55g barrel and soaker hose getup to alter pH of city water in bulk for Blueberries (or other acid lovers)

“55g barrel and soaker hose getup to alter city water pH for Blueberries in bulk” or “Is growing blueberries in central Texas insane?”

Our tap water originates from Lady Bird Lake which is a dammed up section of the Colorado River.  Central Texas is is full of limestone and it raises the pH of the Colorado quit a bit.  I just checked the most recent City of  Austin Drinking Water Quality Report (May 2011) to get my facts straight about our tap water and I  actually underestimated its alkalinity. I’ve always thought it was 8.5 – 9.0 pH but it averages over 9.5 pH on this report! I really think the alkalinity of the water plays into some of the nutrient problems we see in our garden. That’s a little different story though.

Blueberries like acidic soil around 4.5 pH and can tolerate soil up to 5.5 pH.  To create our blueberry bed I dug the soil out of a 20′ x 3′ x 2′ area.  I filled it in with some soil I mixed up from peat moss, pine bark, compost, sand, sulfur … and it’s been a long time so I can’t remember the rest of the recipe for certain.  The peat should have given us some really nice acidic soil as it’s around 4.5 pH.  Add in the sulfur and pine bark and we should be golden, right?

Well, before using the peat you have to soak it really well to hydrate it.  The only way for me to do that was with our 9.5 pH city water.  We planted the blueberries and hoped for the best.   The blueberries got planted in the winter.  Six months later they had leaves, but weren’t growing much and frankly looked horrible.  I finally stuck a pH meter into the dirt and… arg… 7.5 pH.  Blueberries don’t like it.  I guess the limestone from the city water was raising our blueberry bed’s pH.  Fiddlesticks.  I thought between the peat, sulfur and pine bark it would counteract the city water.  I thought wrong.

To correct the problem I watered (and watered and watered) with acidic water.  I’d mix 1 cup of vinegar into 2 gallons of water to get the pH down near 4.5 and then I’d pour it on the blueberry bed.  I went through many gallons of vinegar, 1 cup at a time in a 2 gallon watering can.  It took a long time.  I finally got the pH of the blueberry bed to read around 5.5 pH, but how was I going to water my blueberries from now on?  Mixing up 2 gallon batches to water a 20′ x 3′ area is for the birds.

Well I saw a post on the permaculture subreddit about using a 5 gallon bucket and gravity to irrigation.  Brilliant!  It gave me the idea for an easy way to water my blueberry bed. I’ve got a 55 gallon barrel on the porch. Fill it with water, pour in at least a gallon of 9% vinegar, use the hose to create a siphon (it’s up on the porch, about 1′ higher then the blueberry bed) and then simply attach the hose to the soaker laying on the blueberry bed.  I was worried there wouldn’t be enough pressure to force the water out of the soaker evenly but that doesn’t seem to be a problem at all.  It does take all night for the barrel to empty but I think that’s probably the best way to water.

It’s a month later now, the blueberries are putting on some new leaves and look healthier. But, I still have a few questions about watering our blueberries, pH, acidity, and all that nonsense:

  • If my soil is 5.o pH and I use water that’s 6.0 pH is that going to raise the pH of my soil?
  • Rainwater is ~7.0 pH, will that raise the pH of my soil?
  • When I pour the vinegar into the 50 gallon barrel to drop the pH I assume it’s dissolving the limestone.  What does it turn into?  Is it some sort of salt?  Oi..  I think that would be bad for the berries as well.
  • Is this insane?

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Anything I’m missing?

About Stalk of Fennel

I like to grow stuff I can use!
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3 Responses to 55g barrel and soaker hose getup to alter pH of city water in bulk for Blueberries (or other acid lovers)

  1. GreenStrong says:

    “When I pour the vinegar into the 50 gallon barrel to drop the pH I assume it’s dissolving the limestone. What does it turn into? Is it some sort of salt?”

    What causes the high PH isn’t particles of limestone. The limestone is totally dissolved, so much so that what is in the water are calcium ions. The calcuim itself isn’t really a problem, it is a nutrient. The problem is that being an ion, it has an electrical charge, and it affects which other ions are attracted or repelled to clay particles in soil.

    Also, the soil has a finite capacity for ion exchange. You can have scidic PH, but calcium occupying all available exchange sites and displacing other minerals.

    link- http://www.soilminerals.com/Cation_Exchange_Simplified.htm

    Here’s the thing- I’m not certain how effective vinegar will be for neutralizing it. Bacteria will eventually convert vinegar into carbon dioxide and water, and the calcium ions will remain. Or maybe the vinegar will convert them to neutral salts, I dunno. You should ask a soil scientist about this, try emailing someone at the local land grant college.

    • Stalk of Fennel says:

      Thanks GreenStrong. I keep reading the words Cation Exchange when I’m looking up soil chemistry. I guess I need to go relearn some chemistry… I knew the day was coming.
      I’ll check it out the link soon. Local land grant college.. that’s the Ag Extension program in most counties, right? I’ve never contacted them before. Looks like I get to do something new :)

      • GreenStrong says:

        The county extension agents are trained at the local land grant colleges, and the program would be overseen from there. I guess A+M would be the main one in Texas? Extension agents are all knowledgeable, but many won’t know soil chemistry beyond interpreting soil tests. They all know pesticides and herbicides.