It sounds like you already have a pretty good handle on the issues. I have an orchard I manage that I installed several years ago where the owner assured me that he'd brought in 100's of yards of top-soil. When I got to the site it turned out top soil meant soil from a major excavation from the top of a mountain. It was primarily a sub-soil of blue clay! The orchard looks beautiful now and includes a couple of healthy cherry trees (the only ones I manage with fruit this year after very untimely rain).

Your soil can't be nearly this bad and I've seen successful commercial apple orchards in soil that was highly clay and water usually sat on the surface in early spring. But this was apples and not cherries.

At the first mentioned site the soil was so bad that I ignored the literature and brought in about a quarter yard of sand per tree and an equal amount of completely composted horse stable waste (much more wood shavings than manure before it was composted). As you suggested I did my best to mix this well with about equal amounts of the clay with a larger ratio of clay deeper down.

The raised beds created are about 7' diameter and held in place with ornamental block. This is not how I usually do it but the owner liked the ascetic and at least it holds the mounds up and you're not fighting erosion.

Because I used so much sand it actually helped create a very nice top-soil (not the concrete in the lit warnings) of several inches that is much more a sandy loam than a clay.

In your soil such a dramatic transition will almost certainly not be necessary but if you bring any sand in make sure it's enough to really transform the soil- even if it's only the top few inches.

Probably all you actually need to do is to make the mounds from soil already there if other kinds of trees seem capable of growing in it. I recommend mounds that are 2' above surrounding soil and about 8' diameter for decent sized, free-standing trees (they will settle to maybe 18"). Put any compost on the very top and finish with mulch.

Actually, the best thing would be to use a back hoe and raise the entire middles by moving the soil between rows of fruit trees into the area of the rows. this way the raised rows would not have to be as high and could be held in place with sod. If the rows ran down-hill it would help drain the water.

Individual raised mounds have to be held in place by mulching every year unless you used something like blocks or rot-resistant wood to hold them up.

Wood chips to raise mounds works fine, except that they rapidly settle as they decompose and the mounds disappear after a few years. An adequate amount of soil needs to be placed over them to grow the trees, of course.

You should make these mounds when the soil is not too wet, so I'd get them ready in late summer for fall planting. In your zone you best be sure any fall planting is very well mulched- maybe the cherries should wait til spring.

Thanks Harvestman! I'd read a number of your posts, and was hoping you'd respond.

I appreciate the encouragement. As you realized, the soil I have to work with is actually quite an asset. Yes it's heavy, but it's got a well balanced compliment of nutrients, and tons of earthworms. I think the main problem will be the drainage, especially off-season.

In my veggie garden, I've shoveled the topsoil from the foot wide paths onto the beds to create raised bed (also topped off with an inch or so of compost). I've graded the paths and then filled them with wood chips to bed level, and this seems to be working as a kind of poor woman's french drain (I've dug a soak away at the ends of the paths, and this takes in quite a bit of water after a good rain). This system is only a month or so old, so I have no idea if it will stand the test of time (or silt up). It's hard work to install!

Do you think the same system (but with wider paths and higher and wider beds) would work with standard/semi-dwarf trees? I think I'd still have to import some soil, as I only have a good 12 inches of depth to work with. This land is pancake flat, but there is a drainage stream at the back (I think I'd rent a trencher to get through the tree roots, but it should work).

I'm in eastern Ohio. Is there a nursery that you'd recommend that will work with a small scale buyer with special rootstock needs?

Thanks again, I love my research, and some of these questions are hard to answer.

Consider a test dig with a local backhoe operator. May it be worth digging yourself a pond? You could make mounds with this material if good enough. More likely consider amending the excavated soil with sand/manure/whatever is required, prior to creating your mounds.
If an excavated pond holds water all summer(clay does that!) imagine the possibilities.

A pond is one of my dreams (so is a flock of egg laying ducks to swim in it, and a nice little orchard for those duck to pest patrol). We've been considering a pond ever since we moved here in January, but I've not done any research, and I suppose I'm nervous about the costs. Is a pond just renting a backhoe/operator for the day and hoping he hits water?

I'd have to heavily amend the subsoil from an excavation - it really is solid clay, but you've opened a whole new avenue for me to consider. - Thanks!

Sunkrist,

Your soil and water table situation sounds almost exactly as mine.

Hman has given you some good advice regarding mounding or building terraces for your trees.

I've battled a high water table with clay based soil for quite a while, and lost plenty of trees along the way.

The first thing I tried was installing a field tile around (more or less ) the perimeter of the orchard area. It drained off a lot of water. While this stopped tree mortality, a lot of the trees still weren't thriving. Eventually, I converted any excessively problem spots to mounds. The difference was night and day.

At first I hired someone to build some mounds with a skid steer. Then I rented a skid steer myself and built some more. Now I just rent one of those Dingos when I need more mounds built. They are cheap to rent and can do an amazing amount of work in one day (for such a little machine).

I've found it doesn't matter so much what kind of soil the mounds are built out of as long as the trees are up out of the water table. I've built some mounds with solid clay and the trees seem to do just fine. I do keep all the mounds mulched with wood chips to prevent erosion and conserve soil moisture in the hot summer.

In the last couple years I have built some mounds with wood chips and soil (I refer to as "mulch mounds") and while they work, they don't seem to work as well as straight soil mounds. The mulch mounds seem to dry out and need water in the summer (I think the problem with the layered mulch mounds is that they don't very well wick up water from the soil below.) I've also noticed what I believe is a significant nitrogen deficiency with accompanying reduced vigor in the mulch mounds.

Mahleb rootstock is more prone to root rot than the other standard cherry rootstock - Mazzard. I don't know anything about the Giesla rootstocks in relation to water tolerance. Either way I wouldn't try to manage out of your problem with rootstocks. Instead get the trees up out of the water, and then it won't matter what rootstock you use.

I would think any french drain made out of wood chips will eventually fail as the chips rot and turn into soil.

In terms of your pond, most ponds need to capture drainage to keep them filled (which is going to be impossible if your land is dead flat). It is possible you might be able to build a pond fed by an underground spring. If your pond is not spring fed, it may dry out in the summer as the water table recedes.

I have heard of people building small ponds with a track hoe under conditions of high water tables.