Yeah, it's a lot easier to start fresh in coco if a lockout happens, or deficient, because you can wipe everything out of it fast, and start the nutes over in a diff dose or etc. Soil isn't inert, so it has a varying level of npk per bag and batch. So you gotta know if it's a lockout, or deficiency, and etc. While being able to treat it, knowing not matter how much you flush, theres still gonna be stuff in it you have to acc for while using additives or not. But you already knew that, it's just backlash from the other thread it seems.
I would never flush my soil, not necessary. Lockout simply doesn't occur to any extent that would cause me to have to interfere with it. I certainly wouldn't flush if I noticed a deficiency... I would do something to actually correct it.
Coco coir isn't exactly inert, either, certainly not in the sense that rockwool and perlite are. The properties of coco coir can vary quite a bit depending on the source and treatment prior to sale. There are different grades of coir and it is often rinsed with a buffering solution (with calcium and magnesium to displace the sodium) and may also be composted for some period of time. These practices reduce the occurrence of calcium/magnesium lockout. Coir is naturally high in K and may also have decent phosphorous content. Therefore it is not totally devoid of nutrients, and it has a
cation exchange capacity.
Cations are positively charged ions: including Na+, K+, Ca++, Mg++, etc. They are attracted to soil/humus/clay/coco/peat particles, which possess an opposing (negative) charge. This more or less prevents the cations from leaching out of the media, although they will still most likely be plant available. Calcium and magnesium are examples of
divalent cations and as such are more strongly held than sodium (monovalent).
I include coco coir in my potting soil, which is a living soil that includes predator mites and other micro-arthropods as well as beneficial microbes. It is amended prior to planting in, with guano being the strongest thing used. The plants form symbiotic associations with various microbes (fungi such as mycorrhizae and trichoderma, and bacteria that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere) which help it acquire nutrients and resist pathogens, and the soil food web sustains itself and the plant as it would in nature. I provide humic\fulvic acids and sometimes blackstrap with the irrigation water, and AACT occasionally. Even if something else is needed, infrequently, it is usually not a major problem and doesn't require me to account for every little thing in the soil.
No lockout, no flushing, no pHing anything, no problems. Just sayin.
