Douglas Fir food forest conversion

I have several acres of northwest mountain property with dense doug fir and larch. I am cutting trees to make room for a food forest. Any suggestions for fixing the acidic soil and making the land amenable to fruit, nut trees and berry bushes, etc?

Use what you've got. Blueberries like acid soil. I would start there. See if you can get potatoes to grow too. They're essentially perennial if you don't harvest every last tuber. And they supposedly like acid soil too.

It sounds to me like sunlight is the biggest problem for you if you're facing the northwest. Especially in a woodland. I wonder how blueberries will fruit on the north side of a mountain...

I have a similar mountain property. It's mostly cedar and scree... One flat area used to get enough sun to be cultivated as a vegetable garden before the trees matured. Now we use it to harvest bamboo shoots.

Hi Daniel - Welcome to Permies.

I’m guessing that you already know a fair bit about permaculture if you’re planning a food forest.

Do you have chickens or other manure producing animals? You could chip the branches of the trees you’re clearing and mix with manure to quickly create so great soil.

Or you could try the Ellen White method:

Ellen White Tree Planting Method

This thread got me thinking about that property of mine... Maybe I'll see what I can get to grow there. Could be a fun experiment.

Daniel, welcome to the forum.

Look at the existing plants that you have already growing there.

Do any of them have value as food?

Next look for things to add that will build your soil such as wood chips, compost, mushrooms, etc.

Dr. Bryant Redhawk's soil series will give you a lot of information:

https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil

These two I would highly recommend:

https://permies.com/t/63914/Soil

https://permies.com/t/123928/Growing-Plants-builds-soil-health

Best wishes for a great food forest!

Huckleberries should grow like crazy once you reduce the tree cover. Red huckleberries grow at lower elevations, blue and black huckleberries grow at higher elevations. I know that red huckleberries like to grow on nurse logs/stumps. So you might leave some logs on the ground to encourage those to grow in the years ahead.

As far as reducing acidity, you will probably need to use lime to grow plants that don't love acidic soils. I currently have four apple trees that are shaded by douglas firs and maples. The apples responded well to pruning after the first year, but they have given poor yields since then. I should try giving them some lime. And probably trim back the shading trees.

https://www.yara.us/crop-nutrition/apple/agronomic-principles/

I'd work with what you got. Granted, I'm biased as a botanist that focuses on native northwest plant species ;)

Any of our native berries should do well -- hucks, blueberries, native blackberries (avoid Himalayans, they'll choke out everything), salmonberries, and thimbleberries are normal succession fruit plants for our conifer forests. Jeremy nailed it with the huckleberry recommendations, but I'd like to add that evergreen hucks are also a good choice for low altitudes and closer to the coast. You can slowly begin correcting the acidity of the soil without losing most of the above berries, with the exception of hucks and blueberries. Fill in those holes with other fruit trees as the soil profile evolves.

Thanks for the terrific info. I will start raising chickens this Spring and try the White fruit tree planting method. Eventually grow blueberries under the tree canopy. Thanks again!

"If life gives you acid soil grow blueberries" or something like that! Seriously though, in my experience plants don't read books. I've got 6 1/2 acres of extremely acid (pH4-5?) windswept waterlogged hillside. It started off a sheepfield, now I call it my "treefield", it almost is a woodland in places. I've been surprised what does grow quite happily for me. In fact I'm only just trying blueberries again after an early failure (I think due to waterlogging and lack of sunshine).  If you're wanting to grow vegetables seriously then modifying the soil pH may well be worthwhile, but potatoes quite like it acidic, and my perennial kale (Taunton Deane) is growing into a jungle.
Have fun and welcome to Permies!

I also am also surrounded by a northwest forest.  Red elderberries abound on the edges of my homestead.  They are very beautiful and supply food to a large variety of wildlife.  I have planted native black American elderberries lining the driveway.  Some are 12 feet tall now providing more wildlife food and lots of black elderberry syrup.  Such a good medicinal.  We are living in a land of abundance!  Just listen to nature talking she will direct you.