Soil drainage is a crucial factor in maintaining the balance of natural ecosystems, from wetlands to urban green spaces. It determines which types of plants grow best in an area and is essential for improving or sustaining production or managing water supplies. Poor soil drainage can lead to water-logged, saturated soils, which greatly affect plant growth by reducing oxygen-availability to roots and decreasing the plant’s ability to take up water. Insufficient drainage can cause root rot and suffocate plants, while inadequate drainage can cause root rot and suffocation.
A good soil structure provides drainage, aeration, water movement and storage, and biological activity, which are vital for a healthy plant. Soil structure not only affects the ability of roots to grow and supply leaves with water and nutrients but also induces them to send hormonal signals that slow the growth of plants. Poor soil drainage can result in water-logged, saturated soils, which reduce oxygen-availability to roots and decrease the plant’s ability to take up water through its roots.
Proper drainage is critical to plant root health because it allows excess water to seep out after watering, ensuring that water won’t pool at the base. Key conclusions include that drainage improves cover crop growth, enables other conservation practices to work better, and reduces soil and nutrient loss from runoff.
Poor drainage typically results in excess water in fields, leading to a waterlogged root zone that can cause the loss of oxygen and nitrogen, harming crop growth. Soil drainage is a critical factor for plant health and growth because it affects the amount of water and air available to plant roots.
📹 Checking for drainage, the most important step when planting any tree
Checking for drainage is the most important step when planting any tree in the ground. In this video, I show you how to check the …
Can you overwater a plant with drainage?
Overwatering a plant can lead to root rot and oversaturation of the soil. This can occur when water is coming out of a drainage hole, indicating that the planter is not fully saturated. While terracotta pots and sealed planters with drainage holes were once common, they are not the only solution to common watering problems. Plant care knowledge is crucial for addressing these issues, and can be provided by plant killers.
What does drainage do to plants?
Proper drainage is essential for maintaining optimal plant root health. It prevents the accumulation of excess water at the base of the pot, which can otherwise lead to the proliferation of harmful bacteria, fungi, and rot within the root system. Insufficient irrigation can also have adverse effects, as overly moist soil can suffocate plants. To ascertain whether the soil has become oversaturated, one should look for indications such as a swollen root, a swollen stem, or a swollen root ball.
What are 3 benefits of drainage?
Drainage is a method of improving soil health by promoting beneficial bacteria activity, reducing surface runoff and erosion, and reducing soil compaction. It also allows for faster field operations, allowing longer growing seasons and full crop maturity. Improved water management and nutrient uptake lead to increased crop yields, higher-value crops, and flexibility in cropping systems. Land value and productivity increase, and farm income is increased, while income variability is reduced. Drainage also maintains favorable salt and air environments in the crop root zone.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of drainage?
Drainage systems confer a number of benefits, including the prevention of flooding, the promotion of sanitation, and the facilitation of sustainable land use. However, they also present a number of environmental, cost, and technical challenges. The objective of achieving an equilibrium between these factors necessitates meticulous planning, the implementation of environmentally conscious methodologies, and the provision of continuous upkeep. It is possible for communities to employ these systems while reducing their adverse effects by taking these factors into account and implementing suitable measures.
How does drainage influence?
The drainage divide is a critical factor in hydrological processes, influencing the direction, distribution, and rate of water flow. It influences human activities, such as building cities and infrastructure on higher ground to avoid flooding, and our water supply, which relies on rivers and lakes for freshwater. Therefore, it is essential to consider the drainage divide when planning urban development.
What are the disadvantages of soil drainage?
Irrigation and drainage are crucial for regulating water regimes in soil-water systems, affecting plant water supply and controlling salt accumulation processes. They maintain soil moisture content and allow excess water to drain from overmoistened soil. The “leaching requirement” of irrigation water washes out salts from the rooting zone until the tolerance level of a plant. Subsurface drainage systems prevent salt accumulation from capillary rise from groundwater.
However, potential disadvantages include poor-quality irrigation water or rising groundwater levels due to seepage from unlined channels. The main disadvantage of drainage systems is accelerated leaching of nitrogen and other salts, leading to eutrophysation or increased salt content in streams and rivers. These disadvantages can be avoided by using proper irrigation methods and maintaining irrigation water standards. Nitrogen loss can only be mitigated by split application of nitrogen fertilizers.
How does drainage cause loss of soil nutrients?
Soil water drainage can lead to the loss of nutrients when they are dissolved in the soil solution and move beyond the root zone. This movement is known as leaching, and in Oklahoma, average drainage rates from the top 2 feet of soil ranged from 0. 20 to 10. 5 inches per year from 1998-2014. This potential loss of nutrients poses a problem both environmentally and economically, as leached nutrients may be transported to underlying groundwater reservoirs and as fertilizers are lost from producers’ fields.
For example, if a producer applied 100 pounds urea per acre (equal to 46 pounds nitrogen per acre) at $0. 18 per pound of product over a 160-acre field, the total cost of fertilizer alone would be $2, 880. 00. If 10% of applied nitrogen is lost due to leaching, the producer would experience an immediate economic loss of $288 and 736 pounds of nitrogen would be introduced into the environment.
What does poor drainage lead to?
Effective drainage is crucial for both the structure and the surrounding landscape, as poor drainage can lead to plant death, erosion of garden beds, and muddy lawns. This can decrease the property’s market value and make it less appealing to potential buyers or tenants. Early detection of signs of poor drainage can save property owners significant expenses and inconvenience. Typical indicators include water pooling, damp or musty smells inside, and visible cracks in the foundation.
One effective solution is the installation of French drains, which are gravel-filled trenches with a perforated pipe. These drains redirect surface and groundwater away from the foundation, reducing hydrostatic pressure on foundation walls and mitigating soil expansion and contraction.
Why is drainage a problem?
Drainage problems in landscapes can be caused by various factors such as hydrology, soil properties, grading, slope, vegetation, and mulches. These issues can result from runoff problems, too much water in the soil, or seeping water near the bottom or toe of a slope. Various options can be used to address drainage problems, such as ditches, culverts and drains, French drains, riprap, terraces, and other low-impact development approaches. These practices vary in cost, effectiveness, and maintenance requirements.
Effective drainage management aims to address individual drainage problems without creating further problems for neighbors, especially those down-slope. If the land surface is flat, water may have few options to leave the property, resulting in drainage problems that may require significant investment to remove excess water or build up the land surface above a high soil water table.
How does drainage affect soil?
Surface and subsurface drainage are methods used to divert excess water from soil to streams, reducing the amount that moves into and through the soil. Surface drainage diverts water from the soil surface, while subsurface drainage collects and diverts water from within the soil. Both methods are essential for maintaining water quality and reducing the amount of water that moves into and through the soil.
What are the effects of drainage?
Poor drainage systems can lead to flooding, damage to buildings, bridges, and roads, and erode materials, causing foundation damage and building collapses. These systems are crucial for infrastructure, preventing erosion or floods from affecting agriculture, buildings, and roads. However, poor drainage can also cause infrastructure degradation, extensive water damage, and localized flooding. Flooded railways and roads can disrupt transportation networks, increasing commuting times and detours. In the event of a natural disaster, this can impede emergency response efforts and reduce economic production. Therefore, it is essential to address these issues to ensure sustainable development.
📹 When the Rain Won’t Drain
In this video I talk about discovering a really poorly drained plot on our garden and discuss: how to manage poorly drained soils, …
9:00 THANK YOU! First time in the 5 years I been planting here in the desert that I ever hear about GYPSUM for our Arizona clay soil. Not one of the youtube Arizona garden help websites ever mentioned that or even the 24-hr hole test. Our soil is so much like cement we can even use it to hold down pavers and posts when it dries! Also helpful info –> “Gypsum can work even after the tree is planted.” ACTropicals is a very informative website.
We were digging a hole today to plant a late fall tree. After digging the hole, we filled it with water and 12 hours later we are still looking at the same amount of water. We have tried to push a long spade shovel into the hole and just pull up extremely sticky clay. Next, at 16 hours, we tried pounding a 5 foot piece of rebar in many different spots; the water dropped about 4 inches. Now, the water is just sitting. I will try the Gypsum tomorrow to see what happens. We really needed to get this tree in the ground before a hard freeze. I am hoping this is the trick to resolve this for us. I will report back on results. Thanks for your great article.
Thanks for the helpful info!Soils in my area are mostly clay, I’m going to do your water test, but I have a question maybe you can help me with. The clay soils also contain a lot of chalk rocks, often when i did they break up and spread particles. Are these chalk rocks also good for the soil drainage? Or should i get rid of then when I canm
I am planting 2 rows of maple trees. All my holes are dug. I have 12 planted, 5 left to plant. We got a big rain and now 2 of my empty holes are full of water. A 3rd hole was 1/3-1/2 full of water. I added some gypsum yesterday evening and as if this morning the 2 holes are still full but the 3rd was almost empty. Also 2 of the trees that were already planted have some standing water at the top. Before I planted I did fill the hole half way with water and it drained fine but now I’m afraid I will have standing water after a heavy rain. This is the 3rd day since the rain. Any suggestions would be helpful
Great article. Let’s say you’ve dug 3 fit down and are getting marginal drainage due to sandstone and I’m planting a slow-growth ornamental Japanese maple that only needs less than 1 ft hole. What do you suggest to backfill the hole with to provide good drainage e.g. landscapers mix or soil w/pine mulch? How do I prep to ensure the tree doesn’t settle below the top of the root ball? Thanks for any update!
Also with any tree you buy in a pot, you have to make sure the roots are not circling. Young trees can take a beating so don’t be afraid to get rough or cut circling roots. If you have a sawzall use it to cut the cut the circle shape into a square if it has thick circling roots. Circling roots will slowly choke the tree out
Great article. I’m in southern Indiana and I’ve thought about starting a “clay” farm it’s so bad here. One of my biggest lessons was just looking at the soil out in the woods that has never been touched. It’s beautiful dark loamy soil. Nothing like our yard or the field that was planted and stripped for years before we got it. It’s almost like nature would fix it over time until some dumb human goes and tears it up. Hmmmmm
If there is a layer of sand not too deep under your land then I think vertical drainage might be a good option. In summary, what you do is make small bore holes through the clay and stabilize them with perforated pipes (i think 2″ dia pipe should work) these are filled with gravel and coarse sand. Then you cap it at the top and leave it undisturbed. What it will do is it will provide the water stuck in/on clay with a fast path down. It should also treat sodic and saline conditions if any over time. It is also suitable for no till farmers because there will be no machinery to disturb the top ends and all the organic matter will absorb the nutrients and keep them absorbed and only the excess will wash down through the drain. The number of drains and the distance between them requires calculation which will change from soil to soil.
We just bought a place that has roughly 12″ of heavy clay soil and then BLAMMO, bedrock. So we’ll be trying some different approaches to deal with drainage as well. I’d love to just bring in a couple hundred tons of compost/organic matter but since that’s not feasible… swales, raised beds, different pathways like you’ve described, probably at least one small pond… etc. (the good news is, it all slopes slightly towards a creek… so it could definitely be worse.)
Interesting…. I live in western Oregon and water logging is a serious problem here. I’m perusal this with some interest, but, just from what you’ve shown and what i’ve dealt with in my limited garden space, I have a suggestion: Don’t build all the beds up. Drop some of the grow beds down, 6-9 inches. This provides some of the soil build up other beds, but, equally as important, it provides an area where water can run to. You then can use that bed to specifically plant water resistant/ boggy plants and adapt them to your yard. Radishes, chamomile, meadowfoam and asparagus all do well in bog. I think Asparagus would be especially useful here since it’s a perennial, and the excavated bed is probably not going to fill in quickly or move around alot, making it’s use somewhat fixed once it’s installed. After that you could try throwing mushrooms at the problem. Getting mycelia to grow, especially if you’ve already got wood chips and are spraying compost tea, is actually pretty easy, but it may not be the major fix this seems like it needs. If you go this route, blenderize the mushroom and add it to the compost tea the night before spraying. Portobello/Cremini, King Stropharia, or Puffball mushrooms would be ideal for this. Puffball mushrooms need Alfalfa, clover, or a legume to really take hold in an area.
Had this problem at our previous property as well. It gets to a point where, after several months of winter rain (500-600mm), the water will lie on top for weeks and eventually go anaerobic. Have several solutions to planting trees (raised) and veg beds (raised), but got a lot from this viddy. Good stuff, thanks for the posting.
Consider sorghum sudan grass as a cover crop to bust up compaction. There is a sterile variety if you’re concerned you may miss cutting before it goes to seed. SARS has some recos on its sorghum sudan grass cover crop page as to height & timing of cutting to get good root infiltration & above ground biomass production. You could chop it for compost or dry it for a mulch. Grows big.
I’m on my 2nd year of heavy clay and in my beds that I kept cover cropping all year did way better versus the compost/leaf mulch only. In both cases we have had a HUGE increase in worm population and I will be interested to see if the deeper beds that got the compost will do better in the long run because of the additional depth before hitting clay. I haven’t tried living walkway. I have a friend who owns a tree service and he dumps all of his chips at my property for free (which have tons of leaves chipped into them) and at least those green/leafy chips have done done amazingly well in my paths. I’m very interested to see how this goes for you and the techniques you’ve outlined. Please keep this content going as it progresses!!
What’s up Jesse! I wish you luck brother! Just some ideas I run into this problem at work all the time here in Pennsylvania Besides building up add a combination of drainage amendments..bio char pre charged / soaked in your innocalunt Rice hulls, pumice, lava rock, 3/4 ” clean stone, river jack rock …etx .. Also maybe consider planting plants that are more tolerable to slow draining soils in the plot untill restored Another simple option might be to plant some huge willow trees to draw excess mositure from the ground near that drainage tile..or smaller grasses if blocking sunlight is an issue I use this technique with ortamental grasses as the tubers can break up clay and rejuvenate your compacted subsoil over a few seasons Daikon radishes also work really well also I’m sure your aware of these techniques thought I’d put it out there for other viewers. Enjoy your weekend I’m ordering your book Keep spreading wise words! Bill Aka Blueberry Bill
we have always used wood chips 25+ years in paths, turn them into beds every 3rd year…applied usual fresh chips last year; this past winter was extremely wet and this spring—omg—the entire garden 70 x 120 ft (plus other assorted berry patches) is a sopping mess. The ONLY places where the soil has drained sufficient to plant is where straw was used in the smaller pathways. Going forward, I am only going with straw, the woodchips for under the trees & berry patches. And yes, we do have organic source for the straw!
Try adding some rocks ie gravel with fines or glacial rock to water logged clay area. They will slowly dissolve in clay area over a couple of years and help with plant growth. My backyard was like that.. and over years of experimenting, this was the quickest way to re-soiling.. the plants really appeared to respond to the rocks; I planted wild grasses on paths in that area.. About every three years I added more rocks because they would dissolve.. each time, soil deepened.. and the need to repeat was reduced.
Here is Mother Nature’s rule: Plants up, water down. Get your plants up as high as you can. This means raised beds for gardeners or rowing your beds with deep furrows for farmers. The higher you get your plants off the ground the better drainage you will have. You have to give the water a place to go. Water runs downhill. Look at the grade of your plot, and row and website the water downhill away from your plants. Next, allow for evaporation. The three big factors with evaporation are rain, sunlight, and wind. You can’t control the rain. You can expose the soil to sunlight and wind. If you have moist soil, do not use wood chips! Wood chips will prevent sunlight and wind from drying your soil. Wood chips will hold moisture. By the way, wind will dry the soil faster than sunlight. A strange but true fact. Lastly, consider a French drain. If you have low lying soil, a French drain may give the water a place to go.
I got a rude awakening my first year of gardening on hard southern clay high in pennsylvanian sandstone. Have tried a lot of things and whats been working best is to cut off a winter cover crop, cover the stuble in a few inches of woodchips and bottom plow the wood under. I do not rototil to minimize worm mortality. I immediately plant the next summer cover blend into the fresh tillage. Daikon radish is a staple plant for me in these mixtures. It really drills big holes and softens the sub layer better than anything ive seen. My current experiment is 2 truckloads of woodchips and 3 pigs working them in. Very rapid breakdown so far.
If I were to do our fields with heavy clay and subsoil compaction again I would do a once off August subsoil then plant a mixed species cover crops as root biomass which converts the clay soil to lovely crumble in one season. I completely agree to avoid the plastic pipe advice which is given to conventional farming.
Hi Jesse, I have a similar problem, clay that is like concrete when dry and like grease when wet. I thought I had found the perfect spot for my vege patch and orchard, so started making beds, making compost etc, only problem it is smack bang in the middle of the natual overland water flow to the creek. The flow has been so heavy that it has completely washed away built up garden beds. I have rethought the entire plan, and am putting the vegepatch in a totally different area. The other problem I have is the land was used for dairy, so I have Kikuyu grass, that will grow through 600 mm wood chips with ease, and has runners up to 150 mm below the soil in multiple layers, it really is almost impossible to kill, and grows back with renewed vigour. I guess it is one of the joys of growing food. Regards Dennis
I came back from abroad last sept and noticed a lot of erosion over my 18 acres farm, 2020 record rain fall. A new growing area in a pasture of ~5 acrea. This area was compacted clay that, was cut n dropped for ten years into a beautiful green field. First sub soiled knee deep to allow the water penetration deeper, letting it create a changed sub structure and removed saplings/roots. After tarping, cat tunnels will be erected within a short period of time, create compost bed including irrigation and more. With 250 ft out of the weather, it will be interesting to see how long for the worms to return. Whatever they’re spraying in the skies, has everything growing twice as fast. No worries, it doesn’t surprise me to miss a simple item as you explained! It’s what we do to correct them… ? Those compacted layer are crazy on growing. A shortened summertime to grow, right or wrong, may we all enjoy a plentiful bounty. As for me at 66 and having a great time with nature trying to figure out the next steps of assisted growing… have a great day! TY
While digging out the paths and raising the beds in the new hoop house to improve drainage, I discovered that same plastic drain tile. It ended in the center of the space and the previous owners, instead of running it to where it would normally exit the ground and drain, simply stopped it short and buried it. Hence the soggy ground in the middle of the hoop house. I now have a small stream running down one pathway until I can get to town to get pipe to extend it properly.
Love your articles. I’m glad to see you sharing with us again. We are on our third season at this place and I too am having drainage issues. Only happens in the spring and fall when we get the big rains. But it has ruined my potatoes. Green beans won’t sprout and my melons are just there. Im wondering what your doing with those galvanized pipes at the end of the article. Thanks.
I don’t know if you have the anecic type of earthworms in your area (originally these are not native to the U.S. I thought), but these play a huge role in drainage in European soils. They are described as deep-burrowing earthworms going several meters deep (up to 40 or 50 meter under a full-grown oak tree!). In France they calculated that a square meter of ‘natural soil’ with a ‘natural population of anecic earth worms’ is able to drain 150 liters of rain per hour only through the earthworm websites. Crazy number! So I would advice feeding your worms in the first place (fresh organic matter is preferred above composted material) and avoiding tillage (of course!). It would take 18 months to recreate natural worm population levels (of 1 to 2 tons per hectare). Sorry for all the European metric numbers. There are a bunch of French farmers adopting crazy no-till techniques using wood chips and straw to feed earthworms, backed up with good research, which we are using as a basis to boost our soil and earthworms on the heavy clay soil of our farm in Belgium. Good luck with your new farm!
Love this, we’re dealing with similar problems. I just have a couple questions about the methods you’re using to mitigate the problem. After using the rotary plow to raise the beds higher…what are you doing with the bare pathway? Are you broadforking the pathways as well? And are you seeding them after that for the living pathways, or are you just letting the native grasses come back up?
Thanks for sharing! How did you find some of the drainage tile? What a trip that is the source of your water issue. On our web soil survey says we’ve got silt loam and then loam down to 36 to 60″ that is well drained…I would have liked to see the land whenever they came up with that description! Not so well draining at the moment but makes sense, given that it was a horse pasture for many years. I’m hoping though that it means over time with increased soil health that our land can be brought back to it’s well draining goodness.
I’m fighting an overgrown clay farm. My broadfork can’t penetrate it. First attempt was daikon, it grew…2 to 3 inches down. 🙁 The crimson clover I broadcast heavily in the upper garden yielded 2 plants. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. We got soaked in Nova Scotia all through 2023, frogs moved into the garden. 😀 I think my only option is to raise the beds as you suggest. I’ll start in the upper garden as its smaller but I’m going to have to bring in soil to do it. I don’t have enough organic matter for the job. God only knows what’s in the ‘strange’ soil but…🤷🏻♀ ((shrugs)) Will also be sure to use far more compost tea than I have been and get my compost pile started this Spring God knows I have enough for that! Wish me luck in year #3.
We have terrible soil that we are working with … sandy and hard compact clay. Very similar to what you described. What do you plant for the living rows? My woodchips in between the rows don’t seem to be breaking down so I may have to try that in some areas. One thing we tried which seems to be working at the moment for us is we put a good thick layer of woodchips let them sit for about 4-6 months then built a raised bed on top of that and filled that in with a compost/top soil blend. My idea is that the compost blend will help breaking down the woodchips and the roots of the current plants will start working on the living web in the compost/soil blend. Eventually as those woodchips breakdown that organic material becomes available.
Obviously, bed orientation to encourage drainage is the first step, and then throw down Gypsum and biochar! We have areas in our banana fields that are heavy clays and the farmers in our area have been using gypsum for 40 years to amend these kinds of soils. The story is gypsum makes your ground more ‘soft’. I have seen improvements where I have used it at a rate of 250kg/hectare. I use the 250 as a minimum and apply up to 500kg/10000m2 (1 hectare). Biochar is really your only long-term solution in building soils that will last in those wet areas. Everything else is only living a 2-year accumulation cycle and then it is back to CO2.
Horticulturalist here. I’m in the exact opposite of your situation with very little moisture in extreme sandy soil. I use wood chips a lot because dry soil is dead soil. Trying to keep things alive. Quick tip: have you ever had the Calcium to Magnesium ratio of your soil tested? I know that most soils in the United Sates have montmorillonite clay and in order for them to flocculate, they need a Ca-Mg ratio of 7-1. Bacteria do not hold onto hardly any Ca whatsoever. Only the fungi do this. If you can get your fungal populations up without encouraging bacterial growth by injecting fungally dominated compost tea into the ground, you should have better infiltration. You could also do small applications of Calcium fertilizer on your soil, but it can’t have sulfate (sulfate = fungicide) nor should it raise the pH of your soil because if the pH gets above 7, that will encourage weed growth. Also, never apply any fertilizer salt at a rate above 100lbs per acre. This will kill the fungi and cause even worse Ca-Mg ratio in the soil.
I have a opportunity to grow allot of food on my neighbors land and just inherent’d ALLOT of non gmo seeds. Tottal novice here and need help! The land is on a slight incline at the bottom of a big hill and has a large pond next to it that leeches water. Water comes from both the hil and the pond! The problem is the solution right!?? Considering here in Oklahoma we have a drought season.. Should I use cattle panels raise beds with mulch/hay sides to leach up the water during the less rain season august-sept?
Yes, but Kentucky has been getting lots of rain of late. People in other area don’t have that problem. Increasing soil biology and soil Organic Matter will solve your problems except for floods. Gabe Brown said his neighbors would be flooded with just 2 inches of rain. 14 inches a year is normal where he lives.
are you allowing rhizome grasses like bermuda in the living paths? i want to try this in some swampy areas on the farm but I’m pretty sure my paths would turn to bermuda and crab grass real quick lol. I guess that isn’t necessarily a bad thing with intensive management but I feel like it could get away from you quick
Hi, nice. I have thought that John jeavons double digging to 24 inch depth allows for drainage and water storage. Broadfork is a easier way, I have a, Treadlite Broadfork, the plow model, 14 inch tines. I have talked to the owner of treadlite, he has my requests for a q6 inch tine fork and is considering its being produced. I have 2 broad forks, 10 inch and 14 inch, I do the 10 first then the 14. I wonder if drainage would benefit from even a 20 inch tiny? I am interested in possible best cover crops for deepest roots.
What you are doing sounds great but increasing the calcium in the soil is the only way to fundamentally deal with clodiness and sticky tight clay. Gypsum will penetrate down. You might be uncomfortable using large amounts but that is what it takes to alter the soil structure. Try some in a test area if you don’t believe me. Oxygen in the soil is extremely important as is the release of carbon dioxide.
Ksat rating of 0 to .2 is poor drainage & 6-12% slope is too high where you’d want 4% or less to avoid erosion. You also need to look at NOAA & do some math to ensure your max expected precipitation rates don’t drown your plants or erode your topsoil with that poor Ksat & high-slope. Example: My Ksat is .4 to 1.4 inches per hour & I have a flash-flood risk of 4.5 inches. So I have no choice but to have some sort of drainage b/c my Ksat is insufficiently low for my high amounts of threatening-rainfall. I also only have 6-15 inches of soil above the water-table so I have no-choice but to have raised-beds to get 18-24 inches of well-drained soil.
You are roto tilling the woodchips in? You will tie up so much nitrogen with all that carbon bro. I would also not broadfork, it disrupts the mycelium structures in the ground. You are again saying the woodchips are not working but disrupting the structures that make it work. Also, in the poorly draining area, I would simply add more organic matter to lift above the clay, it will help. Nature always adds to the layers, not mixing it in.
“No Till Growers”? 1st thing you see is dude with a huge tiller tilling his garden… Talks about having to broadfork every season… Your living pathways are using the moisture, thats why they are helping more than woodchips, which will hold moisture, also the roots will let oxygen into the topsoil more. This guy wrote a book?