Hi,

I am new bee to the forum. I live in southern part of India.

I have around 15 acres of farm, for which I would like to build a pond. I went through internet and understood to certain extent. However, I would love to get inputs from you.

I am not really interested to use plastic covers for leakage prevention.

My reasons for the pond are

# To store the water in rainy season and use it if required in summer season.
# To increase the ground water.
# To grow fish and ducks.

I have following questions:

# An estimated size of the pond. Height, width & depth.
# To get out of the leakage, how much clay has to be used to cover.
# Is there any other natural solutions to prevent the water loss (leakage).

Regards

Welcome Harish

What type of soil do you have? The ideal natural pond has a mixture of about 50/50 clay. If you have more than that, you risk cracks as it dries. That is a very general statement. It is really all about plasticity of the soil. If you can roll it into a cohesive ball, it might work. I highly recommend Mike Otto's book Just Add Water. It is the best I've seen and available on the Pond boss website.

Fish and ducks seldom work well together. Fish need relatively clean water and ducks foul the water.

Thanks for the reply.

Can you also mention me the dimension details of the pond for 15 acres of farm.

In case my land is not clay land, can I get the clay from natural ponds and put into my new pond. Will that work??

I read about limestone & mixture of cement (lesser part of cement) with sand covering the lower part of the pond will stop leakages. Is this correct?

Regards

Typically, the clay comes from dry ground not from existing ponds. On my farm the clay is hidden under about one foot of black or dark brown top soil. You can scrape off the top soil and dig up the clay for lining your pond site. If you have clay under your top soil you have good luck, but you said you did not have any clay. Clay will have to be brought in from somewhere else and used to line your pond. If you are merely digging a hole in flat ground, clay will be needed to be worked into the fresh hole bottom and possibly to build up the perimeter. If you are building a pond in a ravine or on the side of a hill, you will need clay to construct the dam as well.

It is hard to suggest a pond size for a 15 acre farm without knowing the layout of your land, your water needs, your rainfall expectations, your fish harvesting needs, and your budget, not to mention the cost of labor and equipment use in you part of our world.

Welcome to the Pond Boss community,

Thanks Noel. I will come back with more information.

Welcome to the forum.

Check with your local government NRCS agent. They should have some good information on the soil types in your area and watershed requirements.

Sure. Thank you

Hi Harish,

Does India have Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) offices or an equivalent?