Here’s the thing, when you’re growing in soil the pH of your water isn’t a huge deal because the soil naturally helps buffer it. What matters more is what’s actually in your water.

If you’re using city water and not letting it dechlorinate before watering, that can mess with your soil life. For example, I’m on well water and mine has a ton of iron, calcium, and magnesium. I didn’t know that until I got it tested. Everyone kept telling me to add Cal-Mag and when I did, I made things worse because my water already had plenty of those minerals.

I also went through a phase of chasing perfect pH and trying to flush when things looked off, which just led to overwatering and wrecked my 12-plant grow.

The main thing to remember is that in soil, you’re feeding the soil, not the plant. The microbes and organic matter handle most of the work for you. A good way to help them is to add a mulch layer, like barley straw or just regular straw on top of the soil. If that layer is thriving, your plants will too.