I don't see how vinegar in the humidity tray would affect the pH of your growing media unless the pot was in contact with the water. In that case, water would wick up into the pot, likely creating a perched water table. It would be better to add the vinegar to the water you use to water the plant. The usual advice is to test the pH of your water and then add enough vinegar to bring the pH down to about 6. I know my water has a pH above 8, so I add a Tablespoon of vinegar per gallon to my water when I water my plants.

Being that the diluted vinegar is very weak, I think the intent is to wait until the final rinse to dispense it so that it can effectively remove the scant detergent in the final rinse water. Otherwise, because the first rinse still has a lot of detergent dissolved in it, the diluted vinegar gets spent before it can act on the detergent still on the fabric. (The max line on all the compartments is equal to 1/2 cup of liquid.) In the Samsung, when the "Extra Rinse" option is selected, the machine does not dispense what is in the softener section until the 3rd and last rinse. What happens is that the during the 1st and 2nd rinses, only the bleach dispenser section gets flooded with water (all other compartments left dry). And then finally at the start of the 3rd rinse, the machine dispenses what's in the softener compartment, followed by a flooding of all the other compartments (I think to do a final purging/cleaning of laundry products left in the other compartments).

Dave, thanks for the comments about the alcohol treatment. I'm going to stay the course for now. The big advantage to alcohol is that I can spray liberally indoors without staining or damaging furniture, carpets, and the like, so I'll keep treating for a few weeks to make sure they're all gone. I'd better find a bigger bottle of alcohol... Lauren, I'll write that 3-in-1 brand down in case I need to escalate things down the road. My last spray was yesterday morning, and tonight's leaf investigation showed no adults or larvae (assuming they're not hiding somewhere clever). There are some tiny pale oblong things on some leaves, but both the larvae and adults are deep red, so they're probably cast skins or some kind of debris. It's a bit of a pain to clean the ficus, but unfortunately I don't have a garden hose to blast them clean. Thanks for your help! I'm new around here, but I think I can safely say that these forums are awesome!

Zone 8b. Everything was well watered and mulched over the weekend for the coming 2-3 days of heat out here. On Wednesday, I went out to check the soil moisture and saw what looks like coral bleaching on some plants while others were brown in the middle. (See pics) Is this from sun damage or something else? I've never seen this happen so quickly. The last pic is my clematis - would like suggestions on why it's browning. (container). It's finished it's first round of flowering. Thanks! The Clematis