Kevin, thank you so much for your helpful reply. I'll do some shopping with label reading this week.

In asking about fertilizer, you'd do yourself a favor by getting a soil test, and add what your soil really needs, rather than what it already has. My soil has loads of phosphorus and potassium, so I ONLY add nitrates. Recommendations about fertilizer often blithely assume that the soil has no nutrient value at all, so you have to add everything, and what you add determines entirely what the plants have access to.

I never fertilize my bush or pole beans at all. They can get all of the nitrogen they need from the air and I've never seen a need to add anything else. I'm assuming these are not planted in containers which would need some fertilizing.

No, they're not planted in containers, but their situation isn't exactly like the vegetable gardening we used to do. My bean arch is on what we call "the terrace"--a raised area on the side of our farmhouse with a stone retaining wall. I think it's probably been part of the landscape since the house was built, c. 1850, and the soil may be completely normal, but I don't really know. Irises grow well in it, and so have my pole beans--as long as the weather cooperates and I can keep the deer away.

I like Dan's suggestion to get a soil test kit. I remember my husband, a chemical engineer, had a sophisticated one, but I can probably find a simpler, less expensive model. I'll be interested to see what it says.

As has been written a lot here, the most reliable soil test is done professionally, and often local university ag extensions do them for a low cost. Not sure where you are, but you might look into that. Here in Texas we can get basic tests done for $12 (not including shipping cost for soil). They'll actually do it for anyone anywhere. A soil test provides a real baseline for any nutrient improvement effort. https://soiltesting.tamu.edu/

As usual Dan I don't agree with the need for a soil test for home vegetable gardening. The soil test results show Parts per million for each mineral and lbs of each per 1000 sq. ft. If you only have 139 sq. ft. the recommendation need to be broken down to the square footage you listed on the soil sample information form.

What if you don't want to buy a bag of each mineral, calculate ratios and weigh out ounces for 123 sq. ft. but rather buy a ready mixed bag of fertilizer from home depot like a mirclegro product and measure out tablespoons or cups like most home gardeners do. You'd then need to convert the test results into something people could use for the products they actually buy.

If the soil is low of any micro nutrient it will effect the plants too. In fact boron is the most common deficiency throughout the world according to the world food organization. A third of Minnesota is deficient in boron so I personally would want to know micro levels and boron, and would need the micro nutrient package with boron for an upgrade to $26.

To get picky the organic matter in the soil would also need to be known to precisely apply the right amount of fertilizers so a basic test would only apply if no organic matter was in the soil, but we know this is rarely true. Organic matter is a reservoir of nutrients that are slowly released over time so fertilizer rates are credited according to the OM level. Organic matter percentage are in most basic testing packages offered, but not at TAMU and can be had in the third tier upgrade for a total package price of $46. Was your occupation selling cars? Cable company salesman?

A basic test won't hurt and offer some insight of your NPK levels but in practical applications for small home vegetable growers and it won't offer much. Every year comes another test for $12 with only half the information needed. If I load my soil up with 10% to 15% organic matter how much nitrogen do I really need? 5% to 10% of the nitrogen is mineralized (plant available) the first year and nearly all the Phosphate and potassium is available the first year from plant based composts. And if your sweet corn has light and dark green stripes on the leaves Manganese was in short supply but you didn't know that with the $12 basic package.

Wow--my late husband would have risen to the challenge of that complex operation, Kevin, but as I read your post I leaned further and further toward "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." :-)

Actually, I took a sort of middle-of-the-road approach. I live in Pennsylvania, and I determined that Penn State will do the analysis for $9 (plus the cost of sending the soil). I passed it along to my son in case he wants to test his soil.

I always learn something new here. Thanks, all!

We can agree to disagree, Kevin. A reputable soil test will not only give ppm, but will also give recommendations of additions. But yes, if math is hard, you might have trouble scaling the result to a small plot. Was your occupation using an abacus?

I think you're confused about how you use the information from a soil test. It isn't about measuring out precise nutrient additions to hit some bulls-eye nutrient content number. It's about knowing what you lack. If you're low in potassium, you can add potash, or maybe just lean on potassium rich additives like seaweed. If you're low in phosphorus, you can throw on some bone meal or phosphate, or fish meal.

Micronutrients? Sure you can test for them, but why bother? I grow beets, and I ALWAYS throw a handful of borate into the bed before planting. That's just insurance. I don't need a test, and I'm sure not going to end up with toxic levels of boron. But if you're really interested, you can pay for micronutrient tests. Oh, you want manganese? $19 will buy you that, and a lot of others.

Yearly tests? Yeah, that's what I would expect to hear from someone concerned with bulls-eyes, and precisely regulating nutrient levels. I don't do that. I want to know what I'm missing, and I'm not trying to hit a number. A soil test simply gets you off on the right foot, so you know what direction you need to try to head in. Now, if you do have some desperately bad deficiency, a second test, after appropriate amendment, might be smart. Yep, this is about finding out what's broke, so you can fix it, and what isn't broke so doesn't need fixing.

EVERY serious gardener, with a new and unused bed, ought to get ONE soil test, if just to find out what flaming deficiency they're facing. Of course, another sensible strategy is just to contact the local extension, for information about soil properties in their locale. That's an even cheaper option.

My beans do better when I add some all-purpose organic veggie fertilizer before planting, and water/foliar feed with seaweed extract. I also add some soil innoculant for beans and peas when sowing, which is supposed to help with N fixing.

If you're growing the same thing in the same place year after year, over time, certain nutrients will deplete for sure. I try to move my beans and peas to different areas every year, but since that doesn't seem to be an option here, I would try adding compost and an organic fertilizer, which tend to be more slow release and contain more micronutrients than MiracleGro.