Do the pots have good drainage. The top of the soil may be dry, but the bottom of the roots may be under water.
By the way subscribed.
it has decent drainage i guess, its a normal pot, one big hole in the bottom of it, the pot sits in a tray, just a typical pot. i dont water again until i can stick my finger all the way in the dirt and not feel moisture though, ive never had a problem with over-watering "yet" using this method, just a it of mal-nutrition. the soil has no nutes in it, and i wasnt giving any nutes for a while.
Well i just read this entire post and i haven't seen you mention anything about ph. Do you have a ph meter? What are you using to water? I find distilled water is the best.
no PH meter, and i just use tap water. the soil has trace ammounts of NPK so im not sure what that does to the PH level.
__________________
Ok, Update. Its FINALLY starting to bud. the first day of 12/12 was 5/27. I thought the buds were just new nodes growing, until they grew out for another day or two and i got a better look at them as they got bigger, and even though you cant see it in the pictures very well, the "buds" are more or less a big clump of hairs.
I count 10 top bud sites. i cant see any bottom buds showing yet