anyone looking for an organic Ph down ?

carlosescobar · Jan 28, 2026

I was listening to a grow podcast the other day and the guy said 'we know vinegar and urea lowers ph,' and i thought 'hold up, wait a minute....urea, thats piss!
so i started experimenting , so you don't have to , but it was quite interesting .
urine will lower ph of water but only ,it seems, to the ph of the pee. so my tapwater is 7.5 and it took 4mls of urine to lower it to 6.5 (2mls just took it to 7.0) in 1 litre of water. i had a bit of a read up and theres a lot of nitrogen in pee and some micronutrients like calcium which could possibly build up later on . Im going to try it at least for veg.

Hossgrows · Jan 28, 2026

Interesting. Are you taking any pharmaceuticals.?

I won't use mine, it'll kill grass. Got a spot behind my garage the I use on occasion ( know I'm not gonna make it into the house). Nothing grows there. Just bare dirt.

carlosescobar · Jan 28, 2026

Ive never been a fan of pharmaceuticals , i would imagine my pee has a lot of sugar in it but that cant be a bad thing in organic soil ? I tried it on my stunted seedlings but they didnt explode into growth !

amneziaHaze · Jan 28, 2026

Hossgrows said:
Interesting. Are you taking any pharmaceuticals.?

I won't use mine, it'll kill grass. Got a spot behind my garage the I use on occasion ( know I'm not gonna make it into the house). Nothing grows there. Just bare dirt.

Haha you have to dilute it but amazing fert

Ninjadogma · Jan 28, 2026

Vinegar isn't ideal for adjusting ph. it loses its acidity in the soil so it's not very stable. Citric acid is a little better but phosphoric is way more stable but if you spill some on concrete it will etch the surface. Urine has potential pathogens in it, I wouldn't recommend it. But almost as a rite of passage, there's lots of us who have pissed in the watering can before and given it to our plant. The nitrogen is ammonia based and not ideal for cannabis, which prefers a higher concentration of nitrate. It becomes better after microbes convert it. If you want a quick ammonia based dose of nitrogen that will lower the pH, just use some Alaska Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1. Then you don't have to worry about pathogens and whatever else is in your pee that isn't good for plants.

It took me a while to figure out I need baking soda more than I need acid for setting an optimal pH in the soil without any dry buffers. The only exception to that is I work with a coco peat blend and if I get too aggressive with drybacks the peat will sometimes make it spike alkaline. Other than that, my 7.4 tap is just fine, it reconciles my runoffs to about 6.4.

carlosescobar · Jan 28, 2026

Ninjadogma said:
Vinegar isn't ideal for adjusting ph. it loses its acidity in the soil so it's not very stable. Citric acid is a little better but phosphoric is way more stable but if you spill some on concrete it will etch the surface. Urine has potential pathogens in it, I wouldn't recommend it. But almost as a rite of passage, there's lots of us who have pissed in the watering can before and given it to our plant. The nitrogen is ammonia based and not ideal for cannabis, which prefers a higher concentration of nitrate. It becomes better after microbes convert it. If you want a quick ammonia based dose of nitrogen that will lower the pH, just use some Alaska Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1. Then you don't have to worry about pathogens and whatever else is in your pee that isn't good for plants.

It took me a while to figure out I need baking soda more than I need acid for setting an optimal pH in the soil without any dry buffers. The only exception to that is I work with a coco peat blend and if I get too aggressive with drybacks the peat will sometimes make it spike alkaline. Other than that, my 7.4 tap is just fine, it reconciles my runoffs to about 6.4.

I was trying to find something less abrasive towards the soil microbes...im trying a soil grow but i am not sure how 'alive' the soil is. I put some miccorhizae in there and watered it in , Am i better off just leaving my water at 7.5 ,? ive heard ot doesnt really matter in soil . I think its a bit too cold here at the moment

Vetsgrow2 · Jan 28, 2026

What about Vitamin C?

Hossgrows · Jan 28, 2026

Lime to raise it, sulfur to lower it.

Ninjadogma · Jan 28, 2026

carlosescobar said:
I was trying to find something less abrasive towards the soil microbes...im trying a soil grow but i am not sure how 'alive' the soil is. I put some miccorhizae in there and watered it in , Am i better off just leaving my water at 7.5 ,? ive heard ot doesnt really matter in soil . I think its a bit too cold here at the moment

It's not that it doesn't matter in soil, it's because soil tends to correct itself and when you go in there trying to fix things you can wind up trying to fix something that isn't broken and actually break it. As a good example, an aggressive dryback can cause peat to turn the soil alkaline temporarily, especially if it was buffered with dolomite... but once it starts drying the pH drops back down to a good range. 7.5 water should be fine and you shouldn't need to adjust anything unless there's a problem and things get out of whack. If you are doing a heavy watering and sending a volume of water through, you might want to adjust down to 6.5 for a smack dab in the middle of good number, but for everyday watering you shouldn't need to bother.

As far as a gentle pH down, phosphoric acid is completely safe for your microbes and mycos if it's a good pH value (between 6-7) and the only thing that will agitate them is pH shock when you put a value in that's very different than the soil.

ImOldSchool · Jan 28, 2026

I've always used sulfur for hydrangeas, rhododendrons and others to get that PH lower.

Ninjadogma · Jan 28, 2026

Vetsgrow2 said:
What about Vitamin C?

According to Jerry Garcia, it should be taken in between the reds and cocaine.

carlosescobar · Jan 29, 2026

ImOldSchool said:
I've always used sulfur for hydrangeas, rhododendrons and others to get that PH lower.

on my last grow i must admit i top dressed with a healthy dollop of yellow sulphur ( as i thought it was sulphur compounds which make the plant stink, ) and this one wasnt smelling at all . but i wonder if that dropped the ph way down and shocked the plant ?

carlosescobar · Jan 29, 2026

Ninjadogma said:
It's not that it doesn't matter in soil, it's because soil tends to correct itself and when you go in there trying to fix things you can wind up trying to fix something that isn't broken and actually break it. As a good example, an aggressive dryback can cause peat to turn the soil alkaline temporarily, especially if it was buffered with dolomite... but once it starts drying the pH drops back down to a good range. 7.5 water should be fine and you shouldn't need to adjust anything unless there's a problem and things get out of whack. If you are doing a heavy watering and sending a volume of water through, you might want to adjust down to 6.5 for a smack dab in the middle of good number, but for everyday watering you shouldn't need to bother.

As far as a gentle pH down, phosphoric acid is completely safe for your microbes and mycos if it's a good pH value (between 6-7) and the only thing that will agitate them is pH shock when you put a value in that's very different than the soil.

ive just been out to get some nutrients , and have returned home with these , i was looking for a vitax organic house plant food as it was the perfect NPK and found an organic bloom for 'heavy flowering' as well . I bought some seperate micronutrients the other day but it looks like these have them all in. do you think these will make a decent feed all the way through ?
I was planning on feeding about every 3-4 waterings?

carlosescobar · Jan 29, 2026

Vetsgrow2 said:
What about Vitamin C?

I just played around with vit C , well orange juice, and it initially lowers the ph of the water but it seems to climb up again quite quickly , i suppose as its diluting in the water

StiZZed420 · Jan 29, 2026

I use organic Lemon juice concentrate. I de-chlorniate my water in a bucket and put airstones and a pump to keep it oxygenated, I take what I need when I need it and add my lotus nutrients or Mychorrizae then use lemon juice, about 6 drops a quart, will bring my tap water down to 6.5ph level and my plants this run are booming so far.

orggrwr · Jan 29, 2026

Ninjadogma said:
According to Jerry Garcia, it should be taken in between the reds and cocaine.

Absolutely, just ask sweet Jane

orggrwr · Jan 29, 2026

I've found that citric acid crystals work better than the juice for ph down. Available pretty cheap online.

Ninjadogma · Jan 29, 2026

carlosescobar said:
ive just been out to get some nutrients , and have returned home with these , i was looking for a vitax organic house plant food as it was the perfect NPK and found an organic bloom for 'heavy flowering' as well . I bought some seperate micronutrients the other day but it looks like these have them all in. do you think these will make a decent feed all the way through ?
I was planning on feeding about every 3-4 waterings?

The orchid bloom stuff might be good to use for transitional nutes when you flip, but for the duration of flowering after that, you want your N in the back seat.

Ninjadogma · Jan 29, 2026

orggrwr said:
I've found that citric acid crystals work better than the juice for ph down. Available pretty cheap online. View attachment 2595738

I use it as a foliar as part of my IPM when needed... I find a surprising amount of shit for my plants at the local vitamin store, they also carry the Plantation molasses I use, and when I need 00 gel caps they're my go to.

Citric acid is more stable than vinegar, but phosphoric acid is even more stable.

carlosescobar · Jan 30, 2026

Hossgrows said:
Lime to raise it, sulfur to lower it.

can i top dress with sulphur, and water in, to lower my soil ph

anyone looking for an organic Ph down ?

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