50 days is how long it will flower for. Usually a 6-7 week flower
ie. If you see flowers now then in 50 days you will harvest.
Some of the auto's start to flower in as little as a few weeks.
Now I am not 100 percent sure about this. I have grown 10 Auto's and only grow at 24/0 and have never set one to flower.
Seeing the size of your plants I would guess it was already to go no matter the light schedule.
Has anyone grown an auto from seed on 12/12 that could answer this? Please.
Autos will throw pistils ( sex out ) in around week 4-5 of germ , it can go a little plus or minus sometimes too. I had one auto ( crazy miss Hyde ) throw sex at day 21. Sometimes the " RUDY " part of the strain is on turbo and just flys in getting to flower.
Take breeding time with a grain of salt. They are only an APPROXIMATION in harvest time , you would do yourself a great service if you run them as long as they NEED compared to what day you are on.
8 week strains get bigger and more nature ( trich heavy ) going to week 10 or whenever
( Sativa Dom ) ones . They get bigger than most people think. Most will say you get 8 inch plants or some shit like that , I laugh. I grow strictly for my own yes so I got time and patience to let them do their thing instead of looking to chop 60 day plants.
Growing from 12/12 at beginning, gives you MICRO plants. It realizes that it needs to flower hella fast. You can literally grow a tiny ass solo cup auto that has tiny buds on it.
Autos like 24/0 , 20/4 , 18/6 as the best schedules from start to finish. But , you CAN play around ..........
Since AUTOS do their best locked into a VEG HEAVY LIGHT CYCLE ( light longer than 12 hours ) ...... You can do this with pretty good results.
The OP plants will pistil up with the week. , the top pistil first because that is the dominate colas ( flowers ).