smart pots in ebb n flow?

my buddy has a ebb system and he is getting ready to grow but was told by a local shop to use smart 3 gal smart pots inside the table. which in time would then have to add more hydroton around bags to cover the roots. leaving in the end a big matted bed of rock wool and roots right? what are ur guys thoughts?

I use Air Pots. Fill mostly with lava rock and cap with river rock or ornamental stones from dollar store. I start with small APs, once plants outgrow them I transfer the whole AP into a larger one and infill with more lava rock.

Instead of flooding I use low pressure spray from the top. This method requires 1/10th the nutes

You can use any pots you want. Thousands of successful growers say the 6 inch plastic pots are great. You do not NEED any specific type of container. Persnally I would never use hydroton loose.

A 3 gallon Smart pot should be plenty big enough to grow a big plant on a flood table. If I decided to use them I'd let them air prune and keep the root mass inside the pot since that's the whole point of using Smart Pots. If your going to put hydroton around the pots just use a regular pot or net pot. Much cheaper. Sounds like the hydro store was just pushing the expensive products instead of giving helpful advice.

thanks for all the input fellow growers