Lower water ph organically/Organic ph down

I don't want to hijack the other thread as their situation is different. I need to ph down my water. My ph is between 9 and 10 (lime in concrete tank) and I use a lot of ph down just to bring it back to 7. Vinegar, citrus (lemon, lime, orange etc..) including citric acid seem to only work for a while. They are nowhere near as stable as the ph down I am using (phosphoric acid).

Anyone have any home remedies to lower water ph organically? Not looking to lower medium ph, just water. For me to compensate pouring up to 10.2 ph water on my plants, the root zone ph would have to be sitting in near ph down. I don't mind using ph down for my indoor plants, it's the outdoor plants and my veggie patch that are using loads of water and I am using shit tonnes of ph down just to get my water back to neutral 7. Ideally I'd like to get a small 1000 gal water storage tank that isn't concrete for my garden. But that will have to wait a while.

The high ph has been causing problems in my veggie garden too. After 6 months, my soil is literally fried. Ever split pool chlorine on concrete? Well what you'll see there the next day is the best way I can explain what was happening to my soil. After a long summer of watering, the dirt looks like it has been watered with straight chlorine. And TBH, I had been watering with near straight ph up... lol

I have already found and tested two ways to lower water ph that I'll post next to get the thread started. I am yet to test the coffee theory but am a bit hesitant on feeding caffeine to my gardens.

Piss on your plants
Well not quite. Urine is acidic though. Piss in a bucket of water and use that juice as ph down. To get a nice concentrated acidic pee, drink 2 large coffees or teas first thing in the morning. First pee after drinking these is the one you want. Depends on how concentrated your pee is as to how much you'll need to use. Yes it stinks, but it's stable and your plants will love it

I am testing out a gum leaf theory I stumbled across while testing rainwater around my house. Soaking water in gum leaves overnight creates a pretty potent ph down. I ph'ed a bucket of water to 7 with it and it has remained remarkably stable for 26 hours now. I watered some plants yesterday and they seem fine today.

Using the leaf juice as "ph down" gave me about the same rise in ppm's as the phosphoric acid. Water is tinged a brown colour from the tannin of course so it's probably not hydro friendly. Whether it's good for my plants or not is another question. This does not appear to be the eucalyptus oil lowering the ph. The amount of oil sitting on top of the original brew was negligible. It was a very, very small drop of oil'ish extract. I wonder if this then would work with any type of leaf matter. Something worth testing for sure.

So anyway, here's what I did to make the organic ph down. Let's call it Outback Organic pH Down. Please note it's a WIP

1. 1/2 fill a bucket with dried crushed gum leaves. Crush them up well so you get maximum bleeding. Fresh leaves work too. They are just much harder to break up.
   
   
2. Fill the bucket with water and let it sit overnight (I stirred it a couple of times before bed). Placing a lid on the bucket and putting it in the sun I imagine would help brew a nice potent mix.
   
   
3. Strain the leaf matter out of the juice using a thin cotton towel or dish washing cloth (chux superwipe type of material). I used a tea towel. Strain again if needed.
   
   
4. Use this liquid as ph down. I added about 150-200ml of this juice in 10 litres of water. Start ph was 10.1 and 22ppm. End ph was 7 and 39ppm. This has remained stable for 26 hours as of writing.

don`t many places sell a citrus based ph down ?

Or maybe look for a citric acid powder ?

Citrus is unstable. It does not hold the ph for longer than a few hours.

I have the citrus ph down. I also have the phosphoric acid ph down. Citrus is crap, phosphoric acid is very stable. Once set, it stays. So far the most stable things I've found (remained the same ph for at least 24 hours) are phosphoric acid, urine and gum leaf juice... lol

Do you mulch?
A nice thick mulch layer in your veggie garden won't change your water's PH, but will reduce evaporation significantly. So you'll have to add less water to your garden and can reduce the hassle you are having with ph-regulation in volume.