Citric acid for lowering pH?

for those saying an acid doesn't have long-term stability... this is more about your fetilizer than anything else (or tap water if water-only)... your fertilizer is not pH-buffered. the acid you add is only a few mL per gallon.. even if it were buffered well it would be 1/200th of the volume and probably not enough for a gallon volume. piss-poor fertilizer products swing in pH.... these may even have good reptutation in the "community" but shows that is only a mild correlation to being accurate info. LOL pH any water goign in and if soil, what is in the soil should stabilize it better than what you observe in a bucket sitting out for 2-3 days... totally different dynamic as many othe things are in solution in the pot. if even this pH swings (runoff or slurry) then it's your fertilizer that's no good... not the ph-balance product.

most ph-down products are citic acid.. it will work fine. if pH swings, it's the products you are using, not the phdown or up. poorly buffered fertilizers will have more drastic pH swings white distilled vinegar is great option, too. Do not overpay for a ph-balancing products.. this stuff is ubiquitous.. read the ingredients label.. often is simply citric acid. i think distilled vinega is cheaper... few bucks for a 3-gallon bottle. use maybe 1-3mL per gallon... it'l last long time.. pH of tap matters not... unless just irrigating with water-only ... then simply pH down and add it. What is pH afte adding fertilizers? this usually drops it quite a bit.. you may not need any... but you pH test after adding ferts, and then slowly, incrementally add 1mL at a time of vinegar or similar until it tests properly.. . as long as tap wate stays consistent and you use similar amounts of fertilizers mixed per volume, then it will need the same mL of vinegar each time, too. you don't have to buy spring water. you shouldn't leave a bucket of water out stagnating for 2-3 days, either. probably microbes causing pH swing..

Using anything like citric acid or vinegar only reduces the pH temporarily as you've found out. The spring water I can buy here has the same pH as my tap water - 7.5 because... wait for it... it comes out of the ground just like my tap water. Your best bet is to bite the bullet and use the industry standard: General Hydroponics pH Down ... Good luck!

Servus ✌️, this is just normal to me. I use different pH downer (powder, acid, Bio-Solutions) and all of them do not show any long term stability. I have a container which where my water is stored. pH raises after a time.. this also depends how u store the buckets etc. But normally your soil should buffer this value right away. I haven't had a pH check for years, when i was growing in soil. Good luck Mate👍

critic acid does not have long term stability, you need to use an alternate acid like phosphoric or sulphuric. or just add in more and more daily, but that's annoying to do. an alternate option is mixing in some sulphur into the medium and it will keep it low for many months as it breaks down into sulphuric acid. Good Luck!