They all have different fertilizing needs, and fertilization depends on soil, pH, and rainfall. But relatively speaking, the greens need more nitrogen than the other plants, given more times, 3 or more in a year. The rest are all fruiting plants and will be happy with a single or double N application early in the season, but need more potassium, once a season is enough.

Agree with glib. Each vegetable has different needs so the "vegetable Garden" itself doesn't get fed, just the individual vegetables as needed and only with the specific nutrient they need.

So yes, once a week with with "All purpose miracle grow" fertilizer" is way too much for in ground beds. Once a month - maybe. It is too much for many of the vegetables you list. It is costly, wasteful, can interfere with fruit production (lush plants with minimal fruit), attracts pests like aphids and white flies who love the excess N, builds up the salts in your soil, and creates phosphorous run off into ground water problems.

Dave

Yes, the P excess in these "all purpose" things is the worst part, from a waste (no new P mines have been discovered since the 1980s) or environmental point of view. and a google search shows that the OP fertilizer is 15-30-15! Asian greens need 15-4-8, and tomatoes 15-5-30.

And of course, they may not need anything except a bit of N every year. Some of my beds are in a place that was a 10-10-10 fertilized lawn for years, and I would not think of ever adding P, though I add some inadvertently through wood ash.

I do not apply much fertilizer. I am a hobby gardener with six raised beds for veggies. Most of my soil enhancement is in the preparation stage. From fall to early winter, I turn in as much compost, ancient manure, chopped leaves, grass clippings, etc, that will fit into the beds. At planting, I might throw in a little handful of an organic fertilizer, like one of the Espoma products,and a bit of Bone meal, and I might spray a fish/seaweed emulsion from time to time. After some years, I have nice dark brown soil, friable, water retentive, but with good drainage, and home to lots of earthworms and it seems to produce nice vegetables. I do, of course,experience the same growing problems others do. However, I think good soil preparation and maintenance is the easy effective way to go.

If you can't break the habit, at least consider using half strength.

If you want to satisfy your habit, start making compost tea. :)

yep tea or pee in a bucket and add some bath water and use that around the plants, lots cheeper than buying man made stuff. might even manage to save some drinkable water by not flushing so much urine??

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

I have an 8x8 raised bed that I filled with topsoil last year and added 300 lbs. of black cow manure as well as a barrel of compost and everything that i planted died......? This year I had my soil tested and they said all I needed to add was some 34-0-0....I also added the contents of my compost barrel as usual, and have tomato plants about two feet tall with blooms, green beans about a foot high that look great and okra that is up about 2-3 inches. My question is, did I burn it up last year with too much fertilizer and should I add anything else this year or leave it like it is? I'm new at this and need all the help I can get!

Brenda - was the cow manure fresh last year? I don't think you burned everything, unless it was fresh - what did the plants look like? Seems strange that the test station told you this year to add 34-0-0 (NPK) if there was that much N last year.

If things are looking good this year, I'd leave it alone (or at least until you test again, now that you've added fertilizer (?) and compost).

I had someone ask me today if I had problems with green beans last year, I said no they did great. He bought transplants (I didn't know you could transplant green beans), and said he hardly got any beans. He was using MG every 3 days and had lush foliage and no flowers! I just told him to lay off the MG this year, plant them and keep them watered they should do fine.

I hate to think what was running off his garden.

A factor not mentioned so far is soil differences. I've had gardens and orchard on both very permeable and highly impermeable soils.

The very permeable soils need small doses of nitrogen as often as every two weeks. If I don't fertilizer at or before planting it may take weeks to get things like melons growing with adequate vigor. Then to maintain vigor more small additions of nitrogen every 2-4 weeks.

On the soil with very slow drainage all nitrogen could be applied preplant. And if too much was applied it could take 2-3 years to get fruit tree vigor back into bounds.

We work grass clippings in in the fall and add another nitrogen source in the spring. I use a synthetic starter fertilizer on any transplants when they're put out. We don't apply any further sort of fertilizer at all. The garden is in-ground and 3100 to 3500 square feet, depending on the year and what we're growing. Our soil is naturally high in potassium (Saskatchewan is a leading producer of potash in the world), so we never have to add any. It's also highly alkaline; we've started adding sulphur when needed to bring it to a more neutral(ish) level and it's making a big difference.

I agree with most posters espacially tn-gardener.
I fertilizer even less than half strength but I do it more often.

There is a good point on "P". Phosphorus binds to the soil and plants take what they need. This is just opposite of "N", which leaches and also plants are just crazy about it.

So, I have some 21-0-0 fertilizer and some all purpos. But I will get some jus "K", if it is available. For example potatoes don't need much "P" but require mostly "N" and "K". Same , I think goes wit allium and brassica.

But because This year started new container garden(Raised beds) I bought soil( with compost) from nursery. I think the soil has almost no nutrients. Therefor I started fertilizing with all purpose. Then I feed the green on ocasion, just N.

Theplans pretty much reflect the soil. If they are nice green, growing normally, producing flowers/fruits then they are happy.

When I put in my tomatoes at the beginning of the season, I toss in a bit of lawn fertilizer just to give the plants a kick, greenery-wise. It'll be months before the things are supposed to fruit, so I'm not worried about P&K. I can't say it helps, nor can I say it hurts. They grow like crazy.

With good bed preparation, with compost and maybe a bit of mulch dug in, as well as just digging in fallen, dried leaves in the fall, I've never seen any need to add anything else. Worms aplenty. If I had to buy stuff to feed my plants, I probably wouldn't do vegetable gardening.

Len, you put second hand Foster's in your garden?
Never heard of that.

What is "second hand Foster's"? MC

I'm guessing first-hand Foster's has to do with first growing certain types of grains, no? ;)

Fosters lager. 2nd hand because it has already been used once. Excellent on the compost heap too. (In fact my opinion of Fosters is that it's only sensible use is on the compost heap or garden.)

Somewhere above there was a mention of bean transplants and while it is possible to carefully do that it doesn't really work well... rhizobia aren't usually in the potting media and adding too much N to the biosphere will prevent them from colonizing and nodulating the roots. You will get foliage but no flower or fruit with all that excess N. The do sell soil innoculant, which i recommend adding to any new bed if you haven't got a compost bin to add your own microbes. It's not just the nutrients you need to worry about, it's the microbiome. Soil bacteria break down sulfur to lower the ph and allow micronutrients to be absorbed by root hairs. Others break down phosphorus and make it soluble for plants. Some fix N. Some just secrete enzymes that degrade oomycete pathogens like phytopthera. Some produce plant growth regulators and help with root hair growth and stomatal conductance. Others prime plant immune systems so they are able to defend themselves rapidly when pathogens attack.

I fertilize my cucumbers, tomatoes, and herbs once every two months. Fertilize after planting, then fertilized again two months later. At least that was the best results for me.

Old thread but a good one.

A lot of Aussies drink a lot of Foster's (a brand of beer).

I wonder if Len is still around.

Haha, nope actually Australians do not drink Fosters! It practically died out here maybe 20 years ago, its very hard to find (not that anyone here is looking!). Think its only made for the export market. Its a crazy world!

I fertilize my crops only at the time of planting for most of them.. I use some slow release organic and some fast release 'regular' fertilizer.