“How do I use my fermented food waste around trees?”

Shig replies:

For trees, bury at least 3 feet away, and likely you’ll have to dig pits instead of a trench because of the tree roots (for some trees, the roots may go out as far as 3 times its height).

Make sure to keep the fermented food waste (FFW) from touching and tree root. If there are small tree roots (less than an inch thick) that are in the way in the pit you dig, you can cut them. You don’t want the roots touching the FFW because it may affect the tree. If you cut these smaller roots, they should grow back and/or encourage new root growth nearer the tree trunk. And they’ll grow especially into where you bury the FFW (by then it will be safe by the time the tree roots reach there again).

If you encounter large roots when digging, avoid that root or dig around it with at least half a foot of soil left around the root, or dig in another spot.

You can choose a few spots around the tree to bury the FFW.

Another option is to use worm compost that was fed FFW. The FFW-fed worm compost can then be simply spread over the area around the tree. Watering and rain would leach the nutrients from the compost down to the root system.

Yet another option is to use FFW-treated soil done somewhere else (within the garden or elsewhere), such as by burying/trenching the FFW in a barren area with the intention of digging up the soil to spread over where there is plant growth and trees. This is what we do at the Children’s Garden (12th St & Ave B): we trench in the Children’s Garden and once or twice a year, we would take that FFW-treated soil and spread it over the landscape of mostly trees at Sauer Park (the Children’s Playground [Parks Dept.] right next to the Children’s Garden).

HTH,
Shig