Making my tap water acidic

[OllieMartin]

My waterbutt is filled from the only downpipe at the back of my house, as a result it is mainly filled from my old bath and shower water. This being tap water, the water in the butt is quite alkaline (as I get a good limescale build up in my kettle).

My concern is that my blueberry and cranberry bushes like an acid environment and I'm concerned that using this water on them will make their soil too alkaline.

Is there an easy way to acidify the water I feed them with? Call me crazy, but would adding vinegar or some other acid to a watering can help?

Cheers Grapes.

[RedThorn]

That would work but what about some urine?

[zazen999]

Can you shove a bucket under the lip of a roof somewhere, we have buckets under the roof of the shed and they get filled up for us to use straight on the beds.

Basically you are using grey water to water everything???....but ideally you need rain water for your blueberries...I wouldn't personally use water with vinegar in it but let us know if it works....but then again my blueberries are in the soil so I suppose I don't have to...sorry for the grammar, I need an early night

[OllieMartin]

Believe it or not; we haven't had a lot of rainfall in Hull for the last few weeks and I empty the waterbutt on a regular basis in this heat. My shed roof is pretty small so doubt it will collect a lot of rainwater, but might give that a go.

I won't go into details, but the urine option isn't workable. I'd prefer to exhaust other options before risking the vinegar idea.

[solway cropper]

I would think that if the blueberries are in the right kind of compost or soil with the correct acidity you shouldn't need to add anything to the bath water unless it is seriously alkaline.....to the point where it wrinkles your skin if you sit in it!!

[OllieMartin]

I would think that if the blueberries are in the right kind of compost or soil with the correct acidity you shouldn't need to add anything to the bath water unless it is seriously alkaline.....to the point where it wrinkles your skin if you sit in it!!

I have to admit I didn't really prepare the soil, so it's just some old rotted turf and some multipurpose compost. And the bath water does make your skin wrinkly (although I didn't know that was because it was alkaline!)

[BarleySugar]

A couple of years ago, when we had a hosepipe ban, and no rain for weeks, I used bath/shower water for everything. My camellias and rhododendrons, in pots, thrived, and gave a wonderful display the next year, with no yellowing of the leaves. Sounds yucky, but if the water sits a while the scum settles, and this usually consists of a proportion of limescale. Have you tried taking the ph of the water? It might not be as alkaline as you think.

[rana]

I would guess that the soap/shampoo etc. has a bigger impact on the pH of the grey water than the original hardness of the mains water. Perhaps there are non-alkaline soaps.

[Capsid]

A very efficient way of acidifying water is to bubble carbon dioxide through it. You can buy small CO2 cylinders from some aquarium shops. But I'd go with the suggestion to test your water first, it probably has a neutral pH anyway.

[Keith2202]

Advice taken from a Garden Organic - celebrating 50 years of organic growing - organic gardening, farming and food factsheet about water use. Which, (while it seems rather paranoid) would suggest you should worry more about the greywater than simply it's alkalinity!

"If all your beds are enriched with organic matter and mulched, as much of the rain falling on your property as possible is being harvested and stored, only then should you consider using greywater. Each summer the Garden Organic Information team receives lots of enquiries on the best way to use bath and shower water on the garden - and our advice is always to address the issues of storing water in the soil and collecting rainwater first.

A bath full of clean looking water looks like a wasted resource, and maybe you did only use environmentally-sound detergents, but storing water previously used for washing poses a real risk of incubating legionnaires disease (Legionella spp.) or other diseases and parasites. If you really must use it, do not store the water for any longer than it takes to cool. Then, only water ornamental areas and top fruit with it. Avoid using on any food eaten raw, such as salad crops and soft fruit, at all costs. To be able to store it or use it on more of your food crops, it will need to be cleaned via a reedbed - and that is a topic for a whole other article."

[sarraceniac]

I would treat it the same way that you treat aquarium water if you have acid loving fish. Part fill a cloth bag (an old pillow case will do) with peat and hang it in the butt. Simple, but it works for me in my grey water barrel.

[Two_Sheds]

storing water previously used for washing poses a real risk of incubating legionnaires disease (Legionella spp.) or other diseases and parasites. If you really must use it, do not store the water for any longer than it takes to cool.

I'd agree about not storing grey water (think about what's been washed in it). I use a pump to water the flowerbeds with it, as soon as it's cool

[HayleyB]

I would use lemon juice instead of vinegar......

[chrisguk]

How To Change Your Soil's pH | Horticulture and Home Pest News

Above, they mention that you can lower the PH by several means of supplements, such as iron sulfate. Maybe its best to try this method and see if you can find a nice balance between adding iron sulfate and alkaline water to get the correct ph?
Alternatively, you could always get a reverse osmosis machine for your tap, which should provide you with a ph neutral water which would least affect your soil chemistry?