Using lemon juice to lower water Ph when growing in Super Soil concentrate

[JimG]

This is my first time growing using Nature's Living Soil. I have great tap water with no trace of chlorine in any form. The TDS is about 150ppm. The Ph comes out at 7.2. I am reducing it to 6.6 using lemon juice. I am looking for input from others using lemon juice to organically lower Ph.

Thanks
Jim

[Rwise]

How well it works depends on the water and what is in it, in my tap water the PH returns to what it was in about 12 hours. My tap water is from a public source and has chloramine in it along with buffers to keep it at 7.1 PH. Its those buffers that cause it to revert. Good luck

[Gingerbeard]

Lemon juice some water and check the pH. Check it again every hour and see what happens.
In this forum, I cannot recall anyone with other than problems using lemon juice when considering consistency in results.
No chlorine in any form. Does that mean no chloramines? What is the source?

[Rwise]

Must be well water.

[bdeegan]

I struggle with the other end of ph (i have acidic water). That said, I grow organically and did not want to use general hydro ph adjusters. I wound up using Nectar for the Gods ph up (and their liquid nutes) with great success. Check out their “Hades Down” for lowering ph.

[Orggrwr]

Baking soda works well as an organic ph down also.edit, sorry, meant ph up.

[Orggrwr]

I use citric acid crystals to organically lower ph for soil grows. Either those or the juice is fine as long as you use it pretty soon after mixing. I don't do hydro but I understand they don't work well because the ph can drift over time. Honestly in living soil you shouldn't have to worry about it with a ph of 7.2. The microbes in living soil adjust the ph on their own as long as it's not way out of range.

[crucialbunny]

I thought that one of the primary benefits of using living soil was so the micro-organisms in that soil maintained a balanced PH?

[Bluey]

They do if you have heaps of soil and don't overwater.

[Bluey]

I use lemon juice to lower also and it holds stable for more than a week with my nutes and rainwater but some nutes it doesn't.

I grow in coco.

In soil there are other alternatives you can mix into the soil to help with that.

It might work well for you, it may not. Lots of variables. The only way to know for sure is to do a test in your water with the nutes you'll be using. pH test it a few times over the first few hours then every day to see if it holds stable. If it does then test on your plants in soil.....fingers crossed.

[JimG]

Thanks Testing solution Ph stability. The lemon juice has held up for 24 hours. That is enough for my use.

[Rwise]

That would work for myself as well.

[Bluey]

Good stuff. I recommend you dilute it for storage and then dilute it more before adding to your nute mix.

I store it mixed 50/50 with rainwater.