Building Lake Corona

[Eagle1]

I'm in south central MO with a 12+ acre pond that has almost 1000 acres of watershed most hills and trees. Been so dry here we are down over 3 ft but a 5-6" rain would fill it most of the way. MO is like that some years we go down several feet and other years I goes over the emergency spillway every other rain. Also been know to flood the entire holler.

 

[jk96]

Eddie here's a visual of the grey and red clay I'm working with. Cleaning up some muck around the edges today while the water is low and made a couple of cuts down to the clay base for pics. You can work this stuff like pottery and holds water with no issue.

20241013_153034 by jjk96, on Flickr

20241013_151233

20241013_133456

 

[ponytug]

That's an awesome picture! Looks like great clay from this armchair.

As always, thanks for sharing @jk96!

All the best,

Peter

 

[bindian]

What you are calling gray clay looks to me like my yellow/sandy loamy clay. It will leak down way faster then the red clay.

75% of my big pond is that way and goes down fast with no rain and sunshine.
My small pond is all red clay. People think clay doesn't leak. But when I was digging it, it would be empty at night and the next morning have about 4 inches of clear water in the solid red basin.

 

[jk96]

What you are calling gray clay looks to me like my yellow/sandy loamy clay. It will leak down way faster then the red clay.

75% of my big pond is that way and goes down fast with no rain and sunshine.
My small pond is all red clay. People think clay doesn't leak. But when I was digging it, it would be empty at night and the next morning have about 4 inches of clear water in the solid red basin.

It doesn't seem to have any sand at all in it but maybe it is a problem if your correct. Temps here are 60s to low 70s for the next week so evaporation should no longer be an issue. I'll drop a yard stick in the water tomorrow and see what happens over the next week.

 

[bindian]

Good luck. My pond goes down fast, but with lots of watershed, it fills up fast.

When I dug it back in 2012, we were bone dry and a 4 inch downpour over 2 hours, filled the pond. The dam wasn't quite finished and I rushed to buy a water pump to lower water level and dam pressure.

 

[EddieWalker]

I love that you made a cup out of your clay!!!! That's just awesome!!!

The red clay looks to be about the best possible material that you could have. Where you able to test the grey clay?

I forgot to mention my other pond. It's the first one that I dug, and it's only 3/4 of an acre. It gets a lot of water shed, and regularly goes several feet above the drain pipe. That pipe flows into a ditch that goes to my big pond.

When digging that small pond, I hit a layer of grey clay that was kind of odd. It holds water so good that with just small amounts of water on it, the water beads up like it's on glass with RainX on it. But when it's dug, it's impossible to compact it again. It just doesn't hold together, and nothing really grows in it either. I've mixed a bunch of it up with my red clay in my dirt pile, and it's all blended together for fill material, but I would never use it for a dam.

I think you're on the right track with improving your water shed. Once you get a good cover of grass over that dirt, it will shed a massive amount of water to your pond.

 

[dodge man]

Unless you have a sand seam or something in the bottom that clay is good material. I think you get some wet weather it will fill up.

 

[ponytug]

I love that you made a cup out of your clay!!!! That's just awesome!!!

The red clay looks to be about the best possible material that you could have. Where you able to test the grey clay?

I forgot to mention my other pond. It's the first one that I dug, and it's only 3/4 of an acre. It gets a lot of water shed, and regularly goes several feet above the drain pipe. That pipe flows into a ditch that goes to my big pond.

When digging that small pond, I hit a layer of grey clay that was kind of odd. It holds water so good that with just small amounts of water on it, the water beads up like it's on glass with RainX on it. But when it's dug, it's impossible to compact it again. It just doesn't hold together, and nothing really grows in it either. I've mixed a bunch of it up with my red clay in my dirt pile, and it's all blended together for fill material, but I would never use it for a dam.

I think you're on the right track with improving your water shed. Once you get a good cover of grass over that dirt, it will shed a massive amount of water to your pond.

Often with clay, if it dries a little, it can be tough to rehydrate and compact. Sometimes you have to let the clay get bone dry, then start the compaction/resetting cycle. The type of clay, and pH has a lot to do with it.

Red vs yellow vs grey can be almost the same clay with the trace iron in the clay at slightly different oxidation levels, fully oxidized, partially oxidized, and reduced (haematite), respectively. Locally, the color may tell you a lot, but less so over larger distances. If there is a good county agent locally, they may have better insights.

All the best,

Peter

 

[jk96]

The red clay looks to be about the best possible material that you could have. Where you able to test the grey clay?

Yes - it's workable as well very similar to the red. You can roll it like play-doh and doesn't crumble like normal soil when pressed into thin ribbons.