What happens to roots in a Heath style grow

What happens to all the roots in a setup like Heaths octagon grow? Do the plants in the top holes just end up matting with the plants next to it? Does this impede water flow? I would asumming that after a grow all the roots would be intertwined within each other. Im just trying to grasp the idea since it seems like roots should be given as much space as possible and in this system there is not really much room.

My guess would be that they would be swept in the direction of the water flow, depending on you spacing there may be some overlapping or entanglement, but when the system gets flooded would it really matter?

there's a user named jigfresh on the 600 thread that runs a similar system. He's active and hopefully won't mind the name drop
he may be able to give you a more detailed answer

ok spray your hair they all wont get wet, stick your head in a fish tank every hair no matter how matted will get as wet as every other hair......or root, there may be some issues like you said with plants roots growing into each other, wouldnt be water or nute direct problems, maybe caused by choking if any negatives

Not a problem until its time to yank them out!! They have plenty of space. It does impede water flow and I had to tip the tubes further to get fast enough drain off for my taste. I run stinkbud aero/nft and ended up w/ one end about 6in higher. my tubes were about 7-8ft long w/ 4-5 plants in each tube vegged 2months