Better move it then.
2-weeks pears, apples, (probably pawpaws as their wood is soft like butter to cut thru…) not persimmons and nuts, though.
Dax
Got it. Thanks for all your help.
Walter
Welcome, Walter.
Dax
I love all the informative input in this thread. I will be building my own pipe this week. After a constructing and using your pipes, what size of insulation tubing does everyone prefer? I see that Dax likes the 2 inch outside diameter. What is the prefered inside diameter (the size of the pipe if we were using it as intended)?
Does anyone have any additional tips that I should keep in mind that you may not have mentioned up to this point? I wish I could offer something more constructive to the discussion. My good will and appreciation will have to suffice. 
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I added these two sentences yesterday to post #1.
Dax
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Since I made a slightly different version of the pipe than some others, I thought I’d follow up with a report on the temperature inside the pipe.
My original post with how I built it is here: Hot Callus Pipe DIY - #145 by zendog
The pipe is now in a crawl space that is averaging around 57 degrees. Inside the pipe, the temperature appears to be averaging about 20 degrees warmer. The hottest I’ve seen it was 79 and the lowest was 75. I also have the slits quite close and about 60 grafts along the pipe, so possibly just more heat is escaping. I’m not sure if this will be hot enough for the pecans, but I’m hoping it is at least hot enough for the persimmons. If anything I wish I had made sure the slits were all the way down to the square wood dowels I used around the cable, so I’d know the grafts were right above the cable. I guess I’ll know in about a month.
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Im still waiting on another 20 rootstocks. 10x Bud118 and 10x OHxF97. The photos above are what’s going so far. A mix on Bosc, Flemish beauty, Harrow Sweet, Ayer and Seckel Pear as well as Honeycrisp, Liberty, Northern Spy, I90, and a couple others. I also noticed all of my chestnuts I stratified are beginning to produce radicles. I need to get my air prune beds ready and create cages over the top using hardware mesh(last years got damaged.) Once that’s done I can get the hazelnut, black walnut and last years chestnuts out from an overwintering nursery bed and in a permanent spot. I’d also like to fit some turkey hunting in next month as well.
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1-bud; that’s exactly what my pipes look like.
Thanks, Gary, I mean, cool.
Dax
Sir, what do these air prune beds you are talking about look like?
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Clint - you got photos posted of your operation ? They’re quite excellent.
Dax
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@Barkslip Dax, these are the pics of a couple of my totes after grafting, is that what you are talking about?
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That and the rubber bands man.
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An air prune bed is basically a planter box which has a bottom made of hardware mesh. When the roots reach the bottom and contact the air, they are essentially pruned by the air. Creating fibrous roots. I constructed a cage which attaches to the top of the grow box I connect using a hook and loop. Keeps rodents from eating the nuts. Just make the cage over 2 feet tall, since your seedlings will grow about that. I grow them there all summer and get them in the ground in the early fall. I’m zone 4b and after looking today, it appears all my hybrid chestnuts that I did this with survived the winter with a fall planting. Just stake and cage young trees, rodents and rabbits can be a nightmare if you don’t, especially the first few years that the trees in the ground.
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Oh ya, here is a couple pics of a couple of my first ones ever before going into the pipe. I got a little happy on the grafting tape
on the first few, but didn’t put it near as thick once I figured it out. I think I have green showing on the buds on 87 out of 95 grafts. I left them in the pipe for 18 to 21 days. Weather kind of screwed me to get 21 days out of all of them, got too warm on me and couldn’t keep things from waking up. I was putting ice packs on the roots wrapped in moist paper towels and Wal-Mart bags every day there for a while.
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Very cool, is that 2 inch pvc cut 2 foot long? I’m assuming the pvc is for nuts/seed and your rootstock all goes in the planter boxes filled with media? Could a guy go with bigger diameter pvc for the rootstock after coming out of the pipe? Do you perforate that pipe towards the bottom I guess I am curious how intertwined the roots will be in those totes of mine. I would have much rather put mine in a straw bale nursery bed I made, but I didn’t have a way of protecting them from freezing temps for the next month.
I don’t use the beds for bench grafts. It’s mostly used for starting large amounts of nut trees. The Pvc pipe was I believe 1 1/2 diameter. Chestnuts put out a taproot, this allows the taproot to grow long. Then when it’s time to plant they pull out like a plug and I plant them in permanent spot. It can be time consuming, much easier to just do rows of nuts in soil in the beds. It is a little work though digging them up and separating some roots. You’re either going to work in the beginning or end of grow season… I also usually throw a single sheet of newspaper over the hardware mesh to keep dirt from falling through when I fill the beds. I support the hardware mesh with a few spaced cross beams. I’ve heard the blow torching and slightly charting the inside prevents or slows the wood from rotting.
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Sir, what are you doing with your benchgrafts when they come out of the pipe. I know @Barkslip pots his up individually. Im mainly talking about the ones that break dormancy where they can’t be held in a fridge. If you do plant them outside right away, do you protect young grafts from freezes?
I appreciate the politeness, but you don’t have to call me sir. Just call me Gary. When I remove them from the pipe around April 20-28, I put them in a bucket with moist woodchip/sawdust(my friend processes firewood, so I have access to plenty). I then keep them in my shop under a light so they harden off somewhat. I live in Northern NY, Zone 4b. I usually hold off planting until the beginning to middle of May depending on how the weathers looking.
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Thanks Gary!
Hey Gary. Thanks for fielding questions. I have one. What size foam tubing did you use?
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