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Biodynamic Tree Paste Protocol

Introduction: Healing the Bark

Tree bark is like skin. Just as we care for cuts or dryness on our skin, trees need help when their bark is damaged. Tree paste is a traditional biodynamic preparation used to heal, strengthen, and protect the outer surface of woody perennials—especially after pruning or exposure to harsh weather.

When applied, the paste offers more than just a barrier—it acts as a medicinal nourishment delivered directly to the cambium layer. This practice, rooted in Pfeiffer and Thun's teachings, extends the logic of foliar feeding to the tree’s trunk, enhancing vitality from the outside in.

Apply tree paste:

  • After pruning
  • In late fall or late winter
  • Only when temperatures are above freezing and no rain is forecast

Strongly recommended after pruning to assist in healing wounds quickly. Improves vitality of ailing or damaged trees.
– Applied Biodynamics, no. 86 (Winter 2012–2013): 10.

Tree paste can be used in a sprayer but, if not diluted and filtered through a very fine strainer (55 micron), cleaning will be frustrating.
– Applied Biodynamics, no. 101 (Fall 2020): 6.

 

 

Technical: Paste Recipes, Timing, and Application

Standard recipe (Pfeiffer/Thun tradition)

  • 1/3 fresh cow manure
  • 1/3 clay
  • 1/3 sand

Moisten with BD 508 (horsetail tea; fermentation not required, though the fermented form tends to be more effective—see Kolisko).

Common enhancements:

  • Add BD 500 (horn manure)
  • Add Barrel Compound (BC)
  • Substitute Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray for BD preps
  • Add a small amount of castor or linseed oil for improved adhesion; neem oil may also be used, which has the added benefit of helping suppress pests in the bark before they can mature into adults

Most practitioners add BD 500, BD 508, and/or BC. Some use Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray instead.
– Hugh Courtney, Applied Biodynamics, no. 69 (Summer 2002): 7.

Tree paste has the ability to heal large wounds such as broken limbs... a miracle treatment... for apples, Japanese maples, and English yew.
– Marjory House, Applied Biodynamics, no. 101 (Fall 2020): 5–7.

Hugh Lovel’s augmented recipe (from Quantum Agriculture):

  • 1 part fresh cow manure
  • 1 part soft rock phosphate
  • 1 part bentonite clay
  • 1 part wood ash
  • BD 500, BD 502–507, and BD 508 (in small amounts)

Moisten with equisetum tea or barrel compost

Lovel emphasizes the remineralization aspect—his additions of phosphate and ash support phosphoric and potassium uptake through the bark, acting as a “cambial fertilizer” especially useful in impoverished soils or after heavy pruning.

Current JPI Product Formula (2025):

Dilution for Spray Use:

  • 1 cup paste : 1 gallon water
  • Stir 20 minutes
  • Filter through 50–60 mesh
  • Use immediately (settles quickly)

Do not apply when rain is expected, as it may wash off.
– JPI Handout, Winter Application: Tree Paste Instructions, 2025.

Special Note on Foliar or Vineyard Applications:

In some vineyard and foliar contexts, tree paste may be significantly diluted and applied as a broad microbial or mineral stimulant. When used this way, it behaves more like a compost tea than a bark salve. While dilution ratios vary, some practitioners use 1:10 or more with warm water and stir rhythmically for full dispersion. See Pfeiffer’s discussion in The Biodynamic Treatment of Fruit Trees, Berries, and Shrubs for details.

Large Batch Example (Marjory House, ~100 trees):

  • 3 gal fresh equisetum (or 1 lb dried)
  • 3 gal fresh nettle (or 1 lb dried)
  • 5 gal fresh cow manure
  • 4 gal fermented BD 508
  • 50 lb bentonite clay
  • Rainwater to desired consistency

Other practical notes:

  • Use thicker paste for sapsucker wounds
  • Can be hand-applied or brushed on
  • Best used fresh within a week, though it may be reactivated with a good stir and splash of water

 

 

Esoteric: Feeding the Cosmos

The cambium is the tree’s boundary between inner and outer worlds—a sheath of transformation where new tissue forms. It connects the tiniest roots with the highest leaves, forming a continuous, living membrane. Within the tree, the cambium is like space itself: subtle, enveloping, and communicative. Just as cosmic space conveys air, light, warmth, and moisture to all beings, the cambium conveys those same forces inward to the tree’s metabolism. Painting the bark, then, is not cosmetic—it is nutritive and ritualistic.

The ‘life sap’ penetrates the tree enlivening the bark and the cambium. The combination of the warmth element and the cambium forms the basis for the effect of the starry forces being responsible for the tree’s shape, and stimulates new fruiting.
– Maria Thun, Results from the Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar (Floris Books, 2003), 189.

Just as BD 500 enlivens soil life through the root zone, tree paste addresses the aerial sheath. When roots cannot be accessed—especially in orchards or mature trees—the trunk becomes the site of cosmic exchange.

Fertilizing should be done via the bark... Horn Manure Preparation establishes a good relationship between the Earth sap and the wood sap... Applying Horn Silica at suitable times helps the trees to turn towards the periphery helping new starry forces to act in the cambium.
– Ibid., 190.

Michael Phillips offers this agronomic perspective:

Biodynamic tree paste isn't bull but I can understand your asking. The manure introduces beneficial organisms and the clay has long been noted as a skin rejuvenator. The sand acts as a binder... Tree paste should help deter perennial canker... A manure pack on bacteria-laden bark crevices will check some fire blight before it spreads.
– Michael Phillips, The Holistic Orchard (Chelsea Green, 2011), 201.

As one JPI writer reflects:

Tree paste is protective like a plaster, invigorating like a pack, and nourishing like a compost tea... I think of it as gesture, ointment, skin, and sacrament—all in one.
– JPI Substack Article: Tree Paste, 2025.

In this light, tree paste serves as a conscious act of care, offering both physical repair and etheric alignment. It is a gesture of responsibility toward the tree’s upright form—its incarnated expression of celestial order.

 

 

 Bibliography

  1. Applied Biodynamics, no. 46 (Spring 2004): 6–7.

  2. Applied Biodynamics, no. 69 (Summer 2002): 6–8.

  3. Applied Biodynamics, no. 86 (Winter 2012–2013): 10.

  4. Applied Biodynamics, no. 98 (Fall 2019): 4.

  5. Applied Biodynamics, no. 101 (Fall 2020): 5–7.

  6. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Soil Fertility: Preservation and Renewal (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1970), 143–145.

  7. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer and M. Maltas, The Biodynamic Treatment of Fruit Trees, Berries, and Shrubs (Spring Valley, NY: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, 1981).

  8. Maria Thun, Results from the Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar, trans. Anne and Malcolm Gardner (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 2003), 189–196.

  9. Michael Phillips, The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011), 201.

  10. Hugh Lovel, Quantum Agriculture: Biodynamics and Beyond (Georgia: Quantum Agriculture Press, 2010), 183–185.

  11. JPI Handout, Winter Application: Tree Paste Instructions, Josephine Porter Institute, 2025.

  12. JPI Handout, Product Catalog Entry: Tree Paste, Josephine Porter Institute, 2025.

  13. JPI Internal Document, Tree Paste Recipe Sheet, Josephine Porter Institute, 2025.

  14. JPI Editorial, Tree Paste: Gesture and Sacrament, JPI Substack, 2025.