Once the trees get large they correct the soil. Found that out in places I have established now. Trees rebuild the soil to a point you would never k ow clay was there. Establishing trees is a big problem. A neighbor once cut their terraces and plowed up their grass to plant new grass. There was water swamping me for over 2 years from that. Once the grass grew back the swamping stopped. Trees are the larger version of that and far better than grass. If soil is exceptionally mucky one trick you can use is to plant willows on the property. They have a huge rootsystem and suck up the water quickly. Willow are a huge problem around underground lines as they are notorious for blocking septic tanks. A row of willow can dry a wet area on the edge of an orchard in a waterway. The problem most of us have is the soil itself unfortunately.
Sounds like your soil is just like mine. We use many of the same tricks! There are parts of my property literally even the toughest trees get sick but I’m not giving up!
The same here water stands in those holes! What do you use for apple rootstock mm111?
That was a big help that work your family members did. That must be good to know your families blood and sweat went into that property!
Never considered using Daikin in that way it’s a very interesting concept.
Here is how I’m using a 4 or 5 year old callery in clay soil. That’s Harrow delight grafted to that rootstock. This is after a big storm yesterday. As you can see I’m making these rootstocks work for me. Knowing that this was a poor location thats autumn olive on the right and callery on the left. Turned a worthless location into an area that produces fruit. The yields are frequently not as good. Trees don’t grow as fast or do as well in clay as it stunts their growth. This is one of the reasons I’m not that worried sometimes about dwarfs as the soil has some naturally dwarfing properties. For years I had no tree there so my orchard looked like it had holes in the rows. The soil was to poor to grow elderberry in this location. Some areas like this are challenging but usually something can work!
This thread discusses my planting technique and why Hard soil what can I do with it? Planting Pears . I wasn’t the first one to notice callery trees are adaptive https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-we-turned-the-bradford-pear-into-a-monster/2018/09/14/f29c8f68-91b6-11e8-b769-e3fff17f0689_story.html