Over crowding/ how do I seperate roots?

I was blessed with all girls from what I can tell and Im at the point I said I'll worry about if it happens...crowding. Because of crowding along with every other issue that can go wrong I have 2 stunted plants that won't make the cut. How do you seperate the roots without killing the rest. Being I had issues the entire time my root system isn't that thick. whats some advice on how to do it right? Thanks

12 days into flowering by the way....

It sounds like your roots have grown into each other,I have had the same problem and tryed to seperate them the best I could by hand but ended up cutting some that were just to tangled.they made it through the cutting just fine, way better than I exspected.just dont cut any of the fatter tap roots and they will be fine but you will have to change your res and maybe wash away the dead roots in a couple of days and keep a close eye out for dead roots in the res,and it sure does help to have somebody to help with the untangleing and cutting good luck

I just pull them apart with a gentle hand avoiding any cuts of any sort. Take your time since the roots are vital to the plants survival.
The more important thing is to change your setup to make sure this does not keep happening. I let it happen to me last time and ended up fucking up some of my plants big time.

Gotcha preciate the help. +rep

There are two methods I use for separating roots. Either doing it dry or in water.

An easy way of doing it, is letting the soil completely dry out and gently shaking the medium until both roots from each plant separates.

Or when the soil is extra compact, i sometimes get a bucket of water and submerge the root mass into the water. Gently shaking and loosening the roots from one another. Rinsing the parts where the roots are extremely entangled.

There is no easy way of doing it, but i wish you the best of luck.