okay, I am fairly new grower and have never had a sucesful crop (yet!)

I have 2 questions. My first has to do with the fact that my plants have seemed to slowed down theitr growth in for aproximately the last week. I have 2 plants growing and last weekend transplanted them. They had been growing at a pretty good rate (not phenomonal, but decent) however since I transplanted them they seem to have slowed down a bit. they are in their third week since sprout, so they should be going pretty strong. They are about 2" from the soil to the top node (however that number is deceiving, as they already have 4 nodes with beween 1/2 - 1 cm internode length). They do not look sick at all, since a started them on 1/3 - 1/2 strength nutes, the lower fan leaves are a darker rich green while the new growth is a very vibrant light green. At the same time that I transplanted them, i also changed their light. I have two main opinions as to why they aren't moving as quickly as they should:

1) I transplanted them into bigger pots, from a cut-off 2-liter soda bottle each into two quite large pots (15" diamter and around 10-12" tall) so the difference is quite large. i have heard that if given enough room the roots will grow as large as they can get, which takes away energy from the plant growing above the ground, and that when the roots start to hit their barrier, then the growth moves upward. If thats all it is it will be fine as a healthy roots system will eventually lead to much stronger plants. By this theory, the plants will start to take off when the roots have expanded.

2) Not enough light. this is a main concern of mine, even if it's not the cause of the slow growth. i currently have (2) 3150 lumen, 4100k, 4 ft floros hanging above the plants. i also have a 1700 lumen, 2700k cfl which is not in use right now because of the spectrum and with my current set up there is now way to hang it so that it really hits the plants anyway. I am planing on buying some lights hopefully tommorow or this weekend. Most likely some 6500k cfls, the strongest i can find, 45-55watt if i can find em. I'm going to try to get at least 4 (maybe 6 depending on budget) and set them up on the sides of the plants (two on each side) and keep the floro's on top.

My own thoughts are leaning toward lack of adequate lighting, however due to my history with growing i have found that it's much better to seek advise from those who have been around the block a time or two (otherwise i would still be using a spot-gro) Or, it could just be my imagination.

My other question i believe i may have already solved, the leaves (especially the lower fan leaves) had looked and felt a bit dry when i came home from work today. When i felt the soil it was quite dry (I had been letting it dry out completely on purpose, so as to get oxygen to the roots and encourage roots to look for food) I gave them both half a gallon of 1/2 strength solution (aprox. half strength) about 2 - 2 1/2 hours ago and when i just went to measure them they are already feeling much better, but will check again in the morning.

sorry for such long post, any help, advice, opinions, anything, is much appreciated.

They are probably in shock from being transplanted. I don't start adding ferts until mine are a month old. Then start at 1/4 strength. Do you ph test?

im having this same problem, but i have never transplanted, its been about 6-7 weeks and my plants are still about 3 inches tall, there under three 4 foot 40 watt flouro's and i have not used any ferts

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There's Gonna Be Alot Of Slow Singin
And Flower Bringin
If My Burgular Alarm Starts Ringin

I know, i was also skeptical about the ferts, which is why i added them at <1/4 strength at first, and i have been carefully monitoring for first signs of nuteburn, and haven't seen any, I am growing in MG moisture control soil, and adding a mix of two different types of MG ferts. So far I haven't seen any burn marks, maybe because the soil helps regulate the intake, but my plant always looks healthier after I add the ferts, so i think I'll keep going like this until i start seeing some problems. thanks for the help.

to smkpt: I think we probably have the same problem, Do you know what the Kelvins of your lights are? I've heard that you really need 5000K -6500K lights for real good vegetative growth.

What kind of fluoros are these? regular or CFL? If they are regular fluoros, that's the problem. The plants need better light.

I had mine under regular fluoros and just put in some CFLs last week. Since then I have seen good growth.

i'm experiencing very slow growth since my transplant as well & i'm using t5 6500 lumens. they're brand new first time i've tried these. not sure how i like them.