If yo u know what kind of fertilizer to use and how to use it, is half the battle. If you don’t have time to watch your tree growing, don’t know what more to say. Reading stuff on forums Could add more to confusion.

Not super confused, just thought it would be an interesting discussion. Though I likely opened a can of worms. My best option right now is likely to just adjust the water for that one tree, since it's sensitive to the alkalinity, but I was curious if anyone has found something for the soil surface or as a future additive to the soil that will "add the vinegar" so to speak so you don't need to worry about watering. (I use the same watering can for a few plants that are rather sensitive to vinegar, so I have to clean the watering can after I water my single tree so as not to harm them, not a problem, just a slight nuisance). I'm one of those who likes to experiment to find simpler ways to do things if I can get away with it, and I'm always curious if anyone has found a more convenient solution when I do run into something. I know there are likely others on here that have alkaline water in the tap and I know there are often many solutions that work. Just want to know if there is something a little more convenient is all.

After using a can with vinegar water there is hardly any vinegar left in the can and if you fill that empty can with plain water the dilution will be so high that I am pretty sure no harm will come to anything. Vinegar is a very very weak acid unlike something like say sulfuric acid. What I am saying is there is no need to wash that can before filling up again as long it was emptied.

Tropic, high or low.?

Necessary for a couple of my epiphytes who are really sensitive to even the tiniest amount of vinegar. Don't usually soap wash the can, but rinse it out a few times to further dilute it and make sure that it's gone. As I said before, I'm not extremely new to this, I've kept tropicals for awhile, (though not as long as some here and I definitely still have a lot to learn). Just curious and thought it might be worth a discussion.

Bob, I guess you are referring to "dilution will be high" - meaning it will be highly diluted or I could have said concentration will be low.

bonsai_citrus: what kind of epiphytes are these? That will be an interesting class of plants since in nature it will be hard to avoid some kind of acid. Even rain is acidic. Curious to know more about them.

I apologize for opening this can of worms. I was curious if anyone had found a medium that could compensate for alkaline water and it has gotten a bit nasty, and my question was not answered. (As for pine needles, I was aware of the fact that they are only acidic when young, I have pine trees available to me and was curious if using young pine needles might work in place of vinegar for a few weeks until they age, obviously this could not be a long term solution, so I decided to see if anyone had discovered anything better). Whenever you use vinegar in any watering can, etc, there is ALWAYS a risk that you might have gotten some on the outside of the can (especially if it's a smaller watering can such as what I have because I don't have a lot of space). Unless I want to be perfectly precise with funnels, etc. to make sure that I don't get any vinegar outside the can, there is ALWAYS a risk that I might have done so. I have had damage to some of my epiphytes from stray drops of vinegar in the past, does it kill them? No. Does it damage them? Yes. Would I prefer not to, again, Yes. So I try to make sure that if I use vinegar around things they might come in contact with, I clean it afterwards. I'm not expecting small amounts left diluted in the can are going to kill my plants, I just tend to be careful. I apologize for any confusion. And I have attempted to be as civil as possible. As I said before, I was curious if anyone had found any organic mediums that might help to increase PH in soil to compensate for alkaline soils as a discussion topic since I haven't found much on the topic.

You really have to know what make fertilizer acidic, there is a lot of technical knowledge in the inner works of chemicals. It’s not just reading the info on a package.

bonsai_citrus; Thanks for all the clarifications. Apologies for all the assumptions I made - you already know the issues I was trying to attempt to address. I am sure others will pipe in with better solutions that works for you.

No worries, I understand where you were likely coming from, there's a lot of people who don't know much about plants and make wild assumptions, thereby giving themselves a lot more work than they need to. I am not one, and I could have been clearer on that point. Just trying to join the community and ask questions when I'm considering something new. I've learned a lot from many of the posts on here over the years, (only recently started posting), and see it as a knowledgeable community with brains to pick before I waste time on something that may not be helpful. Most of my plants are rescues that have taken years and a lot of hard work/research to cultivate and return to a state of health, and that includes my "problem" tree who needs the vinegar. Of my epiphyte collection I have two massive orchids that are something of a prized posession seeing as one of them is highly fragrant and blooms yearly, and the other keeps its massive blooms for a year at a time. I accidentally burned one of them when using vinegar to try to get some of its sap off of my kitchen table, and have been careful ever since. I do occasionally have to leave my plants in the care of others (not this year, for obvious reasons), so I try to keep their watering instructions to "give water until some is in the drip tray" and that's all. Purpose of the thread was to see if anyone had any success adding soil amendments that might overcome alkaline water and eliminate the need for correcting water PH for those plants that are sensitive, thereby simplifying regular watering requirements. So far I've found very little in my research that would be helpful, though I continue to search.

I commend you for asking and for starting this discussion)

I myself use vinegar a lot and it always corrects the problems with nutrient uptake on all my citrus trees. It did on my friends jasmine that is about 3 feet high was yellow for months until I told her to try vinegar. Her jasmine turned a nice green within a week and a rich green within a month. She couldn't believe it. I have yet to use anything else that I use on my citrus since they don't demand it as much as some of my other potted plants. My city water has a pH of 8.5 or higher. I hate it.

This might help you. I found it very interesting)

http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/crops/factsheets/pHarticl.pdf

I have used this product on my gardenia and jasmine and it does the job. I don't have to use vinegar them. I need more than vinegar with these plants and my potted blueberries.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Espoma-6-lb-Organic-Soil-Acidifier-100508616/203192757?mtc=Shopping-B-F_D28O-G-D28O-28_2_FERTILIZERS-Multi-NA-Feed-SMART-NA-NA-Organic_Plant_Food&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_D28O-G-D28O-28_2_FERTILIZERS-Multi-NA-Feed-SMART-NA-NA-Organic_Plant_Food-71700000064087486-58700005695909825-92700055179106932&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-c7Ij_rK6wIVD-DICh33sg2LEAQYAiABEgIl6_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I have acid lovers in pots, azaleas and blueberry, but they stay outside all year long so I add sulphur and acidic bagged fertilizer holly tone periodically, Use garden hose water but I'm in NYC which is pretty much PH neutral at 7.0 with some calcium but not too much. been using the garden hose on occasion on the summering Citrus but have taken to using warm tap water with watered down jacks fertilizer every so often especially if I see new growth. I am not steady with using vinegar as I should be. Definitely will be when trees come back in.

Thanks meyermike for the info. The paper was a good read, a lot of good info. It's definitely something that I've learned to pay attention to over time, and I've definitely learned to check the water quality reports for my zip code after discovering that moving a few miles north we went from having neutral water to alkaline water. Now that I know, vinegar has become something of a go-to if I notice that a more acid loving plant is having an issue. It's definitely saved my Nagami. But I prefer to keep things simple if I can, and enjoy exploring options and learning more if I have an opportunity. I'd be curious as to how much of a soil acidifier would be required for a citrus tree, I wouldn't imagine a lot considering that I only usually add a small quantity of vinegar per a gallon of water on watering day and it seems to do the trick. I've found that for some plants, if you're in a high PH area, it seems to help to have them in terra cotta as it tends to absorb some of the salts, though the white crust that forms on the outside of the pot after a few weeks is rather unsightly. I don't use the red stuff for my citrus though, I can't stand the look. I've learned to live with the water, but I don't enjoy living with it.

You are welcome ! I hear you. That’s why I always prefer rain and when I get a wet summer rather than my Poland’s being subjected to constant tap water , all my plants thrive.

I was wondering.

Have you ever measured the pH of pure rain water ?

Plants not Poland. Dam cell phone

I haven't. Since I don't really have any outdoor space that I could use to collect it or place my plants to benefit from it, I never thought to check it. Though a search of the water quality stuff in my area says that it's estimated somewhere around 5.5.

Mike I was worried that you move to Poland where global warming really exist.

Steve