And what causes an autoflower to go hermie, is it just unstable genetics by not having a photoperiod?
The most likely explanation is that the plants were stressed into throwing balls.
But thinking about it, autos are very tough and hard to stress.
If thinking that it was the genetics makes you sleep better at night, okay.
But if it was actually environment and you are stressing autos to the point of throwing balls, you have some serious environmental problems in your grow area.
If it did "hermie" as a result of bad genetics, you do not want to get any pollen on other plants. If the pollen is a result of stress, then the pollen would produce feminized seeds.
soapbox time
I respectfully disagree about autos. I thought the same about them until a newb friend wanted to grow. He got some auto seeds and I helped him out. He stressed them a bit with heat and too much nutes, but they turned out pretty nice.
He gifted me a fat jar and I liked it. It has a different cannabinoid profile. I did an auto seed crop with his left over seeds in a shed that hit 35 degrees and 95 at the high and low. Regular plants would not have made it. I plan on doing another one this Spring and crossing some of my crosses.
I give out the seeds to friends that do not want to deal with complicated growing. I still prefer regular plants, but there are definitely auto varieties that are better than some regular varieties.
