Still no yellowing a week later. I watered with a full dose of Fox Farms big bloom and grow big this morning.
Growth seems to have increased dramatically since the transplantation after a lull--I'm assuming that means that roots are establishing themselves in the new pots nicely.
Since I began LST, one of the plants (I have now lost track of what is what, unfortunately) seems to have really, really taken off. It has grown at least 2 inches in three days on the main cola and seems to have almost tripled in thickness in a week--I'm having to tie down new growth every other day. Finally my growth seems "normal", at least on this one.
Still, I'm disappointed that my plants are still quite small for almost 7 weeks from seed--I expect I'm at least 2 more weeks from showing sexual maturity, but with the new vigorous growth, perhaps I'm wrong on that.
I think I know all of my causes for stunted growth, which leaves me a lot of room for improvement on the next go-around.
First: I left the plants in the float and grow tray too long. They had roots coming out of the bottom that were nearly a foot long, though the plants were still barely seedlings. The structure of the float and grow tray also means that those roots were being exposed to light, which is also bad. Once the seeds popped their helmet, I needed to move them into solo cups.
Second: I planted directly into light warrior after the grow tray and didn't add any nutrients for a couple of weeks. Growth was slow and they started showing signs of deficiency, which brings me to my next problem:
Third: Instead of just hitting the plants with nutrients, I panicked and replanted into ocean forest. When I did this, I broke apart the rootball so I could put it in different soil. I also probably exposed the roots to light for too long.
Fourth: I should have recognized that, if the rootball was already that developed, that it could have been moved up into a larger pot, instead, I left them in the solo cup for another two weeks. Luckily, while they were slightly rootbound, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Fifth: I should have used a clear solo cup. Then I could have seen the root system and judged based on that.
Sixth: I started with RO bottled water, but moved to tap water a little after when I moved to Solo cups. I always made sure to air the water out, but I didn't get my PH meter until a couple weeks after that. My tap water had a PH of 8 to 8.5. Now I use PH down and get it to around 6.5-6.8 (I always adjust after I add nutrients).
I should probably be a week or two into flowering already, but oh well--it's a learning process.