Hi Chuck,

I am not sure your system is going to work efficiently. The job of roots is to absorb nutrients by osmosis, then literally pump the nutrients up to the leaves.
The job of leaves is to take in energy from sunlight (or artificial light that passes for sunlight) and convert those nutrients into protoplasm for plant growth. The leaves also expel Carbon Dioxide, usually from stomata located on their underside.

Correcting a deficiency in certain plants is possible by foliar spray, e.g., a spray of dilute Iron EDTA is used to correct an Iron deficiency ... but the roots are not sitting in water. Scotts, the lawn fertilizer people have a procedure to "force-feed" a lawn, that involves applying their fertilizer to a lawn very early of a morning while dew is still on the grass. The dew partly dissolves the fertilizer and the leaves presumably absorb some of the ingredients which have the effect of giving the lawn quite a boost.

Now, you intend to put the roots in water, which should at least keep the plant alive if there is sufficient Oxygen in the water. Next you intend to spray nutrient up on to the underside of the leaves ... where they expel Carbon Dioxide, or on to the top of the leaves ... where they gather solar energy.

You will probably get some absorption of nutrients (like Scotts fertilizer on lawns, above), but I doubt whether it will give sustainable growth. It may take in some of the trace elements such as Iron, and possibly some of the Nitrogen.

Anyhow, I wish you luck with your endeavours.

Your endeavours remind me of a famous saying:

"Somehow every organisation must make room for inner-directed, obstreperous, creative people, sworn enemies of routine and the status quo, always ready to upset the apple cart by thinking up new and better ways of doing things."
Hyman G. Rickover.
(Admiral Rickover was the "Father" of the huge American Atomic Submarine Project.)

Cheers,
Jimr007

what type of plants are you going to use? stomates are located on the bottoms and or tops of leaves depending on the type of plant. also the time of day you feed might be important.

i wonder how foliar feeding effects taste of plants?

Hi, well, the roots will not be floating in water, they will be in plain pots filled with a medium such as pond gravel, or acrilite clay agragate. The plan is to eventialy use a compost tea on the plants, but for now, I will be using a weak mix of some schultz 10-15-10 plant food plus micro nutrients. I found it intresting that the packaging has hydroponics included in its applications. I will apply the nutrients using a small plastic bottle sprayer to the leaves. A few drops of dish soap as a wetting agent is mixed in as well. I have been spraying several potted peppers for a while.