And now I think I may have solved the case of the stunted Bender. The soil by the base of the stem was one giant, dry, compact, heavy hunk and I'm pretty sure when the roots wanted to take off, the compact soil said no. Seems to me that would explain the dead cotyledons. I'm so heated about this right now. When I tried to break up the soil, I succeeded and in doing so, broke a bunch of shallow roots. Bender is going to get a small dose of water to maybe help break down that soil and hopefully I didn't kill her. .