Buffering & Pot Sizing
Why raw coco steals your Cal-Mag, how CEC and buffering actually work, and how to size pots for SOG crop-steering — with a Coco Buffering SOP.
8 min read
Coco is hydroponics that forgives you
Coco coir behaves like hydroponics but forgives more than rockwool, because it carries a cation exchange capacity (CEC) of roughly 40–100 meq/100 g (raw coco commonly ~90–100). Those exchange sites buffer the root zone — they hold and slowly release Ca, Mg, and K, so root-zone EC responds slowly to recipe changes. That buffering is coco's superpower and its trap.
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