The bit about potassium "blocking the uptake" of calcium is not necessarily an "at that moment" thing, that is, not mixing your Magi-cal with fertilizer may not be the fix you think.
Potassium binds very well and preferentially with plant tissues and with potting media. Unless it's fresh, your potting mix might have tons of K in it anyway.
Interestingly (to me anyway), Rick's original hypothesis came from his studies related to toxicity in molluscs - not plants at all. When I started discussing it with him, I started to see parallels with the mineral systems used in ceramics, which is more my field, and that's what gained my "buy in" - with some skepticism.
Some of my recent findings - thinking simply in terms of chemical systems and energy states - puts me WAY out on a "suppositional limb": When an ion goes into solution, energy is released [FACT], so I am assuming that in order to extract that ion from the (fertilizer) solution, the plant must pump some energy back in [SUSPICION ONLY - but it makes some sort of sense]. Potassium happens to have one of the lowest enthalpies of solution of the mineral ions, suggesting that the plant has to expend less energy to take it back out of solution again, hence giving it preferential uptake, at the expense of others.
|