Replying to the original question. I like my photos inside year around and autos outside in the summer. I'm not doing a light dep greenhouse to finish photos early so the autos are great. It gets too rainy here to finish, so 4-6 autos are great. Autos have really improved over the last few...
This sounds like stress and as @Jay Unity mentioned, this really sounds like a light leak or something. Never seen heavy defoliation cause herms, though I jave heard it can if you go way overboard far too often, but doesn't sound like you did. Sorry to hear.
I love the idea of breeding autos, but know very little about it. Is the auto trait dominant or is it more complicated than that? Reading some of the breeders descriptions on how they crossed some of the strains it appears that many of them are back-crossed with a regular strain and not an auto...
Quick pictures of the plants if anybody's interested. Roughly 35 days in for the Tangelo Rapido and 30 days in for the other two. Plants are in the greenhouse at night and outside during the day (too hot in greenhouse during the day). Really happy with all three.
Order of pictures are...