Just wondering if these things on my leaves are trichomes, I tried to do a bit of research and couldn't find anything saying trichomes develop before flowering. In a similar light I'm wondering if this is a sign of gender or if my plant has somehow begun flowering while still on 18/6. http://i.imgur.com/gzbJs.jpg
That is not a sign of gender. White Pistals will emerge in the plant. Check out the sexing guide for the pictures.
Perfectly normal. Looks like trichomes but its no guarantee on gender and no its not started flowering if its on 18/6.
The little hairs on the leaf are hairs. They protect the leaf. The small light colored dot things you can just make out are indeed trichomes. They are sessile thrichomes which means they are attatched at the base, unlike the ones on stalks found on and near female flowers. They have very small amounts of THC in them. They are flat with the surface of the leaf, they are not on stalks and are not producing mass quantities of drug filled resin, but they are technically trichomes. This could be a male or female plant based on what we can see in this photo.