I have made a big mistake and overused white vinegar to bring my PH back to 6.2 from 7.8 and immediately sufered nutrient lockout. But its not a fatal outcome as I can still flush large amounts of normal tap water through the soil medium to the roots and out for good balanced drainage. What can I do to counteract the Acidic impact of the vinegar on these beautiful early veg Indica plants? Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Overuse of white vinegar generated major toxic lockout
- Thread starter 7thSense
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Any damage done, is done. You can flush them well, reset the soil and continue, my suggestion for lowering PH is phosphoric acid. My water is about 7.5, a capful or two of phosphoric acid will bring the ph down to about 5.8 in 6 gallons of water. I would not try and add a base to counteract the acid, just flush it.
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Dont know what’s in PH Down, if It’s H3PO4. Then it’s the same, don’t know how strong it is.
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Yes it is Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) 80% strength
My impression was that Nutrient Lockout affected one of the macro nutrients and maybe a few of the micro nutrients. Do you know which one was affected? Attention to that might might be needed to bring the plant back to normal. A photo of the plant might help tell which one was locked out.
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Thanks SW the pics are quite self explanatory and these are before and after shots. I'm struggling now and I don't think there is a come back now.
Sueet
Well-Known Member
You are correct, the plants in pic 2 are dead 
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Can you believe it 50ml of white vinegar to take a 6.8 down to 5.2 in soil PH and this devastation just happened in a heart beat. Second generation mother plant seedlings...gone!You are correct, the plants in pic 2 are dead
Lockout didn’t kill them, the roots were destroyed by the acid. Unfortunate to say the least. Dump the soil and start over.
That sure is high if that's per gallon
I've been using only 2ml/gl to bring my 8+ tap water down to the mid 6.5 +/- range for the past year with no problems.
What are you using to test your water?
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That amount was for 8 gallons of pure prill water
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That might have been the problem. The Prill will make water alkaline. Then the vinegar has to be added to bring it back down to slightly acid.
It does not sound right. Way to high even in 8 gallons of water. When you say "....down to 5.2 in soil PH" do you mean you were measuring the pH of the soil.
That is not lockout. As phytoplankton says, it looks like the roots were destroyed.
I have seen white vinegar labeled as being "for cleaning" but I don't know what the difference is between that and the white vinegar used for cooking, pickling, and so on.
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Yes that's correct. Now this is very interesting what you said about Prill water making normal tap water Alkaline hence the higher PH reading. So what should I use when I fill my 2 gallon container with Prill water to make it more acidic?
Don't use the Prill water. Use the tap water without the Prill to fill your container and then pH adjust. If you are Prilling the water because of taste or some other reason the soil micro-organisms and the plant itself do not care about the 'taste'.
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