'Trenching' rather than composting

[Baldy]

Friend of mine on the plot - who is 'probably' the best / most knowledgeable grower on the site doesn't really bother with compost bins - instead at this time of year he digs trenches and buries any and all green waste a couple of feet down. The odd thing gets ridged up too - seems to work very well for him.
Anyone else do / done this ?
(I've got too many compost bins to easily be persuaded but I'm not the grower he is so...)

[veggiechicken]

Bit too much like hard work for me!

[roitelet]

Did it once on a bed that needed loads of humus. Worked well but hard work. Now I only trench for squashes and sometimes beans. On the whole I chop and drop, Ruth Stout style. Lots less work and the worms do it for me!

[Guest]

My Dad used to do a mix of double digging and trenching (so the trench moved behind the last but not until it was full). This time of year it also had bird carcasses thrown in as well (mainly pheasants). Really couldn't fault the produce. I don't recall him using nets or fleece back then.

[Mr Bones]

As far as I know waste dropped into a trench exposes it to fungal threads in the soil which will then connect to plant roots (when they're planted) and increase available food supply.
I don't do it that way but it forms part of the "soil food web".

[Cadalot]

Only ever done it for the runner beans, green manure and chop and drop

[happyhumph]

Never done it - compost is used in pots & the beds get manure & spent compost. You could do a very detailed side by side comparison for us - logging contents of trench/compost, man hours put in/ water used & yield. Lot of work for you but interesting for us

[Bren In Pots]

Only ever done it for the runner beans, green manure and chop and drop

Like Cad I've only ever done trenching for my permanent bean row.

[Snadger]

A fellow on our site took on a weed encrusted plot. By weeds, I mean stuff that was a metre high!
He dug a deep hole in the corner of each bed and burried the weeds from that bed in that hole. Everyone thought he was a nutter but it seemed to work.

Shame he's never been seen again, and the weeds on the plot are a metre high again!

I just dibbled tatties in to my new plot in the spring and the tattie foliage blanked out the weeds!

As you were..............................

[burnie]

I tend to this method when planting directly in the ground as my soil is very thin and sandy(only a mile from the sea). Raised beds are a different matter as I can control the soil more easily for the intended crop. Compost for the roots bed and manure for everything else.

[jonny the plant pot]

I've been burrying everything for the last 3 years .my plot is about a foot higher than everyone else's and probably has the least amount of weeds as well

[ESBkevin]

I compost, use animal muck (rotted) and when I double dig I stir compost in the bottom with a fork and then drop cardboard and fresher material in the furrow with muck and anything organic to to bury too. I do small stubborn patches each year but once it's been done and then mulched over for a season it is beautiful crumbly soil (from clay).
I like to smash sunflower stems and things like cabbage stems in the furrow, they breakdown over winter and feed the plants next summer. Just break them open so the worms and microbes can get in there. Autumn leaves too will go straigh tin as well as part rotted wood chips or sawdust.

[Elfeda]

was doing this initially like dig a hole and fill it with kitchen waste and then cover it with soil. done couple of times ,that's it..it was effective though. seems fill as you dig could be better way to continue.

[Vince G]

I do this for the bean trench, and usually for the brassicas where moisture and nutrition is key

[seasprout]

Making Compost.

Rotting down organic matter in a trench is a good way of making Organic Matter, the trench system is usually done for a particular crop to be grown directly on top, for example Runner Beans, or any other moisture loving crop.

I compost in bins because I grow at home, so no room for a trench also composting in bins means I have the rotted material ready for wherever I need it.

I guess the most important thing is to compost in any form that suites the composter.