The answer is in this very helpful comment from Drew. I myself am using vinegar to acidify my tapwater.
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Everyone, please remember the high school chemistry rule: Always add acid to water, not the other way around.
Prepare the water first, just almost full, then add the acid to the prepared water, mix it in, and then top off with water to exact volume.
Why always add acid to water?
So much heat is released that the solution may boil very violently, splashing concentrated acid out of the container and all this because the reaction is exothermic. When water is added to acid, the water boils and the acid may splash back on you! This rule is particularly important if you are working with strong acids, which react completely with water. On the other hand, adding acid to water, the solution that forms is very dilute and the small amount of heat released is not enough to vaporize it.
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I myself have tried vinegar, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid… My acid loving plants don’t like them at all! No problem for inorganic acids such as phosphoric and sulfuric.
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Any idea why that is? I don’t grow acid loving plants. With vinegar I aim to avoid raising ph by alcaline tap water. That seems to work ok.
Undiluted vinegar is a good herbicide, but very expensive if used for such unless you can buy glacial acetic acid and use it instead.
Most of the organic acids may kill some of the mycorrhizae in the root system. Citric acid can interfere with the Kreb’s cycle in the root metabolism.
So you’ll have to use very diluted amount with organic acids, so diluted that they won’t lower the pH significantly.
Moreover, the organic acids such as acetic has a buffering capacity that won’t really help in lowering the pH to desired level suited for blueberries.
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I use battery acid as suggested by many Universities for small operations. I have to buy it anyway as I have an electric golf cart, and that reminds me I need to buy 2 new batteries. The acid is safe, many mention heavy metals in it, that is a myth, batteries would explode and the lawsuits would be flying. You can get it at the auto parts stores, I go there there for DE already, so now acid too.
Also it’s easy to dispense from these bottles. I have used it for 6 years and never spilled any yet (knocking on wood). It’s not 90 plus % it’s 30%, and even if on your hand you can wash it off before a serious burn.
Once you figure out how much you need per gallon I would only retest every few months, and even longer, once at the start of the season. I don’t really use much, as I collect rainwater and my rainwater is about 5.0. Rainwater is great, I love it for house plants no mineral deposit rings on my pots.
You will only have heavy metals if you extract the acid from the battery. Lead would be the main metal in the acid. But if you buy the acid for topping off your batteries, it comes clean without the metals.
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Yes you will, the acid sold is new of course. Yeah I use a bottle each year for my golf cart. It has 6 batteries. I use it at my cottage on Russell Island and no cars are allowed. I like to put in a little acid in the spring, but refill with distilled water all year. it drinks about 2 gallons a year.
I also use the acid to scarify bramble seeds. It takes about a 20 minute soaking in 30% sulfuric acid to remove the seed coat. I’m playing around with breeding brambles. I have one cultivar, a pink raspberry, I named it Irene.
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Wondering if there’s another blueberry variety that goes well with my Sunshine Blue. I need something that would do well in a pot that can tolerate a higher ph like Sunshine Blue. Any ideas? I heard Misty is a good pollenizer for it, but wondering about the ph and if that works? I’m in zone 7.
Bountiful Blue is like a cousin and grows well in the ground for me.The plant doesn’t have a super high growth shape,mostly wide.I bought two a few years ago and potted one up in 2017. Brady
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Where did you get 'em?
A local nursery had them. It was near the end of season and the price was about half off.The foliage was some of the most beautiful I’ve seen.The fruit is very good also and abundant,like the plant name’s reference. Brady