so sorry i got way behind with deliveries before we closed for a few days and I didn't have a chance to get back on here. citric acid has the benefit of chelating nutrients, making them more available to the plant rather than just adjusting ph alone. The citric acids don't build up in the media like phosphoric acids tend to. We have ran both side by side, when we run phosphoric acids through the entire grow, we PH tested the soil and it had dropped to 5.0 that exact same grow, same media from same bags and everything was ran with citric acid crystals and the PH of the media was 6.1 after flower. Clearly you can take into account maybe the OM in the soil weekend in one pot more than the other or something else but a difference of 1.1 is a large change in PH which really can only account for build up. A lot of people aren't taking into consideration most all of us never used acid to adjust plain water consistently and feed just that consistently. We would normally be using a lot of chemical or something in the water that causes the PH to drop and we raise it with a base. Very rarely are we using acids to adjust or if we do its for a once a week flush or something along that line. Its not something we use consistently. The other thing we were told about soils and phosphoric acids from fox farms was that at certain %levels Phosphoric acids can make the bio life in the soil slow and or die (at strong enough levels). now you can say what does that matter when its so weak or i use so little, but the issue isn't always with the levels it can be again with build up. Using that acid over and over without a flush could build up causing those issues. while speaking on residual you can take a liquid acid stick your finger in it and try washing it off, it takes quite a it to completely wash it off your hands its almost like a slimey/sticky feeling. you can take a handful of citric acid crystals and put them in your hand put a bit of water in it and scrub till it dissolves, even after your hands have soaked it up they aren't nasty or showing a phosphoric acid style burn.. other than that i can't really explain why people have really serious issues with phosphoric acids and hot soil. its just something we have seen over and over again.
I do have a question though if advanced nutrients was on here and stated to never use anything other than advanced PH products with their grows or you will have a horrible grow, would everyone say "they don't know what their talking about I'm going to do it another simpler way.." or would you follow what they say to the T because you trust they know what they are saying because they have done the trials and seen the issues with other companies PH products?
As for the vinegar and other options you mentioned I've said many times theres not a issue with that. If you only have a lemon available or vinegar fine, but its not what we recommend. to me theres no sense in going that route, is it okay yes but why not use a product designed for what your doing. thats almost like saying why buy a companies soil make your own every time... well fine but the companies that make soils not only have a very specific amount of mixes added to their products, theres wetting agents, specific amounts of limes to not only hold stable ph but not over shooting the starting PH. all those things aren't being done when your making the media, its a crap shoot unless your actually testing your soils and doing things properly. The citric acid crystals sold by earth juice. has been sold for years by them for the reason were using it, its also been tested over and over for organic growing. Clearly that doesn't mean everyones going to like the product its just what we recommend because we have seen issues when using Phosphoric acids and when the same growers changed to citric acid crystals they never had another issue.
the RO water thing which i also have responded to a few times, its not that we say you cannot use it, we just don't suggest it over 3 part filters (pre, carbon , post) they are more than adequate in almost every case to remove the majority of your water toxin, RO really removes fluorides, viruses and any excess contaminants that make it through. The majority of all your toxic crap is taken out through the three part system before it goes to the RO membrane. As i said before everyones water is different and everyone has to choose what works for them, But making a bunch of RO water just to put a cal-mag chemical mixture back into the system isn't something i would personally suggest with organic growing but everyone has their own ways. Ph balancing 0ppm water can really be a pain also some meters don't properly read 0ppm water. (clearly that can be changed by adding cal-mag like your suggesting)
I just want to be very clear we SUGGEST things for our growers because we've seen the issues growers have had over the years with our system and things like RO/water and PH balancing or Phosphoric acids. Im not on here stating this is the only way to do it and thats that. We are giving suggestions on what has always worked best for our growers and on top of that all our suggestions are for our system and our system only. Im not on here telling growers how to run their current grows, we are on here telling people what works best with kind soil and kind soil grows only.
soo sweet n smooth. mouthwateringly delicious too 
