Help,why are my plants so little???

Hello everyone. My plants are like 3 weeks old and they are so short. I left for awhile last week and came back sunday to see my plants doing ok even though they missed about 4 days of water (left for a week and I water every 3 days). They were very yellow but after giving some water one turned back to green within a day except for its 2 big fan leaves and the other plant is still yellowish. I use 4 27 watt daylight cfl's. They are in scotts potting soil and were growing fast before I left. Temps are 88 and humdity is 30%. I haven't tested the ph but its bottled water so it cant be that bad to stunt growth. I raised the clamp lamps in an effort to make them reach for the light which I know isn't the smartest things but they are so short for their age. The fatter one is a white widow and the skinnier sativa looking one is northern lights. someone help me? I'm wondering if I should start feeding veg nutes on my next feeding?

if they went into shock from the lack of water it could take a couple days for them to recover before growth continues

get them growing good and transplant them

Strain Surfer said:

if they went into shock from the lack of water it could take a couple days for them to recover before growth continues

Click to expand...

heathaa said:

get them growing good and transplant them

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick replies. Yea maybe they will pick up speed but I havent really seen a lot of growth since sunday and I'm getting worried. Hopefully by this sunday I will have seen something. I don't think transplanting them will make any difference in growth. If anything it will probably slow it more.

Soil with high bark content
This can cause a “bonsai” effect. The roots will not be able to grow through the bark, preferring to grow around the chunks of bark. This slows down root growth and most obviously plant growth. Ive encounter this recently; once transplanted into proper soil, they have shown remarkable recovery.

this comes from the grow FAQ's about slow plant growth

make sure your ph is not too high/low as this will cause stunted growth.. I seen a friend that had tiny plants and it took like 2 to 3 months for them to pick up.. im guessing growing conditions were not optimal

Thanks for the comments. About the high bark content, its scotts potting soil and maybe I can get some soil with less bark after friday when I get paid. What your saying might be true because the roots are on the outside of the cup and not in the middle. My guess is that they went to the outside of the cup because it was more easier for them to grow. I'll check my ph on friday but I doubt its the ph like I said I use bottled water. Its going to be tough to transeplant cause like I said there are a lot of root on the sides of the cup and not in the middle of the cup and I don't think touching roots is a good idea.

good luck jaysta ,take your time and try not to break off any roots they are very forgiving plants ...rob

Well that yellowing on your plants means nitro def I believe, maybe their not getting enough nitro in em.. and I never had problems with my scotts soil, but the one I had did not look as chunky as yours so my roots didint have a prob burring through

Hey everyone just wanted to give a weeks update. I sat them outside for a week and they have grown nicely and gave them some nutes since they are a month from sprouting. They have grown but not to the level I ahve wanted. Normal growth for a months old plant would set the plants height to about 6-8 inches. I think these plants may be pretty much done for so i've germinated 3 new seeds and will be buying some foxfarm ocean forest today at my hydro shop. I don't think ill be using scotts potting soil again anyway here is the pic of how they look a week after i made this topic.