Postponing nature.

I am sure this question has been asked more times than I can count. The question is." Can you postpone, slow down, setback, stop an Autoflower from flowering so fast or early?."

No. I mean, you can fuck it up and stunt it and end up with a tiny plant. They are on an internal clock. What you want is to grow photos so you can control everything.

Yes but to what benefit I don’t know.

Cold. Cool them right down until 40f and they’ll take weeks to grow. But interesting enough the root mass seems better for the amount of foliage. When it looks like a 2 week old plant but a root system or a 3-4 week old plant

This has led me to wonder whether you can start a seedling in a cold climate increasing the temp as it gets older. Allowing it to establish a bigger root zone.

Just a theory I’ve yet to try but I had an auto last 3 odd months during the winter before it begun to flower!

What @Nutty sKunK said.

If by slow down you mean spend more time in veg resulting in a larger plant in the end, I'd say the answer is no. If you have a reason to want your grow to take longer to finish but have no expectations around having a larger yield, then, cold can slow its metabolism and lengthen its grow time.

I grew an auto one winter year(Buffalo NY) and it didn't start to flower till after 3 months. I like my house in the low 60s even in winter. Now the catch is, it wasn't an extended vigours veg, but a slow and long veg stage because of the cold. Alot of my autos get larger in coco, and some theorize soiless/hydro can extend normal veg. I've had many from Mephisto and a few of Night Owl veg in the 45 day range. Also, topping can delay veg in my experience as i top all autos and have had some well in the 110s for total days from seed.