Separate mothers roots/ transplanting into netpots

I have large mothers and I need to separate their roots for transplanting into RDWC 13 gallon buckets with 8-inch netpots. The mothers (4 feet, 6 months old)were grown in a 20 gallon res and over time their roots merged into 1 large mass.

2 Questions: 1- Best way to separate the root mass so each of the 3 mothers can go into the flower room (they are getting too big, I'll replace the moms with cuttings).

2- How to fit each plants root mass (when separated) into the 8" netpot. I'm concerned about drowning the roots if I cut a hole in the bottom of netpot to let the roots dangle in the water. OR if I don't cut a hole in netpot and just coil up this big root mass and cover it with hydroclay that it will dry out before roots grow thru basket. How high up the root mass do I want the water level to be?

Please check out my other posts for a specific description of the Under Current system I'm running.

You better concentrate on those little ones in there... they look not so well. Baby steps...

Separating your roots might be impossible.. I've never heard of it being done, keep us posted on your solutions.

Hope this helps some. I have on the past in a fit of paranoia cut all the roots off the bottom of a mother and dropped it in a rubbishbag. A week later when the paranoia went away i put it back in a 6 inch net pot and back in Dec and it grew new roots and didn't die. It took a few weeks to recover though.
Long story short they can lose most of their roots and still bounce back. You can coil the roots into a pot and it will be fine.

The plant is a weed and as such i treat it like one.
Treat it mean and keep it keen.

Good luck.