My hose water is alkaline. I just measured the pH a minute ago and it was 7.92, although other times when I've measured it, it's been as high as 8.4. My plants are currently in five gallon smart pots, and I've been filling up a four gallon bucket, pHing the water with a standard pH down chemical so it's between 6.3 and 6.8, and then scooping the water out to water the plants. It's a bit tedious since I have to water them at least twice per day, but it's doable. However, now I'm going to be moving the plants to 25 gallon smart pots. This is obviously going to require a lot more water and it's going to be very time consuming to water my plants using my current method since I only have one four gallon bucket. I'm using Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil with the Fox Farm Trio nutrients and nothing else. When I've tried watering them with the hose without pHing the water, the bottom leaves start to yellow and die, and some of the leaves develop brown spots. I'm wondering if there's anything I can add to the soil that would allow me to just water with the alkaline hose water, or maybe a hose attachment that can lower the pH or something. I've read about fine dolomite lime, but a lot of people said to use it to raise the pH, which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do. How do other people deal with this issue?
When I tried watering without pHing the water, after around a week the bottom leaves started yellowing and brown spots started forming on some of the leaves. Should I just not worry about it since it's only a few leaves?
I have some liquid seaweed. Would that work?
