The pH of our water is about 8.0 -8.2 measured with a Taylor swimming pool kit, after having read posts on this and other forums where it suggested one or two tablespoons per gallon would help lower the pH to around 6.5; I then used one tablespoon. This was many months ago.

All my container roses went into serious shock losing many leaves, and in some cases nearly all their leaves. I then went down to our local pet store and bought an inexpensive aquarium pH test kit (which I obviously should have done before embarking on this foolish experiment) and found that one tablespoon of vinegar in one gallon gave a pH reading well below 5, most likely it was 3.5!

It seems that not all 8.2 pH water is the same; to get the pH down to 6.5 only requires one TEASPOON of vinegar in our area. The reason I believe is that our water is not very well buffered, our water has very little calcium (80 ppm), and it alkalinity is also relatively low (60 - 80 ppm).

While 1 tablespoon might work in some areas of the country, it might not work in others so be forewarned and test with an aquarium kit first before you are tempted.

I no longer use vinegar in the water for my container roses and they did recover.

Please learn from my stupid mistake, and be careful of simple solutions especially when they come with remarks such as "My Transylvanian grandfather swore by this when he grew roses", or, "In Poland everyone use vinegar and vodka with roses", etc. Obviously if your soil is very alkaline to start with this might not be an issue, but shocking the plant with a super low pH water might be.

Yes m'am or sir we all live and learn

He's lived in the Boston area since the early 80's, but he was born & raised on Oahu and has a masters degree in tropical horticulture from the University of Hawaii. During this conversation we briefly rambled into talking about our soil science educations (a common part of a college horticulture education - I have a bachelors degree in horticulture from Penn State). He told me that the soils of Hawaii (which are all necessarily volcanic) are distinctly different in significant ways from most of the soils of the US Mainland. His soil science education was consequently a bit different from mine.

Given that, and guessing that you probably get your water from a well somehow or other (& so the water's travelled through your volcanic rock & soil) I'm not surprised to learn the chemistry of your water is different, too.

I've thought of that myself for our mountain place where the water is so hard (magnesium) you could 'bout stand a spoon in it. I was wondering about putting it it line with our drippers which should be black but get 'white' pretty quick. Now, thanks to your post, I better figure in buffering before I do anything...

Thanks for posting!

Jeri

Thanks for the note and the warning, honolulu rose, you bring up such interesting topics!

I agree that the fact that it was done in containers was a contributing factor, but as stated the lack of buffering in the water seemed to be the real issue. Adding sulphur as mentioned in the above post is a much better solution.

As regards Poles and vodka, my grandmother was Polish, on my father's side, I think she believed vodka was a cure all, but I am not sure she used them on roses.

Personally I never drink spirits; as I observed, when I was young working as a bartender in Germany, the detrimental effect they had on most people and presumably on roses, beer and wine less so.

My grandmother however was involved in a serious motor accident when she was 84, she was not driving, and was given only a few days to live. She lived another 3 years despite very serious injuries which never fully healed. So maybe vodka is good for you after all, who knows.

Blueberries like very acidic conditions, so I'd be careful on the dose for a rose.

Interesting thread, Honolulurose. Thanks for starting it, and I think we've all learned something from it. :-)

Take care,
Debbie