Thanks that should help make root balls instead of roots running watering channels.
I can’t do hydro cause I can’t keep rez cool enough in summer time.
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If your soil is turning hydrophobic it tells me you are probably watering too infrequently, resulting in the roots drying out and dying. Let me know if the plants let off a smell right as you dunk the root ball.
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Hydrophobic soil isn’t the easiest thing to fix, but it should be doable.
In my grow I accidentally started my seedlings all in soil that was holding too much water. So I had the opposite problem as you @420noob.
Worm castings retain extra moisture. Maybe try mixing some of that in with the soil next time? Compost and biochar also hold moisture well, as does sphagnum peat (as long as it is not allowed to dry out, in which case it becomes hydrophobic - might be what happened to your current soil?)
Heck if you’re willing to experiment then you could transplant one of these out of the solo cup. Put it into a slightly bigger pot with a new soil mix that holds more water than the current soil.
I have an extra hand when comes to overwatering. I also had the heavy soil kill my seedlings as well. The hyperbolic soil is new issue for me i have recently added perilite and spaghnum.
ya that plant is struggling just showing how the roots are growing.
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Think about it like this, you want it to be wet all the time but dry aswell haha, sounds logical ? 
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Yep that sounds about right. 
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To be honest with you it really boils down to a solid consistent soil mix, less intervention as possible.
Dump the perlite, it’s not optimal
Switch to coco, peat and some ewc
Mostly coco though, something like 70/80% coco, 20/10% peat, and 10% ewc.
Follow the watering according to pot weight and your eyes and feel.
Good luck 
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So what ive done is take my normal soil mix and mixed it 50/50 with seedling mix. Im hoping thid will be airy enough for rootd to thrive and dry back easily. Also will provide some nutes from my “new” normal soil mix. Fingers crossed but it has worked okay on 3 clones so far.
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If that doesn’t work try Bruce Bugbee’s mixture w/ perlite if you want it drier and vermiculite if you need it to hold more water and nutrients.
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