Thanks for the comments, low_rdr! I'm here to learn. <g>

I'm thinking that this is all about the soil (in this case, coco, which has no nutes). Plant #1 is almost 3 weeks in, and growth seemed incredibly slow until nutes were added. Now, it seems nute burned with a light mixture -- seriously, this is it's first taste of any food, but it's started to grow. I think, anyway. My thought is that if you plant a seedling in a coco/perlite mix and just water it, it will never grow because there is no food. Be aware that I have zero clue what I'm doing here, tho.

My "process" so far has been to germinate the seeds in paper towels (in Baggies). This seems to work well, and I'm using commercial seed from Herbie's. They germinate fast (24-48 hours). These are planted in the coco/perlite mix in a Solo cup and watered with nothing but pH adjusted tap water. Once in this mix, they seem to sprout okay, but don't grow at all.

I agree with the overwatering -- cutting back on that and the 1/3 cup of water seems about right to me. The cups do have drain holes. I use a "clear" Solo cup for the coco and put that inside another Solo cup to catch the runoff. Plant #1 has roots I can see that are growing at the edge of the clear cup. This plant has serious roots, but is lacking on leaves. Looking forward to when transplanting is even an issue.

Anyway, I know this is going to be a learning deal and greatly appreciate the advice. Many years ago, I threw a few bagseeds into a pile of dirt, and it worked out better than what I'm seeing today with all this hifallutin stuff. But, I am patient.