Need help. Root problems are slowing my plants growth down

i'm running an aeroponics amazon system and my roots are growing very peculiarly, they look healthy but rather than growing out of the net pot they seem to be trapped and not wanting to grow vertically downwards, if anyone could advise me I would really appreciate it & if any one has trouble understanding what the problem is I can up a picture of the roots.

Plant is healthy no signs of stress, I just think this root issue is stopping them from optimum growth

How long have you had them in the netpot and what growing medium do you use? clay pellets? rockwool?

no growing medium roots are suspended in the air they stay in the netpots for the whole harvest, this is my first grow

ohh so it's basically held by the stem with like a neoprene collar and the roots are hanging in mid air getting misted by the aeroponics misters?

can you put up a pic so i can see exactly what and how ur plants look?

aSsCrAcKeR said:

can you put up a pic so i can see exactly what and how ur plants look?

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heres a pic, as you can see the roots will not grow down, thats the worst of the two plants

Looks like you are air pruning your roots..

Hi zooty. I'm no expert but I reckon you should have a shit load more roots than that for a plant of that size. Are your sprinklers working properly? What size pump are you using? Perhaps there is a blockage some where.

zooty said:

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heres a pic, as you can see the roots will not grow down, thats the worst of the two plants

Click to expand...

Looking at your pic i can see thatyou put the plant in the net cup without hyroton aka clay pellets you've just put the whole rootball into the netcup without any growing medium in between the roots to allow air pockets and space out the roots so it can grow out the holes of the netpots. it looks like the roots are growing into the pots more then out because theres no growing medium to to force the roots out. Are you air pruning aswell?

What is going on in the system what size pump what size sprays this will be your problem

looks like the roots is filling the airspace inside the pot before it wants to grow out and under. it's aeroponics so he's getting water everywhere in that reserve even inside the netpot i doubt it's the system

aSsCrAcKeR said:

looks like the roots is filling the airspace inside the pot before it wants to grow out and under. it's aeroponics so he's getting water everywhere in that reserve even inside the netpot i doubt it's the system

Click to expand...

the system is fine and no growing medium is necessary, i've seen people use the same system just fine and their roots explode.

what exactly is meant by root pruning?

Also the roots were an inch or two longer before but on this plant I managed to rip some off when trying to free them up from the pot, the other plant has longer roots

anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do here

air or root pruning is when u cut or trim your roots. Anyways your right you don't have to use growing medium with net pots but sometimes especially with aeroponics because the water is misted or sprayed all inside the rez tank the roots with grow inside the netpot and because your not using growing medium to force the roots to grow out from the pots it's growing inside, do u get how i'm explaining it? roots will naturally grow out and seek the water outside the netpot but in your case 1: you have no modium, 2: your using aeroponic mister in which is providing water inside the netpot to feed so it does'nt need to grow out the pot. untill all the space is filled by your roots then it will grow out elsewhere. your plant will be ok aslong as ur roots arent brown, dont trim the roots either just let it do it's thing and grow.

yes I understand, thanks for helping me out I appreciate it.

Air pruning is the reason roots don't grow out of the bottom of pots.The roots hit air and light and no water and they stop. You don't need medium in a net pot for the roots to grow out. I have much smaller plant with about 18 inches root in an ez cloner. How much spray is being produced when the pump is on?

The pump is always on. The roots are constantly being sprayed by the 360 sprayers, that is certainly not the issue I think

maybe I should put the pots in the holes where there is less spray and see how that works.

How much root does the other plant have?

The roots hang down about 3-4 inches, but there is still more sideways growth than vertical. The plant i upped a pic of has a couple inches of roots but I accidently ripped them off when I was trying to free them up a bit. Plant is still fine though

So I assume the pump is a maxi jet 1000 and you can see a real good spray of nutrient solution yes?