I never did any container gardening until a few years ago, because I have plenty of garden space available. Quite a few of my urban friends and family members were having problems growing container vegetables, so I decided to take on the challenge and find out why they were struggling. I very quickly found the main problems and how to avoid them. My container gardening is now another fun but out of control hobby. :) The following are my observations and opinions regarding why my acquaintances were not being successful: 1.) Pots were undersized. I agree with others that this is the number one problem. Follow established container size guidelines for specific varieties. If in doubt about a pot size, go larger. A person must also be willing to adjust mid-season and carefully transplant a plant into a larger container if the current one is found to be lacking. Container gardening is not necessarily a "plant once and watch it grow" hobby. 2.) Plants were not being watered enough. Often during the heat of summer, containers will need to be watered as much as twice per day depending on the circumstances. If plants are wilted every day by watering time, chances of success diminish rapidly. 3.) Plants were being placed in very hot microclimates. Container plants in full sun on the south side of the house on a deck or patio on a 90 degree day will cook, roots and all. Heat-stressed roots do not happy plants make. Doubters should simply place a thermometer where the plants are and check the temperature a couple of times between noon and 3:00pm on a hot, sunny day. Trust me, vegetable plants are not happy living in 120 degree temperatures. Best scenario is as much full sun as possible, avoiding the hottest part of the day with the highest sun angle. Easier said than done, I know. 4.) Not enough sun. Full-sun plants need full sun. Half a day is not good enough. This issue should take the number 3 comments into consideration. 5.) Container plants can have high fertilizer requirements, but folks should know what they are doing. Dumping a bunch of miracle grow on your plants because "it is good for them" is not a recipe for success. A little bit of self-education is important here. 6.) Plants not given enough general attention and maintenance. Container plants need quite a bit more attention than garden plants. They should be inspected every day for disease and watering issues as well as maintenance such as pinching, pruning, staking, tying, etc. Anyone who attempts container gardening because they think it is "easy" or is a shortcut or way to "cheat" will soon be disillusioned. Personally, I have never understood this attitude. Why bother with plants if you are not interested enough to watch them grow and care for them? 7.) Be realistic. In most cases container vegetables simply will not produce as well as their garden counterparts. This is not failure. Experience will advise a person what to plant more of next time in order to compensate for reduced yields. 8.) Try to use container varieties bred for the purpose, and dwarf types if available, as well as vining types that have been bred for a bush habit rather than vining habit. As skill level increases then certainly experiment with true garden varieties. Experimenting is one of the joys of gardening, but not with the plants that are expected to provide fresh produce for the dinner table. Baby them and you will be rewarded with good eats. Good luck, and have fun. -Tom

Here's my take on the agricultural sulphur/ferrous sulphate and iron chelate. Agricultural or elemental sulphur will provide more acidifying power per pound of material applied, however the soil microbes have to convert it from the sulphur form to oxides of sulphur, which can then act to acidify the soil. It takes time for the acidification to work and it will occur over a period of time, you have to get the sulphur into the ground for the microbes to attack, and the effect will be a bit longer acting. The larger the sulphur particles you spread, the slower the process. Elemental sulphur is relatively cheap so is often used agriculturally. We generally use sulphur strictly as a fertilizer to replace what the crops are removing from the soil, being leached away, or tied up into mineralized compounds, plus it is relatively low volume. As a fertilizer, we often apply it at 30 lbs/acre. Another option is to use gypsum, calcium sulphate, which is commonly used to treat highly alkaline/saline soils as it is quite cheap, acidifying, and provides additional calcium. (In moister climates where soils are more acidic, they do the opposite, applying lime -- calcium carbonate-- to raise the pH). When applying gypsum, we would apply it on the order of 1000-2000 lbs/acre or more. With ferrous sulphate, you have moved up a step in cost but you are providing sulphate ions (or is it anions?) that will provide the acidifying effect, and because it is already converted to a soluble and ionic form, it will work quite quickly. At the same time, you are providing free iron that the plants can take up and the acidifying effect of the sulphate slows the process of tying the iron up in the soil. Many soils, particularly in alkaline areas, have plenty of iron, but it is tied up in the soil and unavailable to plants, and that is the situation here. We have a lot of red soils, the red coming from oxidized iron (rust). There is no deficiency of iron but it is mineralized and unavailable. Combine that with a pH of around 8 or higher and there are a lot of plants that will die of iron deficiency. Conifers, golden willows (lost a row of them in the cemetery to that, and nearly lost the spruce trees), petunias, raspberries, and even kentucky blue grass where the lawn is only sprinkler irrigated, for example. With iron chelate, you have a form of iron that is more available to plants, however it is relatively much more expensive. The chelate can be absorbed into the leaves if used as a foliar spray, though too strong a solution will burn. Because it can be pretty well directly absorbed by the plants, it can have an almost immediate effect on new growth. I've seen it recommended to water the ground with the iron chelate, but I think it tends to get tied up in the alkaline soil fairly quickly (I think the chelate breaks down fairly quickly, then the high pH ties up the iron again, and you need large quantities which become quite expensive. I had always had recommendations from the extension service to use iron chelate for iron deficiency, but later I was advised to use the ferrous sulphate by a professor for the combined free iron/acidifying properties. When I used the iron chelate, I never had much in the way of results unless I sprayed weekly at least, and that just doesn't happen with me. With the ferrous sulphate, I could spread it once and see lasting effects for anywhere from the remainder of the summer to several years. Part of my lawn is watered with a sprinkler using well water which is very high in lime. Gradually it turns yellow and thin with iron chlorosis. Fertilizing with nitrogen had no effect. Add some ferrous sulphate and in a week it was turning green, growing like it was badly overfertilized, and the stand thickens up. One year my supplier stopped carrying the ferrous sulphate but had ferrous gluconate and said it was much easier to use and worked the same--so I wondered but tried it. Think I still have most of the bag. It showed no effect on the plants, smelled like molasses and had no irritating dust so I found a new supplier for the ferrous sulphate (I'm not going to apply it if I don't get results). I don't fully remember my chemistry from school, acids/bases, oxidizers/reducers, strong vs. weak acids & bases & the chemical reactions that take place when these chemicals are placed in solution and I'm sure there are those out there that can more than adequately cover the subject (not that I'd want to learn it all over again, though!) I mainly try to cover some of the principles and describe what has worked from experience. Plus, I've never tried to grow blueberries as trying to provide an acid environment in my soil seems like too high a maintenance. Overall, what is being dealt with here is that in drier climates, the soils tend to have a large reservoir of lime and an alkaline pH. Acid loving plants may not need acid to live, however they consume quantities of minerals which are mineralized and unavailable at high pH, but become readily available at lower pH and blueberries have adapted to soils where these minerals are readily available. Trying to lower the pH of the soil to create an acid one suitable for blueberries is very hard, because to make the soil acid you have to essentially eliminate the alkaline lime in the soil, and it will take tons of amendments to do that. To compensate, you remove the soil, replace it with organic matter which is naturally acidic, then work to counteract the ongoing process of your climate and geology from turning the new acidic, organic soil back into an alkaline, mineralized soil and add a few of the more important nutrients the plants need so that they are readily available, even if the pH is a little higher than the plant desires. One last caveat--in acidic soils, NEVER add ferrous sulphate for an iron deficiency. You don't need more acid (unless you actually want a more acidic soil). Use iron chelate or the ferrous gluconate. Sorry this is much too long, but hopefully it explains the basis of my thoughts so you can judge for yourselves what is best in your situation.

Hey Randy, I'm not sure if you explained that your soil was getting watered all the way through, from top to very bottom? As your plants get bigger, their roots get bigger to obviously, and you should set your watering times much longer. Normally I have heard to water for about 45 minutes, 2 times a week, so that way it waters completely through, and the roots grow deeper. If you water just the top soil, then the roots will grow shallow, and then will require you to constantly be watering all of the time, and the growth will not be as effective. Just my thought, that maybe the plant growing larger is not getting adequate water? Maybe you should change your watering intervals to once per day, but for 30 minutes? If the soil is still wet the next day when it goes to water again, you then would only need to water every other day, or once the soil is dried out. Living in Las Vegas, I know the soil around here drys out pretty quick. Another thing you might want to check is what nutrients your plant requires. Generally I have heard you want to fertilize once a month, but I think once every 2-3 months is fine. So your soil could be lacking the proper nutrients.... This post was edited by Reisod on Mon, Jun 30, 14 at 18:52

So the service company came. They did many things to address the rattling door which had no effect: - changed the filter - changed the strainer in the pump - adjusted the air flow next to the pump - blew air through the fuel line back to the oil tank (the burner whined loudly after this then quieted down) - bled oil from the burner - started to remove the flow control from the system then decided it was working fine and put it back Finally they changed the nozzle. They stepped the nozzle down to .75 by 70 degrees and wouldn't you know the furnace is back to its quiet happy self. What a relief! I can sleep again at night. (They did not clean/vacuum the furnace.) The showers have been consistently hot, set at 170, 190, and 15 differential. The tech did not have a tool to test the water temperature. Still need to retest the circulator but much progress!