lowering ph with vinegar

[johnb1963]

this is my first in-door grow. so i have a 2 gallon water jug, that i fill with tape water, let it sit 24 hours, then check the ph, it's about 8, so i add vinegar, wait about 30 mins, and recheck the ph. when it's at 6.5, I water. but when i water two days later, the ph is back over 8, so i have to add more vinegar. it this process bad for my plant. is it normal for the ph to go back up? what are your thoughts?

 

[johnb1963]

update, i just watered my plants, the water ph was 6.5, i tested the runoff, it was 7.8. what does that mean?

 

[Tersky]

https://www.growweedeasy.com/ph

EDIT: Dont know what happened to my text....i think i deleted it somehow. I meant to post that if your runoff is high then you need to lower the ph more. It explains it in the link i provided, though you may need to scroll to find it. So water with ph 6 next time or lower (just had some scissor hash and dont feel like doing math). I assume you are in soil with the ph's you are talking about. Ph fluctuations are perfectly normal as long as they are not sudden. As a plant takes up nutrients the ph will change. The goal is to keep it in the range.

I have never used vinegar to change my ph so i dont know if its bad for the plant so cant answer that.

 

[JohnEmad]

Hi johnb1963, I too have used vinegar to lower my waters ph but discovered the same thing. The ph goes up again. My research and some helpful folks explained that vinegar is an organic acid that is not stable and can lead to fluctuation in the res solution or water.
My best suggestion is to get some ph up or down as needed at your local grow shop.
As for the runoff I assume it depends on the type of growing medium you are using and if you have used higher ph'd water before, although I am not the best person to ask about runoff.

 

[johnb1963]

thanks guy, i appreciate the info.

 

[Rwise]

If you are in soil peat moss can be cut in to lower the PH, I too found vinegar to be short lived for PH down, and sulfur for long term,,,the sulfur and water slowly make sulfuric acid which lowers the PH

 

[quirk]

Much more stable than vinegar. My city water has a ph of 8.2. I use 1/8 tsp/gal to stabilize at 6.5.

 

[johnb1963]

thanks quirk, i'm going to get some.