This needs more looking into, but I've always suspected that tissue culture was the key t cloning autos. There is an excellent article on growweedeasy on tissue culture and her mentions that it works for autos and seems to reset the clock! No direct link to auto information was included but I'm looking into this more. I had always thought that using a very young seedling might be the key but it seems that using bud fragments holds the answers.
https://www.growweedeasy.com/live-plant-cannabis-tissue-culture
https://www.growweedeasy.com/live-plant-cannabis-tissue-culture