orchard plot - water logged - any ideas?

[ldsau93]

so..... after 2 years in the planning, site clearance, choosing varieties etc, the 4 fruit trees were delivered today (2 x apple, 2 x plum). The advice I'd read was NOT to pre-dig the whole in case it fills with water. So I dug them today, and of course they immediately filled with water from the recent heavy rain.

I've stored the trees at the back of the shed for the moment but now have a terrible feeling about drainage, and would welcome the experience of other people on the forum.

I'm fairly sure the ground water will subside in a day or two, but it has shown me that the ground is more prone to partial flooding then I'd previously suspected. Can I sufficiently improve drainage just by digging lots of sand etc into the hole the tree (bare root) goes into, or do I need to dig a sump/drainaway/pond? My concern with the latter is that water respects no boundaries and effectively all water (from the whole allotment site) will (literally) gravitate towards it, and as such I could never dig one that was really big enough.



Any thoughts or tips would be welcome.

[Scarlet]

I don't do any diy so I can't answer your questions on improving drainage but my little "orchard" and my veg plot is often a pond in the winter. The trees seem to be happy and give plenty of fruit. I've had no problem growing stuff. Personally I'd plant your trees up in buckets for the time being and wait for the land to drain a bit, then plant them.

[Guest]

I hate to be un-grape like but I agree with Scarlet. Pot them up and plant out at a later date. I have issues as my soil compacts and becomes very wet and horrible but as it is only part of the year then the trees manage.

[BUFFS]

if there is any kind of slope in the area dig a drainage channel to allow the water to flow away better, I dug a foot deep channel from near each oh my trees where I used to live, and at the lowest point I dug down about 3ft and made a 3ft wide square pit, I lined this with the weedcontrol fabric and put all my rubble from the renovations I was doing and 2 bags of b & q grit, covered with a sheet of the fabric and covered by topsoil and turf, it worked fine for the 7 yrs we lived there... where we live now it would have to be a yard wide and a 6ft deep hole to cope with the constant little sprinkles we get here..... think elephants....

[alldigging]

We have just had the wettest period in a very long time.
Assume the ground water will take a while to get back to normal.

Put them in pots and plant them in a few months/autumn when it's drier and hope that the weather pattern isn't as wet again.

[Philthy]

I had similar concerns with my two apple trees. My bigger tree is a Kidds OR on MM106 sited on a lawn (ornamental as much as fruit producer).
I acquired the Kidds near the end of the 2012/13 planting season - March'ish I think. But it was wet that winter and my pre-dug, rather shallow planting hole was by then a pond. Actually it did me a favour because it made me realise how compacted and poorly draining the ground was at that point. Heavy clay and flint certainly doesn't help. So I potted up the tree when it arrived, set it aside near the back door, and decided to wait for summer so the ground could dry out.
In June I marked out an area roughly 6' sq. with the existing planting hole in the middle, removed the turf, excavated about 2' of soil, forked over the bottom of the pit (forgot to do likewise on the sides - hopefully that won't be an issue down the line), put a couple of bags of sharp sand in the bottom, and put the broken up top soil back in along with a layer of manure. Put the turves back a few inches proud and was done by mid July.
4 months later after the ground had settled I planted the tree. For extra insurance I positioned it atop a slight mound so as to be clear of runoff from the rest of the garden. This preparation may well of paid off just a few weeks later as winter 2013/14 proved of course to be one of the wettest on record.
As the tree grows the roots have room to expand and hopefully the soil around them will be wet in winter but not waterlogged for extended periods like before.
Prevention of problems where feasible is always easier than cure.

[FB.]

Choose where you want each tree to be.

Hammer your stake(s) in.

Stand the tree alongside its stake on the soil surface with all the roots above ground.

Secure the tree to the stake.

Use surrounding soil* to create a wide shallow mound which covers the rootball and well beyond the rootball's spread. Make sure all the roots are covered by soil after your newly-created ground level (most young trees have roots between six to twelve inches deep so your soil level will be increased by that amount).

The trees will then have a natural water-run-off to keep the base of their trunk and main roots out of the flooded areas.

The soil will settle so make sure the roots remain covered by using more soil in the future as necessary.

Don't bulk-up around the trees with compost or sand because it will create abnormally dry or wet areas relative to your normal soil. Unless you can amend the whole site down to 2-3ft it won't make much difference. Even if you amend the site to improve drainage, it might just mean everyone else's site drains wonderfully into yours.

Just a light compost mulch a couple of times per year is all that's needed if you've chosen varieties and rootstocks suitable for the conditions, climate and growth rate/mature size you require.


* You could consider a drainage ditch (even if it's more of a dip than a ditch) as a source of soil for your soil-level raising, plus it will help channel away excess water in future.

Soil amendment attempts are unlikely to make a worthwhile difference.

[ldsau93]

Quick update, I've followed the 'mound' technique kindly suggested by FB. 4 trees are now planted, the race is now on to see who will grow faster - darling children or the fruit!

[ldsau93]

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