I haven't used auto pots, but did some research because I was going to try it a while back. With auto pots, you water from the top until the leaves reach the edge of the pot. Then turn on the auto pot system. Your watering looks a bit flawed from the pictures. When watering early on, water around the outside of the leaves and continue out. It seems you watered around the base of the plant to the edge of the leaves. This will not allow the roots to stretch out to find water, since the only water provided is where the roots are currently sitting. When you water away from the leaves, the roots go searching for water. Also make sure watering enough. If you arent watering enough for the water to reach the bottom of the pot, youre gonna have superficial roots and slow growth. And by water, I hope you mean with fertilizer. Coco has no nutes in it. Have to feed from day 1. What is above the media is close to a match to what the size of the roots are. So small plants small roots. Takes time for small plants to use up all the water. You water less often when small. Then as the plant size increases, your watering amounts and times will increase.
Just my thoughts,
Best of luck! Happy Growing!