permaculture

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>]

Hello Samm,
I can second M. Elvin's comments. Your first (and continuous)
objective must be to incorporate organic matter.    You should also
think about liming (ground limestone / dolomite) and perhaps adding bentonite.
I gardened on a very small scale (home veg garden) on sandy soil with
an iron pan underneath in northern Germany at 600 mm rainfall. We had
wilting trees at times! The only way to grow anything was with the aid
of a lot of mulch (we had leaf mulch, poultry manure, household
compost, cow and hog manure from the neighbour). I left the place
in 1992 and returning 2 years later found that most of the good was undone
as mulching had been discontinued. The humus had vanished incredibly
quickly.
Crops that were grown commercially around us included rye, carrots,
potatoes, and fodder maize (with artificial fertilizers of course, and slurry
in the case of maize).
A good green manure for sandy soils is Phacelia.
As to tomatoes: They grew very well for us under a glass roof (again -
this was home garden scale but should work on a larger scale too) with
the following system. Dig trenches about a foot deep and wide and fill to 4-5 
inches
above ground level with well-rotted manure. Cover lightly with earth
and plant your tomato plants right into the manure (top of ridge).
Water/irrigate as normal between trenches throuhout the growing
period. I use the same system still in my polytunnel in Ireland now.
I'm trying to think back on what grew well and what did not...
Jerusalem artichokes were ok, cabbages of any kind didn't work. Hemp
could be an option as c******* did grow rather well in the back garden
:) It wasn't me!
Oh yes, raspberries did fine but only with a good bit of hog manure.
The three sisters - corn, cucurbits, and runner beans also did ok.
Cuces did fine too in a cold-frame, again with good compost and straw
mulch. That's all I can recall.
There was what we called the 'apple alley'  - 1 mile of fruit
trees along both sides of a small country lane near our house.
It also contained some pears and plums.
Our own garden contained Mirabelles (Prunus with small round
yellow 'plums') as well as gooseberries and red/white/black currants.
So all these can grow on sandy soil with a bit of TLC and a lot of
mulch to keep moisture in the soil.
I realize your climate may be different but then maybe not SO
different. (I spent a July in Madison once and it felt quite 'normal'
to me).
We had high'ish' summer temps there and winters were down to -10,
-15, -20 at times (Celcius). The soil was very similar to what you
describe.
Another thing to look at might be Fukuoka style seedballs, basically
covering seeds in a coating of bentonite or clay which holds moisture
around the delicate roots during germination and provides some basic
nourishment.

Your plan sounds interesting and I wish you the best of luck with the
realization.

Slán,
Ute (now in Ireland)


Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 2:09:30 PM, you wrote:

Mcc> In a message dated 11/4/2003 1:22:20 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
Mcc> samm_bucus@yahoo.com writes: 
>> hello, i have ten acres in northern wisconsin, on the south side of lake 
>> superior making it a cold zone 4.  the soil is pH 4-5 and pure sand with 
>> an 
>> inch or so of topsoil and a lot of iron in it.  the land used to be field 
>> for 
>> grazing horses i beleive. 
>>  
>>  i have plans to develop it into a permaculture style farm and am looking 
>> for help on several issues from the list:
>>   
>>  my main plan is to cover about half of it alley crop style. in order to 
>> make it financially i plan to develop a regular organic perennial 
>> flower/herb 
>> nursery, annual flower greenhouse and basil, tomato, spinach/malabar 
>> spinach 
>> greenhouse to provide value added crops in the alleys.  the rows will be 
>> fruit 
>> tree guilds, mostly apple, pear and plum based.  
>>  
>> 
Mcc> Dear Samm-- 

Mcc> My dirt is exactly like yours, but a bit more pH-neutral. You are going 
to 
Mcc> have a big problem with fertility if you don't plow some organics into 
your 
Mcc> sand. An inch of topsoil just won't do. Sand drains so well all your 
nutrients end 
Mcc> up down at the water table after a few rains, so my experience has been 
you 
Mcc> have to keep adding and adding the black stuff.

Mcc> Look around the neighborhood and find sources for aged manure. If it's 
not 
Mcc> old, crumbly and pleasant-smelling, put it into your compost pile for a 
year, 
Mcc> along with your cleared brush or other source of mulch. This makes great 
Mcc> dirt-enhancer for hungry soil.

Mcc> Without adding organics I'm afraid your plants will live but not grow. I 
have 
Mcc> a very diverse number of plants that are still the same size they were 
two 
Mcc> years ago, when I first put them in the ground. They take huge amounts 
of food 
Mcc> in order to come to fruit, so I hope you have either a pickup or a hay 
trailer 
Mcc> to hitch up-- it's going to take a lot of loads worked into the dirt 
before 
Mcc> you get State Fair quality crops.

Mcc> If you can't glean a lot of mulch from your land, try the county or any 
Mcc> developers who've been clearing land. They normally have a lot more 
brush than they 
Mcc> know how to get rid of. The finer you grind it, the quicker rotting will 
Mcc> occur. And to add nutrients, food leavings are tops, so ask your local 
farmer's 
Mcc> market if you can scavenge their leavings after market day. Don't forget 
to ask 
Mcc> the supermarket either-- they throw away a lot of veggies on a daily 
basis.

Mcc> One exception in my case-- I've found that peaches really like my thin 
sandy 
Mcc> soil. Same with a few ornamentals, like butterfly bushes or pyracantha. 
But 
Mcc> tomatos? If your place is like mine, you'll get three or four dwarfs per 
plant, 
Mcc> that's it. And they'll finally ripen around October.

Mcc> M. Elvin
Mcc> Wake County, North Carolina