One thing I read about low soil/root temperatures, in crops, was low soil temperature inhibits the effect of high nutrient supply on photosynthetic responses resulting in slower growth. I have never read an optimal root/soil temperature for cannabis plants but when the temperature around my root zone remains roughly between 70 and 75 degrees I see better growth. When it has dropped to around 62 to 67 I have seen a noticable slowing down of growth. Something else I read about low soil/root temperatures in crops is low soil/root temperatures cause a differentiation of root tissues, possibly through effects on carbohydrate supply to root meristems slowing down cell division and creation.
Where I first saw it while growing, and then what caused me to later read how root temperature in crops makes a difference, is I switched pot sizes once, the one time I dropped down to a 4-gallon sized pot, and the large thick clay-looking plastic drip trays I used with my 7-gallon pots just didn’t work well, the fit was way off. Being in a hurry I purchased some cheap thin plastic drip trays that were a perfect fit. I started out some seedlings and growth was almost non-existent. Everything else I was doing was exactly what I had done in the past so at first I thought it was the plants.
Later, much later, after much scratching of my head, I placed a thermometer in one of the then empty plastic drop trays on the floor, which was my basement floor and took a reading and then did the same thing using one of the thick plastic clay-looking drip trays. I do not recall the temperatures but there was roughly a four-degree difference. Evidently the thick plastic clay-looking drip trays insulated the bottoms of the pots from the cold basement floor enough to keep the soil in them slightly warmer and the difference was enough to cause slow growth. I have grown the same strains again from the same group of seeds using my larger pots and larger thicker drip trays and I have not seen the same slow growth, nor have I see it with anything else since. It was the only time I have had growth so slow that after days I could go back and look at the plants and they looked like I was looking at a photograph of them from days or more back. They looked healthy, the color was good, what leaves were there did not show signs of any problem … but they just remained tiny for what seemed like forever.