Cheap ways to lower pH in water?

[Jaz]

I've just tested my tap water pH and it's a little high @ 7.5

Being a bit of a tightarse; are there cheap ways of lowering water pH?

I realise adding vinegar or lemon juice would do the trick but will this be healthy for my plants?

j

 

[Phytoplankton]

Your best bet is phosphoric acid, about $12 a quart/$30 a gallon, you only use a small amount, so it lasts a long time.you can use vinegar (white only) or lemon juice if you want.

 

[SmokingWings]

I've just tested my tap water pH and it's a little high @ 7.5

A couple of questions. Are you growing in soil or in a hydro type of set-up? Soil is usually a little more forgiving if the water pH is a bit on the high side.

And, is your water considered hard or have you checked it for higher amounts of minerals, etc? I have read that hardness and/or mineral levels can have an effect on how much 'pH down' to use or on how stable the water pH stays after treatment.

 

[Sueet]

To add further to what @SmokingWings said, I would ask what nutrients or inputs you are using, because many of them will pH the water for you, just by adding it so further adjustment may be less than necessary.

 

[Jaz]

Are you growing in soil?

Yes, soil in a pot.

is your water considered hard or have you checked it for higher amounts of minerals, etc?

No it isn't hard water and have not checked for higher amounts of minerals, etc.

I would ask what nutrients or inputs you are using because many of them will pH the water for you, just by adding it so further adjustment may be less than necessary.

Plant is in TurboDirt and supplementing with Root Roids and CalMag.

Also, plant is being moved from inside under LED to outside in full sun when it can get it.

Just want to make sure water pH isn't an issue, soil pH is fine.

j

 

[BeccaBuds]

Sprinkle a hundred or 200 milligrams per gallon ascorbic acid (vitamin C). It will lower the pH and cause chlorine and chloramine to drop out as a filterable solid. 2 for 1 deal of the day!

 

[SmokingWings]

Just want to make sure water pH isn't an issue, soil pH is fine.

Then you should be OK. I have read many msgs where the poster mentions that they no longer bother to try to the change the pH of their water when growing in any decent soil. Hydroponic styles of growing require constant monitoring and adjustment of water pH but not as much of an issue with growing in soil.

Seems to me that there has been mention of adding an amendment to the soil with the intention that whatever was added would help adjust the water's pH. This reduced the grower needing to be constantly checking and adjusting the water.

Or as @Sueet mentions sometimes the fertilizer or nutrients that are mixed into the water could lower it enough that even if every other watering is with the fertilizer it is enough to eliminate the worry. This would involve some testing of the water, mixing, waiting 15 to 20 minutes and testing again.

Being a bit of a tightarse; are there cheap ways of lowering water pH?

This is understandable but I feel that having to constantly check pH and then add something and retest gets to become more of chore than saving a few pennies every watering session is worth.

Have you tried filling a 5 gallon bucket and letting it sit for a day before testing? Then let it sit for another day or two before retesting? Sometimes the water will slowly drop the pH as it is exposed to the carbon dioxide in the air and the grower does not have to add anything.

 

[BeccaBuds]

My preceding statement is a little ambiguous as written... What I should have stated is: Sprinkle a hundred or 200 milligrams of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) per gallon of water.

No way to misinterpret this!

 

[Jaz]

Have you tried filling a 5 gallon bucket and letting it sit for a day before testing?

I fill a 2.5 litre bottle of water, it sits for however long and I top it up after waterings. That was the source I tested.

having to constantly check pH and then add something and retest gets to become more of chore than saving a few pennies every watering session is worth.

I agree, I don't plan on doing this regularly, more of an infrequent thing just to be sure my water is in the ballpark.
This is why I didn't want to spend a lot of money on 'pH down' products and get into the nitty gritty of working out how many ml per litre, etc.
If I know I have to add a few drops of vinegar every time I fill the bottle, I'm fine with that.

j

 

[Kapncannabis]

my well water tests 8.1, after addition of a tbls yuca, tsp kelp, tsp humic, it comes in around 6.3 to 6.6. I quit testing a while back. test plain water every now and again to make sure well water ph has not changed drastically.

 

[SmokingWings]

I agree, I don't plan on doing this regularly, more of an infrequent thing just to be sure my water is in the ballpark.
This is why I didn't want to spend a lot of money on 'pH down' products and get into the nitty gritty of working out how many ml per litre, etc.

Reading back through your msgs in the thread I am thinking that you will be better off buying a small bottle or container of a pH down product. Good chance that it will last a lot longer than you are thinking.

As for using vinegar the gardening community for houseplants, vegetables and ornamental plants seems to be divided on whether to use it for watering.

Since you are using a 2.5 liter bottle and topping off after watering it means that you will be in a situation of having to test every time. You will use up part of the bottle and then top off to bring it back up so each time could be a different amount of tap water. That means a different amount of a pH down needed to hit your desired pH number each time.

Best to refill after the entire amount in the bottle has been used. That way you will always be adding a per-determined amount of pH down to 2.5 liters.

It may be best to call the company and ask them if there is any real need to adjust the pH of the water when using the TurboDirt and Root Roids. They might be able to say that the soil will take care of the pH for you.

my well water tests 8.1, after addition of a tbls yuca, tsp kelp, tsp humic, it comes in around 6.3 to 6.6. I quit testing a while back. test plain water every now and again to make sure well water ph has not changed drastically.

Keep what Kap mentions in mind. Sometimes the water source changes with the seasons and the pH will go up or down whether with a water reservoir or well water.

 

[Jaz]

Best to refill after the entire amount in the bottle has been used. That way you will always be adding a per-determined amount of pH down to 2.5 litres.

Yes I realise. Topping up was my usual practice when I thought my water was @ neutral pH.

After reading the comments I may not bother with regular water testing and just keep testing the soil instead.

j

 

[SmokingWings]

Call the company first. They might have something already included in the soil mix to compensate for high pH water or lower pH water.

Doing testing on our own of our soils and getting the real numbers is not as easy to do as most of us think. There have been several threads that have gone into detail on this but I don't have the links to them.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

I've always found PH of water extremely funny whilst growing cannabis but this would mainly concern methods of hydroponic, inert growing mediums & soil !

The next question is have you got your head around the basic bull sizzle

What about out door growers & rain water along with all those atmospheric pollutions which your plants may asborb & by the act of inhaling.... you take in !



Ye totally complex

What about the veggies you eat... same question of water quality ?

Farmers field ?

How did the acidic rain water make the nutrients work in soil type... yes these are called loams & different PH values to grow global food produce... Have i missed some thing ?

 

[Mountainman80]

I've just tested my tap water pH and it's a little high @ 7.5

Being a bit of a tightarse; are there cheap ways of lowering water pH?

I realise adding vinegar or lemon juice would do the trick but will this be healthy for my plants?

j

I do no that cider vinegar is good for plants because I used it for almost 4years to lower pH in my water it works plants love it too u can also use apple cider vinegar to make traps for fungus knats just add dish soap to cider vinegar they will swarm to it

 

[SmokingWings]

What about out door growers & rain water along with all those atmospheric pollutions which your plants may asborb & by the act of inhaling.... you take in !

The questions on the pH of rainwater was something I looked up several years ago out of curiosity. The usual pH of rain water is 5.0 to 5.5 according to the US EPA. The pH is influenced by the carbon dioxide and other naturally occurring compounds that can be in the atmosphere which will form acids as they mix with the water in the air.

The acid rain issue that came up in the 1980s is rarely mentioned any more and I figure that as more factories, power plants and other sources of air pollution installed scrubbers in their smoke stacks or switched over to other fuels which are cleaner burning. Who wants a coal burning power plant in their neighborhood when natural gas can be used.

With the average rain being a bit on the acid side we can look at what happens when it falls. We know that some of the elements, micro-organisms and organic materials in the soil will slowly change the pH of the water as it moves through the soil so the acid is gone and by the time the water enters the aquifers it is closer to a neutral pH. However, the water can pick up dissolved minerals in the soils, sands and stone and it becomes alkaline and be called hard and have a higher pH.

The pollutants in the atmosphere that you mention are not as big of a problem now as they were 100 or 75 or even 50 years ago. Yes, they are still there but the amounts have been dropping steadily. Same with the water in rivers and lakes. The levels of pollutants are lower now than they were years ago.

Still have to come up with ideas on what @Jaz can do about his 8.5 pH tap water. We know that the soil can change the pH of slightly acidic water but how much can it do with water that is alkaline. Did the company that built and sold the soil mix that he is using put something in the soil that will help to change the pH?