novice needs advice/help with suspected autoflower indoor growing

[xitriton]

Not sure where to start with this long convoluted tale...but here goes: A friend gave me a very nice LED grow light and anonymous seeds he bought many moons ago after coming to grips with his abject laziness and inability to grow anything but his own buzz. An outdoor grower myself, I germinated them and started what was a nice crop indoors. Totally unaware of the autoflowering strain, I was a little surprised when they began to bud. I kept them going, because I didn't really need the weed at the time...and then one day, I left the lamp on a 24 hour cycle for...well....probably about a week. This threw things into chaos and to make a long story short, the buds died and began to molder. But by that point, it was spring. So I moved them outside, picked off the dead buds...and low and behold, they boomed back to life. So much, in fact, I decided to clone them.

Ended up with four clones: Three decent and one sickly one. But by that point, it was October. So the clones went under the light for 16 hours on and eight hours off, which is where they have remained ever since. I figured it'd be a couple months, but I'd switch them to 12-12 by Christmas and have a nice treat for the New Year. Well...not quite. Here I am in April and now one has intense buds. Two others have formidable buds. And the sickly clone? It just started to veg out in a major way(see pictures of all four). Needless to say, I decided it was time to finally investigate how to finish these indoors, which is when I learned about autoflowering.

I know. Stupid. I admit this fully. But here's the thing I don't get: These babies are at least eight months old at this point. And their parent plants lived to over a year. So while I'm PRETTY convinced these autoflower plants, I have no way of knowing...especially since the guy who originally got them had no idea. So my questions:

1. Will autoflower plants live in excess of 6 to 12 months? Is this normal? And are these indeed autoflowers?

2. Should I bump them down to 12 hours anyway, and is there any real purpose to doing this? Will it impact the THC?

3. Can I re-veg them by simply trim the tops off and let them grow anew with the underfoiliage? Because there ARE some decent leaves toward the base and the trunk on all four is formidable.

4. Bonus question: The purple on the leaves I've read is a phosphorous deficiency. Does this sound accurate and if so, would either Miracle Grow or super phosphate help/hurt?

Again, apologies for asking stupid questions. This is foreign territory to me though. And many thanks in advance for any guidance here.

 

[Fitzy]

So no auto that I'm aware of flowers that long I've seen some photo plants flower @ 15 ish hours of light in my opinion I would cut lights to 13hrs on or so that should signal them to finish. Some landrace genetics I could see doing this it could be the genetic lottery as I call it if u grow that strain (if u knew wat it was) you may never get that pheno ever again that's why stabilizing strain is important.

 

[Fitzy]

Not sure where to start with this long convoluted tale...but here goes: A friend gave me a very nice LED grow light and anonymous seeds he bought many moons ago after coming to grips with his abject laziness and inability to grow anything but his own buzz. An outdoor grower myself, I germinated them and started what was a nice crop indoors. Totally unaware of the autoflowering strain, I was a little surprised when they began to bud. I kept them going, because I didn't really need the weed at the time...and then one day, I left the lamp on a 24 hour cycle for...well....probably about a week. This threw things into chaos and to make a long story short, the buds died and began to molder. But by that point, it was spring. So I moved them outside, picked off the dead buds...and low and behold, they boomed back to life. So much, in fact, I decided to clone them.

Ended up with four clones: Three decent and one sickly one. But by that point, it was October. So the clones went under the light for 16 hours on and eight hours off, which is where they have remained ever since. I figured it'd be a couple months, but I'd switch them to 12-12 by Christmas and have a nice treat for the New Year. Well...not quite. Here I am in April and now one has intense buds. Two others have formidable buds. And the sickly clone? It just started to veg out in a major way(see pictures of all four). Needless to say, I decided it was time to finally investigate how to finish these indoors, which is when I learned about autoflowering.

I know. Stupid. I admit this fully. But here's the thing I don't get: These babies are at least eight months old at this point. And their parent plants lived to over a year. So while I'm PRETTY convinced these autoflower plants, I have no way of knowing...especially since the guy who originally got them had no idea. So my questions:

1. Will autoflower plants live in excess of 6 to 12 months? Is this normal? And are these indeed autoflowers?

2. Should I bump them down to 12 hours anyway, and is there any real purpose to doing this? Will it impact the THC?

3. Can I re-veg them by simply trim the tops off and let them grow anew with the underfoiliage? Because there ARE some decent leaves toward the base and the trunk on all four is formidable.

4. Bonus question: The purple on the leaves I've read is a phosphorous deficiency. Does this sound accurate and if so, would either Miracle Grow or super phosphate help/hurt?

Again, apologies for asking stupid questions. This is foreign territory to me though. And many thanks in advance for any guidance here.

And yes most likely phosphorous deficiency wats the temperature lights on and off and don't use miracle grow not good for your plants or you. The thc will not be negatively impacted, and you can try to reveg. Ask any ? u got bud that's wat this place is for tag me or others gor help.

 

[xitriton]

Thanks a million for the info Fitzy!

Not that I know much about growing...part of the reason I grew outdoors was so that it was pretty easy! Nevertheless, the autoflower strain threw me for a loop. The only real part about this strain that DOES fit is that these guys seemingly flowered on their own without going down to 12 hours. And that's something I never saw outdoors for sure.

These guys have never known anything more than 16 hours on and eight off. When I cloned them, it was probably August or so, and only getting 13 or so hours, so they were small buds by the time I got them under the lights.

Interestingly enough, three of them of more or less shed their fan leaves. The one that budded the quickest is forming this thick stalk of all bud. The others seem to be following suit, with exception to the one plant that isn't budding. My ideal situation would be to bud them, reveg them, and get them outside for mid-June/early July to start outdoors. That's what I did with the parents and ended up with a hell of a plant by September.

I'll get 'em on 13 today as you suggest and see if there's any change. I think I have some super phosphate pellets too I could probably dissolve in water. Thanks again!