Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat New Pond, New Structure. What do you think?

Depends. I don't go to a lot of work one way or the other. If the dirt is intact, it will help make sure the stump stays in place till it waterlogs. In son's pond I left the dirt on and that was it, but then I was fighting time with rain starting and had little time to make changes of plan.

In my own pond it was dry enough and the Osage Orange (Hedge in local terms) did not have much dirt on the root balls. They do not have a thick root mass like an Oak and instead have several larger lateral roots that grow horizontal. I was using a lot of concrete foundation pieces from old turkey barn foundations so I laid the stumps on their sides then laid 8 ft long pieces of this 1'x2' foundation concrete across the trunk to make sure they staid put. One of the stumps root ball was so big, I actually used a chainsaw to cut off some of the roots sticking up when it was laid on its side so they would stay a couple feet under the surface for boat navigation safety. Put a couple pretty big stumps in the deep part of the pond. They did not have much dirt on them, but I made no special effort to clean the dirt off.