help plants seem small to me

Ok 1st off this is one of my 1st post on ROI but have been doing a shit ton of research on growing. I am a medical user out of michigan. I have a problem with my plants, they dont seem to be as big as what i think they should be
1st im using 9 bulbs 2 are 43watt 2700k and they other 7 are 43 watt 6500k. Im using soil that has NOTHING in it but some added perlite and egg shells. I have not put any nutes on them as of now. Wednesday a buddy is giving me some fox farm nutes for vegging and another for flower ill have to start out really slow so they dont burn i know that. i planted them on aug 9th so they are around 5 weeks and they are only 6 to 8 inchs tall but are about as round as a CD maybe alittle smaller....SORRY NO PICS i really really wish i did. They are in 3 gal buckets they bulbs are like 2.5 inchs above the plants......i cant figure it out if they are right on track or if they are small....i think they are small....should i see some pre-flowers or if im on my way please help

i just put them in those contaniners like a week ago or less i thought maybe they were root bound so thats why i put them in a bigger pot. i hope once i put the nutes on them they will come to life.

They are hungry, start feeding them a fraction of nutes and build up to a full dose.

I usually start my babies in soil with nothing in it for about 4 weeks and then transplant them into some fox farm of and they explode within a week

If you just transplanted them, chances are they are putting down roots to fill their new, larger home. Growth above the soil may appear slow for a few days to a week while the roots are spreading out.

I would definitely start to give them some nutrients at low doses, gradually working up to a full strength feeding.