Sandy soil missing key nutrients but don't want invasive

Hey Everyone,
New to all of this and having a little trouble navigating it.

Background: new to me 5 acres, eatonville Washington, 4-5% Southeast slope. It was clear cut by the previous owner 8 months ago. Lots of tree branches and bark covering the ground. Some small ferns and stuff starting to appear. Our hopes are to restore the forest in about 2 acres of zone 4/5, have about an acre of food forest, then a half acre or so of managed annual/biannual crops.

Scenario: Did some soil test and dug some holes. Very low nitrogen and phosphorus, solid pH and potassium levels. Looks like roughly 85% sand. Soil is 3-6 feet above bedrock. Had a biologist out who claimed the site would be full of plants by the spring.

Solutions:
1. I could leave the land as is but the high sand content I don't think will fix itself in any sort of reasonable time frame for me to garden
2. Planting white clover, yarrow, bigleaf maple to help stabilize nutrients
3. Planting a fast growing annual a long with these like buckwheat to get some organic material down.
4. I don't think swales are going to be effective as the soil just drains to well, maybe some hugels above where I'm going to garden.

I'm trying to balance between trying to make healthy soil without planting tons of plants that will take over and be unwieldy. I keep reading make small changes - but in this case small changes seem to equal bad soil for a long time.

I have seen all the sands to soil posts I guess I really just wanted to some opinions on where to draw the line.

What is the pH?  If you've got fern coming, you've likely got room to add some lime.  With the right lime, you can nudge that sand in the right direction.  Soil tests for N, P, and K are of no use to homesteaders.  They will always test low in poorly managed soils.  Once you transition to a living soil system, you'll have all the NPK you need and with none of the toxicity.  

Terry Frankes wrote:What is the pH?  If you've got fern coming, you've likely got room to add some lime.  With the right lime, you can nudge that sand in the right direction.  Soil tests for N, P, and K are of no use to homesteaders.  They will always test low in poorly managed soils.  Once you transition to a living soil system, you'll have all the NPK you need and with none of the toxicity.  

6.2-6.4 ish, so what I'm hearing is there is a chance the nutrients could be fixed naturally as things start to appear and I plant want I want?

With such high sand concentrations, I wouldn't be surprised if water (and therefore nutrients) drain away rather quickly. In order to give you better conditions, I would advise increasing the organic matter in your soil.  How does somebody do this?

Compost

This can be done with a finished product added to where you want to plant or by introducing compostable things to the area to break down over time. I'm a big fan of thick mulch layers breaking down over time to improve the soil. Getting living roots into the ground is another big thing once you create okay growing conditions.

There is more than one way to accomplish your goals, I recommend experimenting and seeing what works for you.

I look forward to seeing the advice you get. I garden on sand, though mine is more like 60' deep and I imagine my season is a lot shorter. I just mulch the hell out of everything. I brought in two dumptrucks of compost when I was starting and now I just use whatever I can produce plus all the chop-n-drop mulch plus all the woodchips I can get dropped off by a tree guy. The more I mulch, the better things grow. Also, everything grows more slowly. I've planted over a hundred apples and they simply don't put on the growth that I read about elsewhere. But they also don't seem nutrient deficient and they don't die. Now what I'm doing is using my best compost on annuals (because I can't afford to have them grow at half-pace) and letting the perennials grow at their own speed.

Michael Cantrall wrote:I'm trying to balance between trying to make healthy soil without planting tons of plants that will take over and be unwieldy. I keep reading make small changes - but in this case small changes seem to equal bad soil for a long time.

I have seen all the sands to soil posts I guess I really just wanted to some opinions on where to draw the line.

Making healthy soil could be as easy as having wood chips brought in and growing mushrooms.

Previously one member had a market garden on sandy soil.  Her solution was to add any veggie scraps she could get her hands on.

If you havent made compost that would be a great start.

Christopher Weeks wrote:I look forward to seeing the advice you get. I garden on sand, though mine is more like 60' deep and I imagine my season is a lot shorter. I just mulch the hell out of everything. I brought in two dumptrucks of compost when I was starting and now I just use whatever I can produce plus all the chop-n-drop mulch plus all the woodchips I can get dropped off by a tree guy. The more I mulch, the better things grow. Also, everything grows more slowly. I've planted over a hundred apples and they simply don't put on the growth that I read about elsewhere. But they also don't seem nutrient deficient and they don't die. Now what I'm doing is using my best compost on annuals (because I can't afford to have them grow at half-pace) and letting the perennials grow at their own speed.

This is what I'm thinking, maybe not mulch but leaving the branches and stuff were they lay, grow buckwheat and chop and drop it in place. Let all this essentially large scale compost in place.

Heavy rainfall area? If so maybe you don't want to hold all the moisture in place. On the other hand if water is limiting perhaps  bury tree trunks as sort of underground swales. Hugel-swales?

Since you have different zones you can have different nutrient managements for each one. For the 2 acres of rehabilitation, leaves as is to let natural succession happen. The detritus and dead roots are slowly releasing nutrients and the abundant sunlight will be favorable for all kinds of pioneer niche plants. You may see years of beautiful wildflower meadow before the tree saplings take over. For the food forest, some type of hugel beds and deep rooted legume covercrops will help building soils and recycle nutrients for the perennial fruit trees. For the annual garden, the nutrient requirement is much higher so you may need to bring in compost or manure from outside. Techniques such as deep mulching, chop and drop and Ruth Stout type composting are all suitable for fast draining soils.

May Lotito wrote:Since you have different zones you can have different nutrient managements for each one. For the 2 acres of rehabilitation, leaves as is to let natural succession happen. The detritus and dead roots are slowly releasing nutrients and the abundant sunlight will be favorable for all kinds of pioneer niche plants. You may see years of beautiful wildflower meadow before the tree saplings take over. For the food forest, some type of hugel beds and deep rooted legume covercrops will help building soils and recycle nutrients for the perennial fruit trees. For the annual garden, the nutrient requirement is much higher so you may need to bring in compost or manure from outside. Techniques such as deep mulching, chop and drop and Ruth Stout type composting are all suitable for fast draining soils.

Ah your completely right, I totally forgot I can treat them all independently, I think I might go buy wom cheap landscape flags and start marking off zones. Thanks so much for this idea, it's truly how I want to handle it.