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.

It's possible the problem was originally under-watering. As was said earlier, when initially planted you have to water almost as much as when it was just in the container itself (a few times per week when it gets warm). I was so afraid of overwatering I nearly killed an Acer within two months this way -- and it had a watering basin also. Although a lesser concern, spraying with Roundup very likely contributed. It is not wise to spray roundup around young, drought stressed trees vs. it being OK to spray around healthy mature trees. At this point, I would remove the berms. Definitely buy some mulch and put it around the entire distance where the berm currently is -- but not against the trunk. The mulch adds other value besides just water retention. Now the big question: has there been any root growth BEYOND the initial rootball. If the tree has been struggling along, it's possible it hasn't. The leaves hanging off branches shows the weakened state of the tree -- it is familiar for under-watered trees but also for over-watered. The over-watered will show yellowing of the leaves, probably starting from the bottom up. The under-watered will show more crinkling and feel dryer. This is essentially what is being "argued" above: was the soil prep you did initially problematic or is this all just from under-watering and roundup or something else? To answer that, I would remove the berms and start digging up the soil (not the tree). Start in broad daylight so you have good vision, b/c you are 1) measuring the moisture of the soil (is it obviously sopping wet or average or on the dry side) and 2)have the roots extended beyond the rootball? The only real way to answer this is to start carefully digging far, ie from outside where the berm WAS. Dig down 12" and place soil aside. If you don't see any TINY, WHITE ROOTS, then start digging inward more and place the soil in a different pile. I would keep this process going until either the first sign of root or you're within 12" of the tree. Feel and smell the soil as you dig it out. Again you are doing this so 1) you learn about the soil moisture and 2) whether the tree roots have thrived at all in the past 4 months. I'm not suggesting you remove all the soil around the tree, just start on one side and go inward. I would also do it from the opposite side, too. I have done this twice, back when I was a beginner and planted citrus in ground and had struggling trees. One time I found the rootball had not grown at all. The other time, the roots had extended a few feet outward in 9 months of growth. You've done a great job taking pics so far, so I would keep it up during the dig out process. I would suggest you do this ASAP but as long as this thread has taken maybe your trees are improving so far? Feel free to send me email via this forum if you start the process and nobody has replied.

Do not use an oscillating sprinkler. Citrus trees do not like their trunks to get constantly wet, it will promote gummosis (foot rot, which is phytophthora). You can hose the foliage off, no problems with that, if it makes you feel better :-) During our hot, dry summers in California, it can help to reduce issues with spider mites. I have Caliche, too, in parts of my yard. The rest is DG. When I was growing up in Fullerton as a kid, we had almost all Caliche. I remember it was the first time I ever heard my dad utter a swear word :-) Which, for those of you who do not know, it is literally has hard as cement when dry, but oddly soft when soaked wet. If we want to dig a hole in dry soil, we have to use our impact shovel (translation - jack hammer. No kidding). So, if it is very heavy Caliche with a lot of clay, then planting on a mound is the way to go. So, you need to do what I told you to do :-) Set two 180 micro sprinklers at the trunk, facing outward. Be sure you've got a bit of a basin at the bottom of your mound. Allow the micro sprinklers to run for about an hour, 1 time a week. That should do it for you. It's what most newer commercial orchards use. In your area, with the older commercial orchards, you'll see the citrus trees all planted on a raised long mound, with flood irrigation ditches on each side of that long, raised mound, flooding each side of the trees with water. Gone are those days, of course, due to our water being ridiculously expensive. Patty S.

g'day saille, you should be able to plant whatever you like if the swale is as it should be and is actually going to do the job it is intended to do - that is 'aid the transition of catchment/run-off water into the sub-soil'. if you had planted along the contour and mulched around and between the food trees this too would have created a swale, you soil type could have an impact on how well the swale will work, a lot do the classic copy book trench swale with downside berm but when it is cut into clay it acts as a dam, and does little to put water into the sub-soil. you need also to take into account how much rainfall you get. so in areas that get very good rain you could if the swale works right water-log the soil below the immidiate area, in which case you want to plant moisture loving plants a opposed to plants that like it a bit drier as many fruit trees do they like to be well watered about once a week then they like to drain. in the situation we had we uesed rip swales (made by using a plow like tool often seen on graders and bull-dozer in combinations or 3 or 4 but we used a singel configuration), then planted the trees in the swale lines and then mulched as i said earlier this was in sandy loam soil and worked a treat. then on the other hand i have seen where others used the classic copy book swale in heavy clay and caused trenches that where little more than dams and the water went nowhere well not into the sub-soil least wise. one person needed to introduce fish into his swales to control mosquito's. len Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page