clay drainage

[lilwalter]

I am trying to plant a tree in a clay soil. The problem I am having is I dug the hole for the tree prior to the rain on Sunday. The hole is still holding standing water from that rain. There is no seeping away of the water. I know a tree is not going to live in that. How can I get the water to drain? Tile? If I keep digging deep will the clay turn to a different soil type and allow drainage? The hole/tree is symetrical with another like tree, so moving the location more that a foot or two is not an option I'm interested in. Thanks for any info/help.

[Quetico]

Don't worry about the standing water in the hole. The soil will absorb the water when you back fill the hole.

If you get a tree that can handle wet soil conditions you don't have to worry about the water not draining. There are tons of areas in the metro with the exact same soil conitions. Tree will do just fine. Trees that needs well drain soil conditions will not live in this site. A tree that tolerates wet soils will do great in this site.

The key difference between average Jane/Joe homeowner and high quality landscape professionals: homeowners pick trees that look good or are a decent price- landscape professionals pick plants based on soils, light and other existing site conditions.

[LwnmwnMan2]

If it's a tree that likes damp clay soil, you'll be fine.

If it's a tree that likes sandy, fairly dry soil, and if you want to keep that tree, the only other suggestion would be to find out somewhere how far the roots will extend once the tree is mature, and then pull that much soil out, and fill in with another drier, sandy soil.