Anyone know why my plants are so small at 3 weeks?

Stats:

2 24w CFLs on each plant
78 degrees Fahrenheit
peatmoss potting soil


Looks like a possible PH imbalance?

Whats wrong?

A friend suggested that the lights might have been too close or maybe a nute deificiency

you definitely need more light and should read the FAQ section.

Thats a deffiency! Iron maybe magnesium

I don't mean to do a product placement but switch to scotts soil with perlite at least or foxfarms if you can.
MORE LIGHTS!
What is your pH anyways?

yea. it looks like a nutriet deficiency. ive found tomato food miracle grow to be the best cheap and easy to find nute. start off with a quarter strength mixture though, so you dont give them nute burn. also invest in some higher wattage cfls

What are some causes of slow plant growth? check out this link..rob

a nutrient deficiency or to much nute can stunt growth, as well as underwatering, and a too low or high ph, and also if the plant is indoor the lighting may not be strong enough.

Im 100% sure its either a deffiency or ph imbalance locking out a nute.

Change your soil and start over

how far have you been keeping the lights from the plants. if there further than two inches from the tops of the plant then there not getting enough light. pH shouldnt be a problem unless youve been fertilizing. dont fertilize in the first three to four weeks. i would add lights. are there any nutes in the soil already. if so then its not a dificiency. plants that young dont usually have dificiencies because they dont need much at all to get to that point.

id suggest overwatering. peat can apear to dry quite quickly but really be relatively moist.... try cutting back on the water

*smacks forehead *

if it was a light problem , it would be stretching its way up to everest.
if it was over watering the plant would be drooping and twisting, true the second picture looks like overwatering. but since both plants are stunted, and the first one seems to be fine in terms of watering, we can rule out overwatering as the primary cause of slowed growth.

What you guys are saying is true, he needs more lights but since the plants are relativly short, we can assume it has had adequite light or is simply too stunted to stretch ( in which case it cant be the lights )

see the colour of the leaves and veins?, a tint of off blue/grey = Iron/Mag lockout/deffiency. colour of the plant is usually a nutrient lockout/deffiency/overdose, unless its uniform yellowing of the top leaves ONLY which indicates heat stress.

not to act like a dick or anything but you guys really need to touch up on your diagnostic skills before giving advise.

it doesn't like the soil, full stop. please stop misleading this poor guy.

so, I like the reason, but uhhh, what about the solution,yeah... didnt think of that one.

ummm grim in a soil high in peat overwattering doesnt always cause droopin. peat can sweat out lots of water very fast if overwater causing a cooling effect in the medium causing poor root formation. this lack of root formation can cause nute lock out and overall stunted growth...... how bout read the bottom of the grow faq on stunted growth grim. here ill even give you the link

https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=39

and quote it
Low soil / medium temp
Evaporation from a medium (i.e. peat pots) tends to chill the medium quite a bit due to the evaporative cooling effect. As the peat pot warms, it draws moisture outward, the evap effect cools the peat (like sweating). New growers often make the mistake of adding excessive amounts of water, resulting in cold soil, poor root formation and slowed growth

uhh kid canabiss , i

it slows growth but doesnt cause nute lockout, the 'drooping' is caused by lack of oxygen and is why the plant is stunted. weed doesnt like cold roots , and yes it slows down growth but does NOT show symptoms on leaves. the colour of the leaves says it all. ultimatley, you will find out that you are wrong if you employ poor diagnostics on your own plant

lack of root development will slow the uptake of nutrients. im not saying its deffinitely the answer just a possibility and something worth thinking about. its simple small root doesnt work like big root. why do you think most larger plants use more nutes? the root systems are more mature and have developed more than a small plant. under developed roots could have slowed the growth then he might think o nute def and nuted them..... then boom you have a small plant that has yellowing leave from nute burn.
all this can be easily solved if he tells us how much he waters. im not trying to argue just trying not to "employ poor diagnostics"

uh oh, its gettin real technical up in this joint

hahaha its like that show house for cannabis

are your lights on 24/7 if there are give them puppies a rest maybe Grimsoul is right,. about the problem but just let them rest trust me these plants been growing for thousands of years with out being fed or what ever do,.. just put them on 18/6 or 20/4 light cycle and are your bulbs 6500k daylights if not may sure there day lights ,... dont wat ever every day let them dry up a little at the top ,.. and honestly just look around every thread has some information to pick up on,.. if you have time,.. dont worry about feeding it for another month

Hmm, thanks for all the input...

I think it might come down to the fact that its pretty cold up here in berkeley, it can get down to 50s in my garage and that can easily stunt growth.

As far as the lighting, I think its cool because I have 2 24w 5200k CFLs on each plant about 2 inches away, in fact this might be causing the yellowing of some of the leaves from heat burn.

Watering is fine, I water often but in very small amounts and I have been testing it with a meter.

Ph is at around 7.4 which should not be stunting the growth that much.

It is also a possibilty that there is some residual methane from my water heater everytime the water gets turned on, perhaps this could be causing the stunting / death of my plants? (only 2 / 12 have survived) This kinda sucks because my first grow was so much better and yet I was such a newbie grower.. I think I am going to start over though.. Thinking about starting it directly in hydro.

Anyways, thanks for all the help guys.