Some will say that no fertilizers should be needed. However, that depends on some things. If your soil is richly supplied deeply with organic matter and available nutrients and your crop load light, then you should be ok.

If your nutrient draw is medium like the ones you list, I prefer to do some fertilizing. It would be best to work in any fertilizer before or when planting so now you could only lightly do any fertilizing.

Beans never need fertilizer, except perhaps a little wood ash discussed below. anyway in your shady site they will do poorly. The most shade tolerant of beans are runner beans, which need a trellis and take a long time to produce.

The rest needs some nitrogen, mostly, but most of them also prefer relatively alkaline soil. I would not be able to grow chard or beet here, for example, without some liming, which can be done with real lime or wood ash. With the seeds in the ground, hold off until you can see that stuff is not growing to apply any, because this stuff is best applied well before planting. It kills radicchio for example, if applied in mid growth.

Compost usually provides enough of the other nutrients. All the plants you list have slightly different nitrogen requirements, which can be applied both before and during growth: lettuce, arugula and beets are low, chard and kale medium, and broccoli fairly high.

If you have enough vermicompost in there (one inch thick or more), the first crop you should be able to make it, but with the next crop you will have to fertilize. Buy anything high N (first number).

I do have some worm compost thrown in that I forgot to mention, probably a handful mixed in to each pot.

Gardening is quite complicated :-p

Pots are an entirely different animal than the ground, making much of the info in replies problematic. It might be wise to provide adequate information for an informed answer in the future.

Dan

I'm sorry Dan. Do you have anything useful to add to this discussion? What is "problematic" about the replies? Your response lacks adequate information as well :)

She/he's a beginner who wants to learn! Maybe let the OP know what needs to be included in the post (gently) rather than blast her for what she did ask.
Just my 2 cents. NT

Dan response was quite to the point. I had not realized this was going to be done with pots, and of course he is right: pots are another beast entirely. I think presidiogarden should buy a book (say, Rodale Organic Gardening) and plant some seeds. Something will grow eventually. We have all taken our lumps early on. Why should he or she be back for every little detail? I don't even see evidence that he/she has digested answers from previous posts.

I have been vegetable gardening for about 1 year so far so I have learned some tips and tricks. The plants grow but I think adding the right fertilizer could help them grow quicker? Glib I'm not sure what digestion you are talking about. I have digested and absorbed all the answers I have received from the very helpful and friendly posters.

I too am a 1st year gardener and although my only real failure was tomatoes (probably down to the weather more than anything)probably the worst thing you can do is over fertilise.

My suggestion would be get a few different ones, liquid and granules mix them up weakly (as in low strength, not 7 days) and take it from there.

If your stuff is growing you may be ok as you are, and if you using containers I tend to bottom water (if possible) most stuff as that 'seems' to work better for whatever reasons.

Also dabble with Vermiculite and Perlite, they also 'seem to help' :)

Hope that's helpful enough.
Nick

I have an E.B.Stone Organics Sure Start fertilizer "A starter fertilizer for use at planting time" the box says. It is a 4-6-2 and says it is blended with humic acid and beneficial soil microbes. Analysis: Nitrogen 4% Phosphate 6% Potash 2% Calcium 9% Sulfur 1%. Derived from blood meal, feather meal, bone meal, dried chicken manure, bat guano, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and potassium sulfate.

Would something like this benefit my container vegetable garden? Can I sprinkler some every so often? It says it's good for transplanting to establish root growth. I bought it at a reputable local nursery.

As I stated previously, there is a container gardening forum that will help the OP with container gardening; having read that would have placed my above reply in context and eliminated any lack of clarity on the OP's part, especially wrt the issues with containers and organics in containers and the problems with them.

I suggest that visiting that forum will allow someone to quickly find Al's posts which hopefully one day will be gathered into a book on container soils. Upon reading a few threads on that forum, one (hopefully) should quickly see that Al's advice against organics in containers is the way to go. My veggies in the ground are all organic. In containers I do not use organic fert for the reasons I already gave and found in abundance on the Container Forum.

Dan

So these are veggies in pots?

I don't know about organic in pots. I understand it is more difficult. I fertilize my potted plants with a diluted balanced commercial fertilizer at each watering. But for organics, maybe you could water with a bit of manure tea or compost tea.

You are really going to have to stay on top of soil moisture. Organic gardening relies heavily on organic matter in the soil, ie: a properly enriched soil. The more organic matter in a pot, the harder it will be to maintain a good level of soil moisture. Soil moisture level is critical to the health of potted plants.

I was not aware of the container gardening specific forum- thanks for pointing me in the right direction- I will submit my posts over there.