Several of the young guys I’ve been working with are using air pruning beds for production of oak/hickory/pecan seedlings, using aged wood chips as their growing medium. Seems to be working well for them. IDK what, if anything, they’re doing, with regard to fertilization or micronutrient supplementation.
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Adding some 3x5 beds to the arsenal this year. I made them out of true 2x6 rough sawn pine. I wil use one box for the smaller shallow rooted plants and stack a second box on top for the deeper rooted trees. This will hopefully make removing them in the fall a little easier when I pop the top box off. Propping them up on bricks for the air gap.
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I used cattle panel under the hardware cloth. I also put a few bricks down the middle for more support.
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I may need to put some support down the middle but I used some heavy gauge fence staples on the hardware cloth to try and avoid the need for middle support. We’ll see if that works out or not…
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Wow, that’s some nice roots on that little feller.
Do you overwinter anything in your beds or do you dig them all and store them healed in somewhere?
I’ve got 3 beds (about 3X7 each). including one with pawpaws that I know shouldn’t get too cold in the root zone. I’m thinking of just mounding woodchips around the outside, which may be fine for me here in 7A. But I imagine your zone would be a challenge for wintering over air prune beds.
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I bet certain hardy species could get overwintered with good mulching and packing insulation like hay bails or the like around the perimeter to keep the wind out. I have also buried my small 1*2 boxes in wood chips with success. But that’s not something I’d recommend by any means in my zone and in general I lift everything in the fall and heal them in ground for the winter.
