oh my ...

do a soil test per acre.. min ... and FIND OUT ... what if anything is lacking ...

pasture might suggest.. animals depositing manure on such.. your presumption that it is void of nutrients and beneficials is suspect ...

one my 5 acres.. 4 of which was horse pasture.. bare mineral sand ... i have planted about 100 trees... 600 odd conifers... and never amended a hole.. and never fertilized a plant ... most trees simply dont need all that foo foo stuff ..... proper watering for two years after planting .... is just about all they need ... to get established .....

on some level.. based on what you are planting.. you are way over thinking all this ... for general trees...

as to fruit... ask the wizards in the fruit forum.. AFTER you have the soil test ...

good luck ... i had a riot playing on my 5 acres ...

ken

Yes! And kudos for even being aware of mycorrhizal fungi. Sulfur is hard on fungi, otherwise, the mere presence of organic material in soil is going to help. As I understand it, fungi spores are everywhere and are persistent, but it won't hurt to inoculate if you have the right inoculum.

Meh, that stuff is supposedly in peat moss. I guess I would be careful not to mix it with chlorinated water. In addition, you can add a shovelful of soil from a successful fruit tree in the neighborhood.

Paying the long bucks for microbes is something I wouldn't do without thinking twice or three times about.

Ken, there has been a soil test, but this does not test for beneficial microbes. Case in point; I have built a couple of homes in time past on property which was wooded and I partially cleared. Even though the soil was rather sandy and not very nutrient rich, the new trees I planted took off like crazy. Contrast that to a home which I now have that was previously lawn for 15 years, and the difference in growth of trees/fruit which I plant is staggering (same geographical area on the coast). What is the difference? I suspect that recently cleared woodlands is loaded with mycorrhizae - but that is just a guess. However, I am totally unfamiliar with prior livestock land, and especially this particular area.

Bs, the word 'guess' in your post above is relevant. I too applaud your awareness of these beneficial organisms, but the truth is, there's a great deal more unknown than known. I can tell you that micorrhizae are species-specific, or at least genus-specific. What works with one plant or closely-related group of plants by no means will work with other, unrelated genera. It's complex!

Since these preparations do seem to come with, as kokopelli above states, "long bucks", I'd go slow and devote my efforts towards learning more about the specific microbes which are associated with your intended plantings. I would also take steps to increase organic matter content generally across the site, by whatever means are cost-effective. Just mulching new plantings with wood chips, pine straw, or bark, is going to add new habitat for fungi. In time, this alone may get you where you're trying to go.

Incidentally, I sure never heard that mycorrhizae are generally present in peat. Sure, some vendors of peat-based products are purposely adding in propagules of such organisms into their potting media and so on, but peat straight out of the bog? I don't think so.

+oM

Good question. Given the sandy soil, and the lack of tree roots, the best way to start your trees is to put a lot of local rotten wood in the hole at the time of planting. This will solve your mycorrhizal needs, your fertilization needs (except for N), and will improve water retention. Consider 50 lbs per tree, but more is better, put an ad on Craigslist to see if someone has rotten firewood, or harvest it from the forest floor. If you then consistently mulch the trees you will keep the fungi alive and continue to improve water retention. The tree roots will go straight into the wood.

Mycorrhizal, mycorrhizae, are greek words that mean fungus (myco) and roots (rhiza) and refer to a mutually beneficial relationship (symbiotic) some species of fungi form with plants. There are different fungi that form that relationship with different plants and those that form the relationship with tomatoes will not do that with a tree or shrub. These fungi will be present in good healthy soils, they are a normal part of the Soil Food Web, so working on making the soil good and healthy will allow them to develop and grow. If a soil lacks adequate amounts of organic matter , is not good and healthy, adding something that is supposed to contain fungi that are supposed to form those relationships will do little or nothing.
The other problem is does what the salesperson is selling contain the fungi needed or not and how do you know?

To be specific: dig a big hole. plant the tree at the desired depth. Place wood under and over the roots according to the desired tree depth. cover, tamp, water. keep watering every two days until you see rapid growth (perhaps add SMALL amount of N fertilizer), then water weekly for the first year. Second year, it depends on weather and soil. In good weather with good water retention, you do not have to water. In my case, with fairly draining clay in MI, in the second year I had to water 3 times during July/August in a relatively wet year.

I just remembered that you can take a soil sample from under a healthy tree and use that to inoculate the soil of your newly planted trees. This is especially helpful for spruce.

Maybe, Idaho. If the fungi that form that symbiotic relationship with that healthy tree will form that same relationship with the new tree. The best method of getting the fungi that form those mycorrhizal relationships is to make the soil good and healthy and they will come, no reason to attempt tp "inoculate".