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.
These Pawpaws were overwintered in the bed. -6F was the lowest temperature. Picture was taken in July.
Stacked beds together against a railroad tie wall with a straw bale in front.
Lost one row on the side that was not protected. Where some of this years starts are in cups.
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Interesting to hear that aged wood chips are working well for nut seedlings. I’m refining a medium for walnut, and that approach sounds promising.
Do you know what kind of wood the chips come from and how they’re aged? And have you gotten any new info from the “young guys” in the meantime about fertilization or additional ingredients they mix in?
My old 50/50 soil–compost blend settled badly (about 40%) and shrank from the edges, so I’m aiming for something with better structural stability, good aeration/drainage, solid water-holding capacity, and ideally peat-free.
Besides wood chips, are there other components you guys can recommend? I’m also considering ~30% fermented, nutrient-loaded biochar for stability and porosity—any experience with biochar for walnut?
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I do not know the species involved… I suspect whatever was being removed/chipped in their areas of VT & MA.
I have two large piles of what was predominantly callery pear, which have decomposed over about a 5-yr period that I’ll probably be filling an air-prune bed with this spring. Used a couple of FEL bucketsful to fill holes in the yard where I pulled out some 15y.o. serviceberry bushes this weekend; it’s dark and rich, few big chunks remaining.
Have a couple of new piles that are predominantly eastern redcedar… they’ll probably take a lot longer to break down. Been using that to mulch around some blueberries, as I’m hoping they’ll release less Calcium than the decomposing hardwood chips.
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Those are nice,how deep are they?
6-8 inches of soil or so
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