Strawberry Tower

[centralFlaJack]

I used 2" net pots with the bottom cut out so I could get the roots through and keep the crown out of the nutrients. I have 28 sites on the tower. The plants started to show green leaves almost immediately but then there was a general pause while new roots developed. Then, some seemed to dry up and those showed no new roots. I had some spares and I swapped out the "sick" looking plants. I also moved the ones with heavy old roots to the bottom thinking they were blocking the smaller plants. But today I noticed one of the plants had slid in the net pot so that the crown was getting wet. This plant seemed very healthy with new white roots abundant.
Was I wrong to keep the crowns out of the nuts? Should I allow the nuts to wet the crowns for a week and then pull them up? I did not use the clay stones in the net pots. Is that an issue?