Any ideas why my plants grow smaller compared to others?

I always see pictures on here and they say thats 14 days and then I look at my plants at say 14 days and they are like maybe half the size. I dont know why but at the beginning mine seem to grow really slow compared to others but then seem to pick up like after a month. Right now I have some autos planted 3/22 but they took like two days to break soil so its more like 3/24 and they are just barely growing their 3 pronged leaves. Is that slow for autos or normal? Theyre supposed to show sex at like 20 days.

I use half and half fox farms ocean forest and happy frog with 25% more perlite added.

What lights are you using?

Lights are a factor as well as the size of the container they are started in. (This pertains to soil, not sure about other methods.)

Mine usually seem to be a bit behind where everyone else says they are as well. I don't focus too much on counting days. Most important thing is that your plants stay healthy. The round I'm growing now stayed stunted for a couple weeks because I had the rapid rooters too wet... could be any number of reasons it happens? They're fine now, as yours should be soon.

I usually wait till sexual maturity before I flip regardless of day count from seed. These signs include the staggering of nodes and pre-flowers showing. The cool part about Autos though, you don't really have to worry about it. Just keep crankin em at full blast and they'll do what they do AFAIK, autos are all female as well... I'm quite sure I'll be lambasted if they're not, but I've not heard of auto males yet, so don't worry about them showing sex.

I also agree with BW, smaller containers help them establish a stable base sooner, and too much light isn't necessarily a good thing for young seedlings. I learned this recently.

Sorry guys I was baked earlier I left some details out. Ive been strictly an outdoor grower for the last couple of years. No lights, under the california sunshine. My grows before which were photoperiod plants I had started them in those 16oz red party cups. This spring grow im doing are autos so I planted them straight into 3 gallon pots. I only water when the pots get light and I stick my finger a few inches in the dirt and its dry.

I really have no idea why mine grow slower.

I guess my biggest question right now is that will my autos be fine growing slow? Like they dont show sex at a specific time right, its once theyve grown to a specific size?

To the guy that mentioned auto seeds are females. Most auto seed makers make them feminized so yeah most autos are females, but im gonna spray mine with colloidal silver to grow some bananas so I can make my own feminized auto seeds.

Yes, your auto will be fine. Again, mine was stunted from the start and I also topped mine as well, so it didn't really show sex until about 4-5 week mark. It's going strong now, just take a bit longer than what the breeder says to finish. No biggie for me as I'm waiting for a urinalysis atm... Mine was also planted directly into a 3 gallon smart pot as I didn't want to transplant it.

I've also dropped my lighting schedule from 20/4 to 18/6 and will be flipping to flower in a week or so, so I expect it to take even longer as well once down to only 12 hours of light. I'd just add a week or two to your original expected harvest time is all. Only reason they might not do well is if they were retarded/mutated somehow. Plus, your specific genetics may just not be AS AUTO as some other autos are, so might be the initial breeding as well? Depends on how dominant their initial auto variety was.

What are you growing if I might ask? Mine is Blimburn's Super Automatic, and is actually starting to get a nice cheesy funk to it

Hmm ok well thats good to hear.

Im growing Afghan Kush Ryder from WOS, Amnesia Auto from Dinafem, Cheese Candy from Delicious seeds, and Super Cheese Express from Postponics.