I planted 12 new trees last year. Peach, Pear, Apple, Plum, Cherry
I’ve got a lot of clay in my soil and now that I’m learning more, I think standing water could be an issue. I wish I would have planted in raised mounds. They are on a minor slope. I’m thinking of building a horse shoe shaped mound around the up hill side of the tree and making a small trench on the downhill side of the tree. I figure this will keep extra water from flowing in and it will give the standing water a place to go. I threw together a quick picture. Red is the mound and blue is the trench
Are there better methods out there? Currently, they aren’t mulched at all. Is it enough to just wood chip mulch them?
The way I plant in my clay soil is to make a shallow dish where water mostly can flow out. Then fracture it with a shovel, plop rootball ontop of that, then build some compost around it and mulch heavily.
I have almost killed trees in Texas by just planting into the ground directly in clay, the solution was pulling them up and replanting for me.
I believe roots will eventually go into the native soil once they run out of compost and mulch mound you build, but I feel like digging up and replanting higher would likely give you a better root system faster. Mulching heavy over the top might help if enough of the root zone isn’t totally water logged, but it also might make the problem worse by retaining even more water and drowning out the roots.
