Based on your watering description, things are not as bad as I first assumed. It sounds like you are mostly letting them dry out between waterings, and the only advice I can give you regarding that is to not pay attention to the top of the soil, your concern is that last inch of container, where you can see the roots in the holes in the bottom. If it is dry down there, and almost to the point of wilting, it is time to water. The lift method is good in managing this, because when it is dry to the bottom, the container will feel feather light. Enough on that right now though, it turns out that your bigger problem is pH.
I like your diagnosis of a calcium deficiency... that is also what I think it is. The pH of the water that you give is too high and needs to be adjusted to 6.5 every time. When you add nutes to your water, that will bring down the pH, and I imagine that if you have been giving nutes every other time, a sort of see-saw battle has been going on in that container between waterings as far as the pH is concerned, but the overall net effect is that calcium has been locked out.
Make sure that every fluid that hits the plants is adjusted to 6.5 pH, and I think your problems will stop progressing. Your plants are definitely female and could go to flower any time.. I would wait until you have solved this deficiency problem and had graduated them to about a 3 gallon container... right now they look a little scrawny, and I doubt you would end up harvesting more than a few grams from each one of them.