Acid loving plants and tap water

A couple of my acid lovers aren't looking to good so I searched online for possible reasons and one possibility is that I use tap water on them which can raise the ph so the plants will struggle to get nutrients from the soil.

Is this still the case if I give the plants the correct feed and also give them the occasional douse of seaweed plus sequestered iron?

A water butt is something I would really like to avoid due to limited space.

 

Yes definitely give them a feed, I always use rain water on all my garden plants and even some of the indoor ones that prefer it too.
Could you not at least disguise one somewhere in your garden...they're not the most attractive of garden features but are so valuable.

 

We had the same prblem with some Blueberries as our tap water was around 8 ph.

Its not always possible to harvest rain water, so just adding one or two drops of Cider Vinegar to a 5/6 ltr watering can will lower to PH to 5 or below.
Its best if you have or can get a little cheap ph meter or test kit to check the above results, you do not want to make the water too acid.

Not sure if the Ericaceous Feeds lower the tap waters ph ?

 

Apparently if you pre fill your watering cans with tap water and let them ' stand' that also lowers the PH too.

 

Are you sure? I thought that helped with reducing the chlorine levels.

 

@hoofy
Are you in a hard water area? If so a few drops of vinegar will not be sufficient. Best bet is a test kit and add vinegar until test kit says it is acid.
You should leave tap water to stand for a while to allow the chlorine level to reduce and also to come to room temperature for house plants.

 

I keep a few sachets of sequestered iron handy for when I spot something going a bit yellow.
The seaweed and iron is also effective.
Ive used vinegar as well, as,Ricky says but it can be a bit hit and miss.

A top dressing of flowers of sulphur is another way, but that is more of a long term fix.