High Water Table

7 years ago

Never was on my radar, as no pooling of water.

One time this summer, I had some cups set out to catch slugs. Was planning to remove them before the rains . Never did so when it started raining, I went out and started to remove the slug cup traps.

It was a slight eye opener in this area as I never knew how high of a water table it is and or poor drainage. For each 12oz cup I remove, I could see the water table half high into each hole. Literally when I looked back at each hole - water table was rising up - almost level to the hole itself.

Anyhow, plenty of OM on the top of the soil. Lotsa shrubs and such.

Instead of letting the OM slowing work it's way down, but if I fork it over in areas where I can turn over the soil and not disturb roots and such in the ground, will the amended soil help the HWT ?

Featured Answer

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

7 years ago

You cannot alter a high water table. It is not like a poorly draining or heavy soil that can be improved by amending. It is a geographical feature of that specific area, although often very seasonal in nature.

You are best with just dealing with it........if very pronounced, you can create a bog or pond. Or utilize raised beds or berms/mounds of soil that will lift the planted area sufficiently above the HWT.

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Comments (6)

a1an
Original Author
7 years ago
Thx. Not that the HWT was ever on my radar. If I did not decide to remove said slug cups in the pouring rain, I would have never been the wiser on the perched table. It was quite a sight to see each hole literally rise up to have water holes !
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glib2
7 years ago
how long did it stay that high?
a1an
Original Author
7 years ago
it was pouring rain. I only observed it due to the fact I was out in the elements removing the cups / seeing empty holes and the HWT. Never have observed ponding or such in said areas whenever it rains.
glib2
7 years ago
so how can you be sure it is not just poor drainage? next time check the same spot the day after. if it is poor drainage a single cover crop will fix it.
toxcrusadr
7 years ago
Depending on the soil type and compaction, water can 'perch' for quite some time as it moves slowly into the ground. Probably this is what is happening here since it was raining.

I have property with dense silty clay soil. Tried to install an outhouse once and we dug a pit. It filled with water after the next rain, even though we mounded up soil to prevent any water from running in. Yet the soil was fairly dry when we excavated it. What happened is that the topsoil is more permeable, and when we cut a vertical wall in that layer, the rainwater came out into the hole, fed by more water moving horizontally in that layer. It ran out of the wall of the hole and collected in there till the hole was full, and it couldn't drain out the heavy clay bottom of the hole nearly as fast as it was coming in from the walls. This is basically what's happening in your cup holes, just on a smaller scale. We ended up sinking a plastic barrel with the top cut off for our outhouse, and layering sawdust into it for a kind of composting toilet.

If you really had a water table that shallow, you'd know it because it would be squishy all the time.