Trench composting

[imafan26]

I have some extra garden and kitchen waste and I have in the past just turned some into the garden. But now I want to try trench composting. I don't have dogs or mongoose to dig it up so it should be o.k. at home. Has anyone had any experience with this?

[tomc]

If you are trenching, no meat or fats. An' by fats I mean like meat waste not a teaspoon of vinager and oil dressing.

Your in HI? Good, no bears.

[imafan26]

I was only planning to use garden waste and vegetable scraps. No meat by products or oil. (the mice and cats would dig those up). No bears here. There are feral pigs, but I live in the middle of the subdivision not on the outskirts where there are feral pigs.

[toxcrusadr]

You can either dig a trench and add to it and cover as you go, or dig a new hole each time you have stuff to add. I haven't done it but after reading a lot of forum posts about it, it seems to be very effective. The decomposition process itself makes a lot of nutrients available while it's occurring, so it some ways it's superior to composting the stuff first and then adding it to the soil.

[bryce d]

I have tilled leaves from my big trees into my garden for years.
This year I wanted to try trench composting because I don't have access to a tiller this year.
How deep can you go on the leaves before you have to put down a layer of dirt? How thick does the layer of dirt have to be?
I was told that the leaves decomposing uses up the nitrogen in the soil. How does a person know how much nitrogen to add to the soil?

[Northernfox]

I do trench composting and layering as a part of my garden work it works quite well! I had a sterile yard 4 years ago and now I have TONS of worms!! they do great things for the garden!

my suggestion is layers. layer the newest material, more composted material, paper products (to keep volunteers down) grass clippings, good soil, leafs and mulch.

that layering system allows me to get heat going and the composting processes maintain through my winter for awhile and keep the worms happy for longer.

the larger the layer of the top three the better it will smell.

[Artemesia]

I only trench compost things that I do not want to dig up for a long time. Most of the time I use shallow direct compost.

[valley]

My father trench composted, brother had a chicken processing plant, blood. Things that were planted in that soil grew in wild excess, the earth was that rich.I don't recall the length of time he gave for the break down but I remember it being quite short.

Richard

[PunkRotten]

I've been doing it for a few months now. I simply dig a hole and place lots of veggie scraps, then bury it. It breaks down pretty quick too. After about 2-3 weeks most is broken down. Over the winter I am gonna trench compost most of my garden so I can have good soil come Spring time.

[Northernfox]

I have about 2/3 of my garden done and will continue where I don't have perennials

It works great!

[DoubleDogFarm]

Corn stocks




Sprinkled mushroom wood chips on top



And covered with soil


Eric

[Northernfox]

The compost I use is household waste and has lots of seeds as junk in it. In this case I do it in a raised bed. It works great!! I do it in my raised beds to help re-build the soil !

Please forgive the video. I made this one after seeing another conversation on trench composting.

[youtudotbe]https://youtu.be/-JutOrNNK6w[/youtudotbe]

[davidschweer]

I think trench composting is better than regular composting! If planting on top or to the side of the trench it allows the plant roots to absorb more moisture and nutrients from the decaying material as opposed to all that moisture loss inside your compost pile! The link below is one of my first attempts at trench composting and it was a success until the local wildlife found it and tore it up!! Be careful! Bunch of pictures and descriptions!

https://gardenlifejapan.com/1/category/composting/1.html

Sorry not sure how to post html!
Has anyone had similar experiences with wildlife?

[imafan26]

I do trench composting mainly because I don't really have a lot of stuff or space or want the vermin to hang around a traditional pile. I have worms and can cut kale and get enough kitchen scraps for them every week. Once in a while I do have to trim a tree or two and that's when I do the trench composting.

It keeps my soil loose and well drained. Leaves aren't so bad, but when I use a lot of kitchen waste (I freeze it for the worms, but sometimes there is a lot more than I can freeze or they can eat), and trench with that in a few weeks the ground sinks a bit. That does not happen as noticeably when I use the leaves because they have less water and they break down much slower.

I've been doing it for years before I even learned that about it.