The buckets are 4 gallons and the soil was a first attempt at some home made mix of super soil.
I have noticed in the past that it you plant using Jiffy Pellets and leave the netting around the pellet that it retards the roots and prevents them from growing out very much. I take the netting off before planting and that seems to help.
This was the first time I ever used Root Riot plugs and the same thing happened to them even though there is no netting. The roots don't seem to expand outwards very much. The picture shows the majority of the roots in a 4 gallon bucket with 2 months vegging.
I just wanted to ask you guys if you have seen this and what the cause might be.
This is the Root Riot. I don't have pics of the previous Jiffy Pellets.