I almost wonder if you could build a caged space with screen or hardware cloth. It would be big enough for you to enter and you could have your modular air prune boxes lined up

Thank you for the work you put into making these videos and sharing your experiences. Lots of great ideas and just as importantly you save us a lot of time and energy if we learn from your successes and mistakes.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

If you read through the comments you'll see it's bi-directional. Folks really share some great insights, valuable additions, and new ways to improve these projects. I get a tremendous amount from all you folks sharing your ideas!

While researching hen houses people were using screws with washers to keep their hardware fabric down.. And it's reusable as long as the screws are stainless and good quality. Worth considering as is recycled transport pallets! They give them away lots of places

@Godshole

5 жыл бұрын

Good ideas. Ply tends to not like being we dry wet dry. It separates and expands and contracts as it gets wet and dries. The staples will just come loose and fall out. Screws are much better, with washers like you say. Or battons screwed on, or as others have suggested just wire it to frames so one cloth can be taken off each side to weed.

@chrisk1669

5 жыл бұрын

I used screws and washer when I built my chicken coop. Ahh brings back memories and it should work in this situation too.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Great thoughts here, thanks kindly for sharing them! I'll review all the comments in the early winter when versions 2.0 and onward start getting developed! It's like having a team with me to come back to these projects and make them better. Thanks so much!

Yes... Pretty worthwhile I think is an understatement.

Thank you so much for this ingenious idea! I've been feeling discouraged about our tiny but very productive garden because groundhogs have been devastating it - in spite of the fences I tried to secure. Last week I spied a ground hog on top of the 8 ft. trellis, eating morning glory leaves (which are, apparently, quite tasty)! So for sure we need to build something like these boxes with "roofs", and perhaps hinge one side (as one of the commenters suggested). Meantime, all our lovely cantaloupes are destroyed...sigh, and I'm hoping I'll finally get to taste at least one of the Brandywine tomatoes. You're a blessing - now I have a game plan and hope for the future, thank God! :)

Thank you for the consistent updates and what not. Another great video as always

Love this concept. Incredible potential for such a small space.

To fasten the hardware cloth, get 1/2” washer head wood screws. You’ll need fewer and they last and can be reused…

Pneumatic "narrow crown staplers" are awesome for this application and they're pretty inexpensive. You will just need an air compressor. Menards sells stainless steel narrow crown staples in a variety of lengths. They are the best fastener for building cages, coops, and air prune or protection containers.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

I'll be coming back to this comment when it's time to start v2.0 this winter!

@justinfiorini3142

4 жыл бұрын

They have manual ones, the cable guy left his at my house.

I made a couple air prune beds this year for English walnuts and Jefferson hazelnuts. 1’x2’x6”. The walnuts never germinated. The hazelnuts germinated but then a chipmunk discovered them! Only lost a few. I surrounded it with cage wire and buckets. I think they would be taller with the deeper air prune bed. The chipmunks also got into my black walnuts planted in the ground! Will definitely be using more hardware cloth next year. I use screws and washers to attach the hardware cloth. Thanks for the great tips!🐿🌰

I know this is an older video, and you may have already solved the issue of the staples, but in case you haven't, you can use a penny as a sort of washer, and screw through the penny and the wire to the wood. We did that with a rabbit pen years ago and it worked really well! Love your channel!

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

Cool idea thank you for sharing that.

turning a parking place into a nice used car... not a bad idea.. of course the value goes far beyond that. Really awesome.

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

Really feels like a positive use of space.

Loved this! Thanks for sharing.

Because of preditors, I built chicken tractors for my 5 chickens. I've had some tractors better than 5 yrs. I used pallets, washers, outdoor screws & ½" hardwares cloth. I move the tractors every 3 or 4 days since I only have 5 chickens.

@edibleacres

5 ай бұрын

Sounds like the system is working for you, thats great

Add corner bracing to the boxes to attach the lid. Next hing the lid on the top along the long north side, allowing it to rise. Next hinge the long south side at the bottom allowing it to swing out. This will give you access to the entire top, and the south wall. I do assume of course that they lay east to west along the length, so the largest sides are facing north and south. You should be able to stuff them back in until they grow to the height of the boxes? Great video series. Mind blowing concept. Noticed ponds as subject in recent videos, I for one would like a more in depth explanation of water shed details with some emphasis on swale production as a tool to store and move water, and the 'long pond' vs traditional pond, water evaporation, evacuation, reclamation, long term storage vs short term storage, gain/loss. Or something like that?

@edibleacres

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for these ideas and notes, much appreciated!

Hi Sean, I was just thinking about your problem of putting the lid back on. Get 3 or 4 strands of twine and gently wrap up the trees so that they bunch in the middle, tying low, half way, and near the top. Make sure to leave enough twine to fish out through the hardware cloth. Then you and Sasha can easily place the cover back over the box. Hope this idea helps. Cheers, Bill

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Nice idea, I'll keep this in mind as a nice trick if/when we need to get a lid off AND back on this late in the season...

@rickjewell2734

5 жыл бұрын

Ditto WW. Waste my beloved hinges on a rarely opened door, i never.

Try painting the plywood lids with exterior wood glue. Use a silicone glue brush.

Maybe when you rebuild the cages you can include doors on two sides. It would take more wood, some kind of hinges, and a maybe some latches, but the same amount of hardware cloth. I have had good luck building light frames with pallet slats and pneumatic staplers, the set up costs a little but the fasteners are super cheap and fast to use.

So cool!

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

I think this winter we'll scale this project up a bit more. Being mobile and so very valuable we can use this to reclaim areas that have been overgrown with weeds by just deeply sheet mulching over them, building these beds and then in the fall moving them to the next spot!

Reviewing this video as I prepare to build my own. My first take away is the fastening... a screw with an appropriate sized washer would be reusable several times, even if the frame needed changed out.

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

Certainly upgrades can be made on all this. I have made more air prune boxes this winter made entirely of Black Locust so they can last quite a bit longer. Haven't made any video because they aren't that fundamentally different than this design. Overall quite happy with the basic premise.

Very cool. Thanks for the update. I appreciate your candor in sharing what needed to be improved upon. To whom will you sell the seedlings? Local nurseries? Also interested in how you will free them all from their growing mix without damaging their roots, especially with them packed in so closely together, and then how you will prepare them for sale while keeping them viable. I bought a couple of hundred bare root seedlings from Arbor Day to give away last year, but they had minimal survival rate. Looking for an alternative, and only have minimal space. Love how lush the hazelnuts, walnuts, and chestnuts look!

They look great! I didn't realize you are in NY... Tivoli, NY here. Cheers! Potatoe ties and a potatoe tier spinner would work on the corner jionts on the mesh.

@edibleacres

7 ай бұрын

I'll look into em

Lathe screws also work real good for securing your hardware fabric. don't use the self tapping ones, the drilling portion removes too much wood.

I started using short roofing nails to secure hardware cloth in coop openings and never looked back. They seem to hold better than staples for more permanent projects, just not as easy as staples. Great channel btw, one of my favorites.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this tip. The wide head and tight bite sounds like a great combo...

Great follow up video. I was wondering how they were making out.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

So far so good, with room (as always!) to improve.

maybe a camping canister of of rainwater on top of the cages if sturdy enough , or on a seperate high stool connected to a drip line (or old piece of hose with some holes) could help in case of hotter days. it would be semi movable and could drip water without supervision during the day

@kellymichellelee

5 жыл бұрын

There are some good for on self-wicking grow beds on instructables, too! With a bladder underneath and a place to add your water off to the side.. I will try to find the link

@kellymichellelee

5 жыл бұрын

www.instructables.com/howto/Self-wicking+bed/

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks folks for offering some ideas on this. The reality is that I just need to prioritize actually watering these boxes when it gets hot! These are great ideas if/when we scale this up. Last night I went out and watered them and it took 5 minutes and was relaxing. I just need to make it a thing I do when it gets hot and hasn't rained for a bit!

There is something called cage clamps and a tool called a clamp clincher that I have used to connect hardware cloth. It would not be a way to attach the hardware cloth to wood but it can stand up pretty well on it's own or might be a good hinge option.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this note!

Try using galvanized hog rings to connect the sides to the top.

I love the idea ! Did you start from seed to grow these trees ?

Another question, on deep tap root types, like pecans for example, as the air pruning causes more lateral fibrous roots, when placed in real soil, such as a nursery row in field, will they continue a lateral spreading root form or go right back to deep diving with a huge new tap root. The idea is to grow them in the air pruner for one year, then move to a field row for another year for grafting, before final move orchard. Trying to avoid the massive pain of a pecan or other tap root type that grows in the field for 2-3 years and needs a 4' deep or more tap root dug up, or severed as is the common practice with these trees. I'm hoping the first year in the air prune box might help establish a precedent for more lateral shallow "bushy" root growth which is easier to transplant without severe stress.

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

I believe they will focus on lateral development once encouraged to do so. I would also say that if you are thinking you'll grow a tree year 1 in an air prune and then a FEW years in a nursery before moving to a final home it will be a pretty intense transplant shock and work at that point. Year one in an air prune, year 2 ideally they are in their forever home from then on... Ideal is you plant out in the fall after the 1st year, you could always topwork to another type in the field later and just let them be... Just my 2c

@MrChickadee

3 жыл бұрын

@@edibleacres I guess I was following the process of most nurseries who sell grafted nut and fruit trees I have researched. Most use a rootstock of 1-2 years old, then grow the tree post grafting for 1-3 years before sale. Obviously it would be ideal to be able to bud a seedling the same summer it was seeded, then grow that graft the next year, and have a 2 year old "tree" with strong root and 1 full summer of top growth past the graft.

Superb! Would you mind sharing how you pot the trees for sale? I am very curious as I am thinking a lot about an intense micro nursery for ourselves. Keep it up! Moritz

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

We sell most of our plants as bare root plants in the fall and spring. We ship a fair number and sell lots locally. I have a few videos on 'potted polyculture' that you can look up to see how we pot up plants. I'd guess we pot up for sale about 15-20% of what we sell...

@my_permaculture

5 жыл бұрын

@@edibleacres Ok. So now Im curious on how the whole bare rkot sale works. LOL...

@kellymichellelee

5 жыл бұрын

@@my_permaculture im not @edibleacres but im familiar with bareroots shipment having worked in the industry and ordered bare root plants of different species :) not everyone does it the same, but one way to do so is to wrap the roots in a damp paper towel in a [ziplock bag].. However.. Not all plants need humidity 24/7- think many succulents can go for a limited or even prolonged drought with not real damage. The main concern in shipping plants is providing adequate buffering around them so they don't get smashed up ( like packing peanuts, but preferably use the biodegradable ones made out of unflavored "cheetos" lol or loose paper wads etc.. And pro tip.. Most things (other than succulents) do much better if you soak their roots for several hours after a long trip.. And another major problem plants incur while traveling is cold and heat damage.. One vendor I've used offers those "hand warmer" instant heat packs for ($5?) included in the packaging in the heart of winter to protect your greenbabies from cold shipping facilities and trucks over night etc.. Not as much can be done about the heat except ventilating the boxes.. Which is a good thing to keep in mind :) also labeling the boxes fragile, live plants etc doesn't hurt. Cheers!

If you hinge-suspended the sides of the screen onto a frame, you could reinstall protection.

@peterellis5626

5 жыл бұрын

I was also thinking along these lines, that there should be some reasonably simple way of making the top so that rather than sliding back on over the top, it could be wrapped around, thus capturing the seedlings and compressing them back into the space...

@Tony-Blake

5 жыл бұрын

@@peterellis5626 I was thinking of swinging the sides back down, but a wrap-around could work too. Of course, now that the nuts have transformed into saplings, they might no longer need protection.

@peterellis5626

5 жыл бұрын

@@Tony-Blake We're looking at ways of achieving the same goal ;) How to get that lid back without crushing the plants ;) Almost certainly more than one viable method for getting there !

@Tony-Blake

5 жыл бұрын

@@peterellis5626 Yup, there's always another way :D

@MartinaSchoppe

3 жыл бұрын

or maybe make just the "roof" removable?

If you threw a couple of hinges at the base of each side and made a removable cap, you could definitely have regular access to the plants and be able to resecure without damaging the plants.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Lots of nice votes for the hinge idea!

You make great videos. What is the advantage for growing these airpruned seedlings vs. seeding them in pots or directly into the ground (taking care for rodent/pest prevention)? Does it encourage a healthier root system? Or is a matter of convenience/portability? Also on your video re: turning lawn into potato patch, how long in advance did you sit the hay chunks on the lawn, e.g. previous year, previous season, the night before? Did you have any problems with the hay leaving weedseeds in the soil? Thanks for sharing what you learn. It will help us live better on this beautiful planet.

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

The hay went down a week or two before, not long. The weed seeds the hay leaves work out in the end since some germinate but they are easy to pull and they feed the soil too! The air prune bed helps immensely in shaping the roots of otherwise very long taprooted tree seedlings, and makes it easier to harvest them in the fall AND protects from rodents during the growing season, so for certain high value nursery plantings it is incredibly helpful.

Great video! I would like to plant my seedlings in the mountains come fall. Is there a way to bare root these with no protection from chipmunks and deer? What would be my options?

@edibleacres

2 жыл бұрын

You'd need to figure out some way of hiding the trees from browse from deer with things like spiky branches, etc. Maybe wild roses, brambles, etc can be made into a protective cage around them...

The heat issue being on the baking hot driveway on a hot sunny day, what if you put all the boxes on a 4x8 piece of insulation board like what you use for your root cellar? might help with the heat radiating up from the driveway. I used romex wire staples to nail my hardware cloth on. Something i happened to have on hand, seemed to work well.

@edibleacres

4 жыл бұрын

I hear you on the heat. Overall, with the deep mulch and dense plantings, coupled with the aged wood chips holding in moisture and being a bit of insulation, it doesn't seem to be a problem with these boxes. I think if we had FULL sun all day here it would need some sort of buffer. We could also just dump some sawdust on the driveway in front of the boxes to keep the sun from soaking in. Romex Wire Staples... I'll remember that and check them out when its time to make some new boxes. Lovely seeing you all this weekend!

Hi, just setting up some air pruning boxes for hazelnut seed... how do you work out planting density? Was going to throw them on the surface until they are almost all touching, then cover with wood chip mulch, or do I need to be more precise with seed spacing? Thanks!

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

I think that may be a bit too close... I'd suggest anywhere between 2-4" is close enough to really close canopy effectively early in the season AND get plants that size up to be beautiful and field ready in year one... You can plant closer if you need to but expect smaller plants that may need year 2 in a nice nursery bed.

What would you say is your favorite/best depth? Or are different depth better for different plants? Like 6” for walnuts and 14” for hazelnuts etc?? Depth for apple trees?

@edibleacres

4 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/iWSfmrGjpriuZMo.html - Newest video showing the 'unboxing' of the air prune beds. You can see how the plants have grown. I don't know that I have enough experience at all yet to suggest perfect depths, but 8-12" deep makes for a BEAUTIFUL root system, and at 6" the Chestnuts we grew made a nice root too... I'd experiment.

These never cease to amaze me. Did you decide on a final design for the lid, as far as the cloth thing? In the latest video I think the lid was wobblier and you said that was a good thing? Would love to hear a few words on that as I'm looking to build one or two :)

@edibleacres

Жыл бұрын

We're still allowing it to evolve, but the more recent air prune box videos ( kzread.info/dash/bejne/g2Gc1suFpsWrlJs.html ) show a lid design I'm pretty happy with..

How about using wire to tie the hardware cloth onto the wood?

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

That is very doable. Especially at the corners, a little twist tie of light gauge wire could be a really nice backup. Good thinking!

Where did you get your seeds? Been looking for a good source of fruit and nut tree seeds. Have a ton of pallets to make a few boxes.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

We collect most of them from trees/shrubs in the area. Some we buy in.

I love the idea! Do you think propagating little shrubs like goumi, red fruits, seaberry, service berries.. In an air prune bed would be the best solution or would you grow them in sand? I am starting a new plant nursery in France :)

@edibleacres

Жыл бұрын

I would propagate cuttings in sand and/or light media, not in air prune boxes. Air prune boxes are ideal for tap rooted trees grown from seed...

What soil mix did you use for Hazelnuts? Did you make your own? If so what proportions of each item?

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

All home mixed soils. Rough layer of coarse aged sticks on the bottom, then a blend of a little perlite with aged, fungal dominant soils (aged woodchips are ideal). A deep deep mulch once the emerge is really excellent for them, too...

Maşallah çok güzel ❤🐣🐣🐤🐤🐤🐓🐓🐓🐔🐔🐔🌻🌻🌼🌼🌻🐥🐥🐥

3/4 in deck screws with washers will work a whole lot better than the staples. you can even use another board on the outside and screw them like you did on the bottoms

@peterburris4665

5 жыл бұрын

I would send pics of the the one I built, but I do not know how.

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Good note here. I know what you are talking about. I think a batton system is in order for version 2.0!

how r weeds growing through that thick cover?

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

There were many little weeds early on before the trees got going in a strong way. If I get on top of them 100% early on, followed by a deep mulch, then things should be good for the rest of the season.

I can’t understand why you would only water with rain water.

is a mostly shaded habitat ideal for such a nursery?

@edibleacres

3 жыл бұрын

For the widest range of production you'd want a fair bit of light, but partial shade is good if you are doing more shade tolerant/loving nursery work.

Electrical staples for the hardware cloth!!

@edibleacres

2 жыл бұрын

We really like battons now. THey are incredibly strong in holding the metal mesh.

you look like Jordan Peterson's inner image

@cnutjay

5 жыл бұрын

love your channel though :)

@edibleacres

5 жыл бұрын

Definitely not the first time someones said that. After looking him up I'd rather not be associated, though!

@carter1280

4 жыл бұрын

Why not?