Agree with Chris that the main problem is the pots are way to small. Especially too small for the varieties you have listed which are all large indeterminate varieties. 12-15 gallons minimum for those. By now all those plants are long past being root bound and supplying them with the soil moisture needed isn't possible. But please note the water issue is not the number of times a day you water. The issues is maintaining consistent soil moisture - same level of moisture at all times rather than dry-wet-dry-wet-too dry - overly wet - etc.. In containers that is difficult to do, in small containers such as yours it is almost impossible. Systems like drip irrigation on automatic timers can do it but unless you can monitor your small pot's soil moisture almost hourly and add small amounts as needed you will have BER problems. The larger the container, the slower the soil dries out. The larger the container, the better it maintains soil moisture levels. Then there is the mix in the container. The soil-less mixes made for containers work best as they can prevent root rot but they come in all sorts of quality levels and you have to learn to work effectively with the one you choose. So next year plan to at least double the size of your containers and triple them if at all possible for best results. If you cannot do that then you need to restrict your plant varieties to the small and dwarf varieties bred specifically for growing in small containers. Dave

Not sure, but this may help. Here is a link that might be useful: Wood ash for lime

Nancy - your post left it unclear whether your plants were ACTUALLY suffering from cat facing or BER because the prescription your guy doing garden work gave wouldn't have an effect on eliminating or reducing the the cat facing, but it's possible that it might have an impact on eliminating BER. He's mixed up somehow, and there is no way to determine exactly how. If you read carefully, you'll see the general consensus is that you're much more likely to introduce limitations than to improve soil health when you start adding elements or compounds to specifically increase the availability of singular elements in your soil w/o a soil test or very strong evidence that those target elements are indeed deficient. THEN, it's important to know WHY they are deficient because under certain circumstances adding 'more' does not = increased availability; and adding 'more' could DECREASE availability of other nutrients. For example - if your soil is NOT Ca deficient, adding excess Ca can create an antagonistic deficiency of Mg. Additionally, if your soil cannot realistically support the increase in pH caused by the added CaCO3, it would make other nutrients, primarily the minors, less soluble and increasingly unavailable as pH rises. Also, if we moved forward on the premise that what you or your gardener guy said about a lack of Ca causing cat facing was true, the entire conversation would then be pertinent to your issue because it would mean that insufficient Ca in the nutrient stream would also be to blame for that issue, not just BER. We now know it's NOT, but the notion still needed to be dispelled to arrive at an answer that would mean anything to you. After distilling, you now know that the CaCO3 you're supplying isn't going to prevent cat facing, and only in certain cases might it cure BER (in case someone is still confused between the two different maladies); AND, it's not a good thing to add things to your soil and hope, without a good understanding of the far reaching implications. Al

Mine wouldn't at first either, Gibby. You have to persist and slow the feeding of mealworms. I would scatter a few mealworms in with the suet and, eventually, they began to eat it as well. I add dried fruit (chopped cherries or blueberries) as well as peanut hearts and sunflower chips to my suet mixture and all the birds love it. I had a flock of about 15 bluebirds, mostly males, at the feeders over the weekend. We've had ridiculous amounts of snow here in my part of Maryland and I'm just happy that the birds are surviving. S-N-O-W is definitely a 4-letter word around here these days! Kathy