Adding lemon juice or vinegar for high ph

spacetogrow · March 15, 2014

Can anyone think of any problems that might arise if I occasionally dose garden plants with lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar if they are well diluted?

Folks at my community garden say the soil was much better there before the city tried to improve it a couple of years ago. Poorly composted leaves in massive quantity seem to have been the majority of what was added, so I think the city didn't mess anything up long-term.

A few people sent in soil test samples last year and it looks like all the major stuff is fine except very low nitrogen and quite high ph, both of which will probably normalize any year now as the added stuff finishes breaking down and getting "digested"; therefore, I don't want to try to decrease the ph using anything that will have a long-lasting effect.

Last year, I added finished compost and good nitrogen stuff when transplanting. The peppers failed to thrive for some weeks until I found out about the high ph. I just dosed them with old lemon juice (diluted) that hadn't been polished off before the "Best by" date. All of the pepper plants perked right up after that but it may just have been because the soil had FINALLY warmed up.

Some of my friends might have lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar that is as old as mine was. Can anyone think of any problems that might arise if I occasionally dose plants with those items if they are well diluted?

March 15, 2014	#1
spacetogrow Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: MN zone 4 Posts: 359	Adding lemon juice or vinegar for high ph Can anyone think of any problems that might arise if I occasionally dose garden plants with lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar if they are well diluted? Folks at my community garden say the soil was much better there before the city tried to improve it a couple of years ago. Poorly composted leaves in massive quantity seem to have been the majority of what was added, so I think the city didn't mess anything up long-term. A few people sent in soil test samples last year and it looks like all the major stuff is fine except very low nitrogen and quite high ph, both of which will probably normalize any year now as the added stuff finishes breaking down and getting "digested"; therefore, I don't want to try to decrease the ph using anything that will have a long-lasting effect. Last year, I added finished compost and good nitrogen stuff when transplanting. The peppers failed to thrive for some weeks until I found out about the high ph. I just dosed them with old lemon juice (diluted) that hadn't been polished off before the "Best by" date. All of the pepper plants perked right up after that but it may just have been because the soil had FINALLY warmed up. Some of my friends might have lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar that is as old as mine was. Can anyone think of any problems that might arise if I occasionally dose plants with those items if they are well diluted?