Grow speed

as i browse these forums, i see plants growing at amazing speed! they are about a foot tall within a month from germination. my plants usually are about 8 inches tall and thats around a month and a half. i use good nutrients, yet my plants seem to be growing a bit slow. i use an enriched vermiculite mixture for soil, with plenty of room for their roots. after their first two pair of serrated leafs they seem to spring up, but it takes so long for them to get there. im just curious if this is normal? why did some of the plants i grew go crazy with growth, and others take forever to get to half a foot? and i realize there are a lot of things that go into the height, but still, they looked really small too. and im wondering what i can do to increase growth for my next grow, assuming there will be one.

Early growth rates are largely a reflection of the pot used. If you put a new seedling into a small 4 inch cup
and leave it there for a while - you may have a 12 incher in 2 weeks. If you put that same seedling into a
regular 3-5 gallon pot you will see little or no growth for weeks as the plant establishes a root system.

BigSteve.

so for starting plants, i should use smaller pots? but that will lead to me having to transplant them. and they are in 1 liter pots i think.

General rule of thumb....roots before shoots...so the bigger the pot the longer time frame it will be before you see top growth...i always clone put in dixie cups for a week then 1 gal for a week or 2 then the finishing bucket/pot size...i went dixie/1gal/5gal/18 gal tote when i went from 5 gal to tote it was about a week before growth started to pick up

It could be your light as well. What do you use?

I specialize in shorter, bushier indica-dominant strains that finish flowering at 40-48 inches tall. So if I run into a phenotype
like Super Bud that is tall and lanky I know to FIM or top early so she'll stay out of the light. If you want a tall strain to be bushy
instead of tall -- top after 2 weeks in dirt and leave in small 4-inch cup until you can tell the plant is mildly root-bound. You can tell
they are starting to get RB because you will see many more side-branching out of the main stem. After you see more side-branching
wait another week until several bottom leaves turn yellow. That's when I TP from the 4-inch pot into their final (usually) 3-gallon pot.

Good luck, BigSteve.

thanks for all the tips, and i use the good ole sun. i had an indoor garden, but since its outdoor season, i figured id do that. both are indica dominant strains.