Considering the root layer of trees

In creating a new woodland it is natural to consider first what trees you want to plant - their main purpose for you and which varieties are likely to grow well in your location. I am starting to realise how important a part the roots of the tree play in the establishment of the woodland, especially in an area that was previously only a herbacious layer or possibly arable farmland - compacted soil and so on.
How does one go about creating the environment to facilitate the sort of fungal network for example, that we now know is so vital to tree growth?


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My first thought is: find a supportive local woodland owner, who is willing to donate soil to you from their established woodlands.

Wherever we plant a tree, put a portion of that soil in the planting hole?

(A bit like Sam returning to the Shire: Galadriel knew about mycelia?!)

You can go about via a natural succession by planting shrubs,
or/and accelerate it by propagating the respective microorganisms via the techniques of the Korean Natural Farming, or JADAM.

I was thinking maybe you could put some woody decomposing materials (piles of logs/hugel beds even) in piles around the land as the mycelium/fungi breaking this down would be valuable allies in soil building/tree growing (and might also create nice habitat shelters for some critters).  I then, coincidentally, read this article where they talk about how to introduce fungi into your system to encourage/accelerate building a (food) forest. Maybe it will have bits that help:

https://permacultureapprentice.com/food-forest-fungi/

I'm always trying to relate Permies conversations to my own experience. I have had great luck making hugels out of downed wood from the wooded (and for a long time) area on my property. This year, I had a sapling spring up in one of my first hugels. I decided to let it stay as a builder of soil and as a sort-of unplanned guild member. So far so good: it's still little, but I'm able to grow around it. I'm thinking next year I'll try to grow some pole beans or other viney members of a guild around it.

I don't exactly test my soil, but it is full of life and not very full at all of pesty beasties. I'm thinking this is bringing a tiny bit of the forest soil complexity into the area where I'm developing food forest plants. I also think I'm years and years away from seeing the food forest project to something like completion, and I love the idea of looking at the whole project as a succession partly managed by me and with a future that goes on beyond my management.

Isn't one of the reasons that "no-till" farming/gardening is supposedly working is that you aren't disturbing the fungal networks? That suggests to me that if an area has been growing grasses and forbs for a long time, even if the ground is still compacted, there could be more mycelium there than you would find in actively cultivated areas.

Does anyone have info on what naturally spreads mycelium (other than humans moving some healthy soil as mentioned above)? Birds move plenty of seeds in their excrement - but what moves mycelium or fungal spores effectively?

Has anyone tried using mushroom slurries to do this? (Local mushrooms.) The trouble is that it could be years before you see any fruit to know that you had an effect.

I go by the Geoff Lawton expression "A forest grows on a fallen forest," so prior to planting trees in an open field I lay out sticks, logs, piles of leaves, or other mulch at each tree planting site. Let the mulch sit for a few months or a year before you plant and when you return to it it will be full of activity where the wood contacts the ground - mycelium, insects, worms, etc. Then you just tuck a little tree seedling in there, give it a splash of water every now and then, and you're good to go.

As for building a fungal network, think of your mulch-tree sites as the nodes in a network. Both the mycelium and tree roots can reach out a certain distance from node to node. By placing regularly spaced sites at not too great a distance from one site to the next, the nodes can become interconnected and thereby the network can be traversed by wayward fungi.

A new forest starts with the major part of nitrogen fixing trees.

These you want to split with flat and tap rooting trees..

They will start to pull your ground water up and in the succession phase the (fruit) trees take over and push out the nitrogen fixer.

Ground cover is also an essential part of it to keep the water longer in the soil and avoid erosion..

I thought this might be a good thread to share this picture of an alternative nitrogen fixing tree root: alder

walnut sized root nodule

My dogs like to dig for "mices" and this was found during the hunt. I've seen them quite a bit bigger than this. My understanding is that the alder uses a different bacterial family than the legumes do in fixing nitrogen.

Jay said, "what naturally spreads mycelium

The spores can be carried by the wind or even by animals brushing against them.

This is an interesting thread about fungi and bees:

https://permies.com/t/41088/Paul-Stamets-Lecture-fungi-bees

You can buy mycorrhizal fungi root powder to colonize your tree roots. It is required by our local nursery for them to warranty their trees. I don't have a get it at home or for free solution for you, unfortunately. But you can get it in a powder that dissolves in water if you want to add it to an existing tree. I would probably inject it into the ground in a few places.

These days, multi-species cultures of mycorrhiza inoculant can be purchased.  I've bought them before on Amazon and used them when starting new tree transplants.  I don't know that they are as good as mycorrhiza cultures that develop naturally and spontaneously in woodland soils, but they promise to be faster.  I figure that, at worst, it can do no harm.  And they're not too pricey.

Can anyone think of any good reasons not to do this?

Do a run of King Stropharia, also known as winecap mushrooms.

Choose a spot in the shade...like...under a tree.

Buy some blocks of  inoculated and growing spawn, usually growing in sawdust.

Gather up enough cardboard to cover the area then wet it down and peel it apart after it has soaked for a while.

Lay it on the ground glue side up.

sprinkle spawn over the cardboard.

Cover with wood chips and keep moist by watering. You can go very thick on the chips if you have enough but al least a few inches.

Once things get going and the mushrooms start popping up the mycellium will eat up the wood chips quickly.

I didn't plan this, but a happy accident.

I did this under a large magnolia tree 5 - 6 years ago, which eventually became my nursery area for whatever I propagate or isn't quite ready for prime time.

If a plant isn't doing well in our horrific conditions I can put it under that  tree where the mushrooms were and the micro herd still in the soil will heal it if it's not too far gone.
That soil is also filled with earthworms, so I store spare potting soil there in containers with holes in the bottom and that soil  soon has it's own herd of wigglers.
Not to mention the spectacular growth of that Magnolia since then.
The soil there is still wonderfully dark and loamy, not something you usually see in Florida.

One warning on those particular mushrooms.

One person in 10,000 is allergic to them and my girlfriend was one of them.
We still joke about me trying to poison her but it wasn't funny when she was spewing from both ends type of sick from them.
Try a very tiny quantity and wait 5 - 6 hours before you dig into a lot of them, that was the mistake we made.

I am trying to plant pines on what was formerly a field in a non-forested area and it is obvious that for some species mycorrhizal associates are absolutely necessary for normal growth.

In addition, because most forest tree nurseries now produce seedlings in greenhouses with peat plugs and not bareroot in outdoor nursery beds most do not come pre-inoculated with their fungal associates.

I am still not sure how to solve this.  Sometimes it solves itself and sometimes not. I suggest gathering some soil from a healthy woodland (several locations would be best) and treating the soil like its alive (because it is) keeping it cool and moist and adding it to seedling roots immediately before planting. I suspect that with exception of dormant spores, the hyphae pieces in the soil may extremely sensitive and fragile and die quickly if they are not connected to their host plants. Kind of like a fish out of water or a plant with its roots in the air... Plants the seedlings and hope for the best. And keep adding fungal types to your soil.

Hello Nancy.

When I learned about this topic, Dr Ingham would just create a compost pile with woody material from the same area where the tree was located originally. The sourced material is likely to contain the proper microorganisms your soil is going to need, the woody material is going to provide the right growing substrate for them.
Then, the compost would be inocculated in the soil, and plants would be planted that would feed the microorganisms before they die. This combination of plants and microorganisms would in turn change the soil structure and become a nice habitat, provided there's enough moisture.
This might be the most efficient way.

Another option is to create the environment and let the life colonize it. Funghi require woody material, humidity and to remain undisturbed. So you could add wood chips, regularly irrigate it if you don't enjoy regular rainfall, protect it from excessive drying (wind, sun) and avoid any soil disturbance (tilling, walking over).
It may take some time until the proper microorganisms fill the niche, though.

This is a great thread.....

I agree with Abe Coley, Geoff Lawton has started of many forests here in Oz starting off with pieces of log already inocculated with fungi.

One small trick I learned from Bill Mollison back in the 1980's was to fill a large bucket with rainwater and add 1 tablespoon of organic molasses to each bucket and water to the area you want to speed up fungal organisms. Works for me really well and I always get positive comments from those who come to learn from my permie gardens about the soil quality, worms, mycorrhizal growth, productivity. Adding some tea leaves or coffee grinds to the molasses mix also is helpful. I buy my molasses from a horse supply store here.

Korean Natural Farming is the technique of capturing and multiplying IMO (indigenous micro organisms). I've made this Jadam 3x now and experienced great results, flourishing beyond expectations.    This is simplest way to start the KNF technique. All you need is 5 gallon bucket, 4 gallons of water 15 grams of sea salt, 3 cooked potatoes and 2 handfuls of leaf moldy soil and 36 hours of brewing. But you must apply this "fertilizer" speedily, it doesn't last long just in the bucket. If you make the KNF IMO that can be stored for many months and awakened before applying. KNF says "Study nature, copy nature". All the systems for abundance in KNF are formulated to be made and applied by the poorest farmer with the least resources, so anyone can use them. Properly applied these systems usually double output, amp up drought resistance/water retention, remove the need for other fertilizers, tilling, or pesticides. Once in place the soil will continue to improve as you have introduced a very resilient bio-diverse system which creates more abundance year after year. The full compliment of KNF recipes gives you an arsenal of boosters. They can be applied to each of the growth stages, optimizing output, and used to combat any issues which may arise. Many resources are free online, the best sources are from Master Cho the creator of this system. His English skills are some what of an impediment, so direct students of his tend to be the easiest source to study. naturalfarminghawaii.net or  https://www.biomei.solutions/ are 2 of many good sources.

[quote=Nancy Reading]In creating a new woodland it is natural to consider first what trees you want to plant - their main purpose for you and which varieties are likely to grow well in your location. I am starting to realise how important a part the roots of the tree play in the establishment of the woodland, especially in an area that was previously only a herbacious layer or possibly arable farmland - compacted soil and so on.
How does one go about creating the environment to facilitate the sort of fungal network for example, that we now know is so vital to tree growth?

Consider to make a Johnson Su compost. https://youtu.be/DxUGk161Ly8?feature=shared This video shows how to do it. As fire prevention we chip all the dry plant material before the summer season heat starts and mix the material as shown in the video. After a year we have compost full of mycelium spores. See pictures of the used pallet.

Abe Coley wrote:As for building a fungal network, think of your mulch-tree sites as the nodes in a network. Both the mycelium and tree roots can reach out a certain distance from node to node. By placing regularly spaced sites at not too great a distance from one site to the next, the nodes can become interconnected and thereby the network can be traversed by wayward fungi.

Excellent way to think about it.  I heartily agree.  Don't think in terms of preparing acreage, even if starting with totally degraded land - and in this case, "degraded" need not mean the land is in particularly bad shape, only that it is open land, not recently forested, and so we will presume deficient in pre-existing mycorrhizal species, as the OP proposed.  One need only prepare small areas around each tree planting, and let the soil improvement naturally spread out as the trees and related plantings grow.

We've seen this same philosophy utilized successfully, I believe, in programs to regreen desert land: rather than blanket your agreage uniformly with plantings, conserve resources by planting individual copses instead, spaced a certain distance apart, and let them serve as anchor points from which soil improvement will spread until the nodes eventually interconnect and full coverage is achieved.

I feel this strategy should be equally successful regardless of which soil preparation methods you pursue, as have been discussed above: mulching the planting area in advance with woody debris, or a more carefully prepared KNF innoculation regime, or using commercial mycorrhizal innoculant.  Or better yet, a little of all three at once!

One thing I will note is that some posters here don't seem to be differentiating between saprotrophs - i.e. decomposing fungal species, including certain edible mushrooms we all know and love - and mycorrhizae, which aren't the same.  Perhaps it doesn't matter; perhaps where one type flourishes in your brush pile, the other type will naturally show up.  I don't know.   But I feel this is all the more reason to include a little commercial mycorrhizal innoculant in your plans.  As I've written previously, it can only speed things up, it's widely available, and it isn't particularly expensive.

Of course, the nodal strategy for planning soil improvement and tree planting is a trade-off: a longer timeframe for conserved resources.  If resources - money, man-hours, materials - are no obstacle, then sure, go ahead applying your soil improvement strategy broadly across the target acreage.  That will only speed things up even more.

Matthew Nistico wrote: We've seen this same philosophy utilized successfully, I believe, in programs to regreen desert land: rather than blanket your agreage uniformly with plantings, conserve resources by planting individual copses instead, spaced a certain distance apart, and let them serve as anchor points from which soil improvement will spread...

I think this is a good approach because the trees can support each other and are easier for people to care for them.  Even if it takes human intervention to help them spread, if the survival rate improves compared to many plantings I've read about, it will inspire people to put the work in to continue to infill between the copses.

For any of this to work, paying attention to water first is also critical. Water is usually not an issue for the OP's ecosystem, but it surely is for mine. Even after years in the ground, some of my trees really need a little water support during our drought months, particularly if I want them to produce fruit for me. My yellow plum trees which produce mid July do fine, but they're also in damper eco-zones. My Italian Prune Plum is in dryer territory, gets more sun, has competition from cedar which seeks water, and is on poorer soil. I try to irrigate it once a month. I make sure it gets some mulch goodies in a wide ring around it in the spring as a slow food supply and my effort to gradually improve the soil. I need to spend the energy to dig some more infiltration pits because rock doesn't hold a lot of water... There's just too many other things I want to do elsewhere.

The copse approach makes sense, especially early on when resources are limited. I planted a scattered mix across a field a few years back and the trees clustered near older hedgerow stumps established noticeably faster than the isolated ones. The network had somewhere to plug into.

It's interesting to get so many replies suggesting the copse approach. I think there is definitely something in this. This picture shows the difference in growth between hazel trees planted at the same time, with the same treatment. The ones on the left have alder and other trees behind. I believe the alder is a great nurse tree in my environment and somehow improves the soil in it's root zone. Whether this is through nitrogen fixing, root exudates, or leaf drop I'm not really sure. Shelter may have some effect, but not to the degree that I have seen here (and elsewhere).