Hi, I'm new here, and a fairly new grower, legal medical user. I have 18 plants growing outdoors in Southern CA in a secure, fenced area. I use all organic soils and fertilizers, primarily worm tea from the local hydro shop, and have several plants in 100 gal SmartPots and large planters. I've been doing pretty well, my crop is starting to bud and healthy overall, but I have some browning of the lower leaves, especially on the budding plants. I've been told that this could be due to poor nutrient absorption because I just water from the hose and don't pH my water. I got a test kit and my water is alkaline. My question is this... with such a large grow, HOW do I adjust the pH of large quantities of water quickly and at low cost? Or is there some easy way of mitigating the negative effects of tap water?

Thanks for any advice.

At a minimum (and on the cheap 1st off), I would fill vats or barrels with the water and let it sit/breath for at least 24 hrs and test your water again to see if its adequately reduced enough.

Keep in mind that going into flower will also draw much more needed nutes, and when your base can't provide adequately the plant will feed where it can.... from it's own storage areas.

I don't believe minor loss of bottom fans, in the flowering stage, to be worrisome, as long as its only those large bottom leaves.

But it's really difficult to envision, so without a decent pic of what 'your' seeing... it makes it near impossible to properly suggest or advise.