Roots take their nutrients from the soil. The soil is negatively charged and binds nutrient cations to hold them for roots to actively uptake the preferred ion depending on its growth stage. If these nutrients are not bound to the soil they get flushed away by water.
Interactions of charges are described by coulombs law and basically says that a stronger ionic bond is formed by aa larger charge or a smaller distance between the opposite charges. Thats why pH is so important. The hydrogen cation is very small and easily binds with the soil. So other bigger cations get flushed away.
Another factor is concentration. A large concentration of a certain cation balances the binding equilibrium of all cations towards the cations that are present in a larger concentartion.
But Potassium has negative influence on the uptake of manganese. Why?
Potassium has an ionic radius is a lot bigger than that of manganese. Manganese also has two carges (+2).
But then again. Potassium is present in a far larger concentration in general. In my case PK:Mn = 1 : 0,06.
Is this caused by the balance caused by this concentration balance. And why are other small cations not effected?