First Time Growing Anything

A good week. My best performing plant went from 9 inches tall all the way to 17 inches - I'm raising my lights 3 inches at a time every 2 to 3 days. Still not seeing any indication that pistils are developing, so at 38 days after they first sprouted from the soil, I'm saying these are still in the vegetative stage. I see that most White Widow Autoflower growers are getting into flower by week 5, so hopefully I'll see things moving in that direction fairly soon. I started out half of my plants with 1/4 strength Fox Farms Grow Big and Big Bloom this week. The other half are growing in Fox Farms Coco Loco which is supposed to carry enough nutrients on it's own to negate the need for fertilizing until things move into flower. This week's "nice but not necessary" purchase was a Blumat digital tensiometer used to quantify the amount of moisture in soil. I've used it through a couple of watering cycles now and I'm pretty impressed. One thing I learned is that the water/light/ph meter (the kind with the green plastic head and two soil prongs that is sold under a variety of names on Amazon for around $15) is actually pretty reliable, at least as far as moisture goes. When the Blumat tells me I'm right in the middle of the zone for moisture, the needle on my old $15 sensor is pegging right in the middle. If nothing else, the new sensor tells me I can trust the old sensor! Considering that my wife has 2 grow tents and half a bedroom filled with tomato plants and uses the $15 sensors for watering it's actually pretty useful to know they can be trusted. Side Note: I'm amazed at the similarities between growing tomatoes and growing cannabis. Which begs the question "Why can't I buy cannabis for the same $5 a pound that tomatoes cost?" hmmmmm.... - sorta makes a guy wonder. Maybe some cannabis culture old timers can weigh in and share some perspective on that. Has legalization created competition and driven down prices over time, or is the whole "system" just set up to squeeze money out of consumers?