When do new plants from seed REALLY grow?

Dunno what's normal.

Have a plant from seed in a dwc that is 23 days old, and is only 3 inches tall.
Northern Lights plant, with about 4 nodes. Though none alternating.

Is this normal? Or is this plant a runt? The way everyone talked about hydro and dwc, I figured the plant would be huge by now. LOL

Depends on the strain and how long you veg but you're looking at a minimum of 3 months. 3 inches seems mighty small at that age though.

What is your lighting like? and thats only a week and 2 days since seed man it sounds normal. if you got your true leaves on time and vegg hit you are only on about 1.5 weeks-2weeks into vegg. wait it out. tight nodes are nice too.

i mean 3 weeks and 2 days from seed.lol

Most of the growth happens during the stretch when it goes to 12/12. I've had plants that small that exploded when I switched to 12/12

I start seed in soil clones work good for hydro. when your plants grow from seed you will have two sprout leaves. Then you will see two normal leaves later. It will grow a long stem. Make sure this stem gets planted under ground. That stem will all be root base, It will grow roots from the sprout leaves down. once that plant is deep in soil it will take off like a rocket. My method is good for a mother plant.

3 weeks in and only a few inches tall, did you let it get too hot? it might be a bad, but you will know in a week if it doesnt start to grow faster. I am one week in and pretty much at your hight now

Temps are generally around...79-82 with lights on. 5 x 26 watt 6500k and 1 x 26 watt 2700k CFL.
Plant is gorgeous now...just short. Lots of growth packed into that short thing.