Using a soil acidifier to decrease ph
 

My containers this year are consistently showing a ph of 7.0. I like my ph lower, but its difficult with the alkaline water that we have for irrigation. I saw a ferti-lome product yesterday and bought it. Its soil acidifier with iron. Its a liquid, and I soil drenched a container with stupice in it. The ph was 7.0 before the soil drench, and was 6.5 after. I checked it again this morning after the container was watered, and it was 6.5 still.

Anyone have experience with doing this-using a product like this to decrease ph? I know my ph meter is not exactly accurate, but its ballpark.

I would like to know your thoughts and experience.

The gal at my local garden center says she uses coffee grounds...

Michael, your high ph is from your water as you said and not your aggregate. So you need to adjust the ph of the water before you use it. Same thing the Hydroponic folks do to their nutrient solution prior to giving it to the plants. Your best bet would be to get a holding tank where you can adjust the ph of the water and put in a pump, either submersable or inline to a hose to water your plants with. Run the output of the pump to a "T" with valves on both sides and have one side run back to the tank. This way when you add the phosphoric acid or whatever to lower the the ph of the water in the tank you can shut off the output to the hose and open the valve so it pumps back into the tank to facilitate the mixing of the water solution. I looked up the fertilome product you mentioned and think for container growing as we do it I would stay away from it and adjust the water like the Hydroponists do as previously mentioned. Ami

Thawley and Ami-thanks for your thoughts.

Ami-great idea, would be very difficult, since I live in the desert and have 50 containers, and they have to be watered sometimes 3 times a day, that would really be a chore-and my wife and I are often gone out of town for work-sometimes 2-3 days a week. I really appreciate your considered advice, will try and figure out how to do it.

Michael, hook up a drip system to the output of the pump. Set the pump on a timer and set it to how mant times and duration a day you want to water. They even have moisture sensors you can hook up to water timers that automatically turn on when the plants reach a certain moisture level. You can even have a pressure demand pump that maintains a constant pressure so you wouldn't need a timer on the pump, just an automated timer/moisture controlled valve hooked up to a drip system like I mentioned previously. Ami

Ami-thanks for the input. My brother is an engineer and very handy with his hands. He is coming out for a visit early May, and I will talk to him to see if we can accomplish this. Thanks.

I read some folks use apple cider vinegar 1-2 tablespoons per gallon to acidify container soil and also to leach salt away from the roots. Dont know if it works or not.

I use regular household (white) vinegar. 1 cup per gallon to water my container blueberries, which want a VERY low pH (4.5?). I'm not sure how much would be appropriate for tomatoes.

Some experimentation and litmus paper is probably in order.

Tomacco-I did experiment Sunday-used 2 tablespoons in gallon of water. Used it in a container that had an aging stupice plant-it brought the ph down to 6.5. Waiting to see how the plant reacts to this.