DIY Air Prune Beds - Grow Hundreds Of Healthy Trees In A Tiny Space

Brief walkthrough of how we made our air prune beds for growing hundreds of healthy trees with no circling or girdled roots in only 30 square feet. Air prune beds create healthy, non-circling, highly-branched root systems by using air to prune tree roots. The roots then go dormant and create a hormonal signal that back propagates to the stem-root junction and signals more roots to emerge heading out in new directions.
We first learned about air pruning beds from Akivah Silver - check out his channel for excellent tree propagation videos: / @akivasilver-twistedtr...
For more on the science of air-pruning, watch Dr. Carl Whitcomb's videos in our playlist on Air Pruning: • Root Systems Basics
Want to build an air pruning bed? Check out our 35 page Air Pruning Bed DIY Manual - complete with step-by-step detailed build photos and Sketch Up drawings, materials lists with pricing and sourcing links: www.7thgenerationdesign.com/p...
Got questions? Drop 'em below and we'll do our best to answer!
Request your copy of Resilient Property Design Essentials - our free 40+ page e-book containing 8 critically important design principles, strategies and techniques to make your property more resilient, beautiful and productive without making expensive mistakes! mailchi.mp/05172457b30d/rpde
Regenerative Landscape Design & Implementation
U.S. West Coast - Wes Cooke - www.7thgenerationdesign.com/
U.S. Southeast - Casey Pfeifer - thesovereignhomestead.com/
High-Value Trees and Productive Perennials Grown Using Air Pruning Methods: honeybadgernursery.com/

Пікірлер: 46

  • @edibleacres
    @edibleacres4 жыл бұрын

    Nice design! Thanks for sharing this!

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    4 жыл бұрын

    Absolutely! Many thanks to you too - I've learned so much from you and your channel over the years!

  • @veegee49
    @veegee494 жыл бұрын

    Fantastic work you nailed it

  • @gogonkt
    @gogonkt4 жыл бұрын

    Nice work !

  • @bruceford9036
    @bruceford90364 жыл бұрын

    Outstanding! Dr. Carl Whitcomb is Da Man! (RootMaker)

  • @ScottFairley-sv4yg
    @ScottFairley-sv4yg11 ай бұрын

    Superb design. Will be flattering you with imitation this fall.

  • @Midir__Cutie
    @Midir__Cutie4 жыл бұрын

    Interesting video, thank you

  • @user-qy2kw9kx3o
    @user-qy2kw9kx3o8 ай бұрын

    Thanks for that

  • @joekunin
    @joekunin Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for sharing! what sort of soil do you use in these? Is this method suitable for both seeds and cutting propagation?

  • @Chestnut22322
    @Chestnut223229 ай бұрын

    Casey, Hans here. Great videos! I love the air pruning beds (as you know) and refer people to them frequently. Can I make a suggestion to improve your KZread channel? It would be cool if you could group the different videos together in like subjects. I keep having to search around to find your air pruning bed tutorials (I refer people to them frequently). How is the relocation working for you?

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    8 ай бұрын

    Hi Hans, yes sir, we've got a bunch of playlists that categorize both our videos and other ones by topic - here's the one on air pruning in general (with some of Dr. Whitcomb's science in there, as well as the air pruning bed walkthrough videos) :kzread.info/head/PLJy8-1MQvUQw5phlrLVYiwrUbLZTjxKyD TN has definitely been a mixed bag, highs and lows to it. We're getting ready to move from our first place as it has been surrounded by fields onto which biosolids have been dumped - we've basically been living in a porta-potty for the past 3 months, and we're pretty done with it :/ But we'll keep our heads up! My new KZread Channel and website are here if you want to follow those - same deal, with playlists that I'm always adding to organized by topic: www.youtube.com/@thesovereignhomestead I hope you are doing well and in good health! Cheers!

  • @dianampowell1
    @dianampowell17 ай бұрын

    I'm concerned I might get problems with mice & shrews. I think it's a minimum of 6mm mesh holes to exclude small rodents. Have you had any trouble with them? Are there small rodents on your site?

  • @jessehenderson3013
    @jessehenderson30134 жыл бұрын

    Albizia julibrissin?

  • @MattDollinger
    @MattDollinger Жыл бұрын

    Hi. Love the setup. However I don’t see any roots making it through the shade cloth? Do you feel that might be too dense to allow for air pruning of tap roots? Looking to build some Of these this summer and just trying to finalize design. Thanks!

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    Жыл бұрын

    Hi Matt, you are correct, no roots grow through the shade cloth because the tips dessicate before they do that and send the growth signal back up the root to initiate more branching. This makes them easy to harvest from the beds, while also encouraging that highly branched root structure that we are after.

  • @agpawpaw5912
    @agpawpaw59125 ай бұрын

    Does chicken wire small enough to protect from chipmunk?

  • @forrestdeno4040
    @forrestdeno4040 Жыл бұрын

    Hello, Can you comment on the sources that give the confidence that air pruned trees actually do better than potted (circular root structure)? Of course, planting where you want initially, from seed is best, but there are many great advantages to making it mobile for the first year or 2.

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    Жыл бұрын

    Hi Forrest, I'd start by looking into the work of Dr. Carl Whitcomb - we have several of his video saved in this playlist on air pruning tech: kzread.info/head/PLJy8-1MQvUQw5phlrLVYiwrUbLZTjxKyD As an anecdote, back in my farming days we met a gentleman named David Muffly who was the guy that grew all of the oaks and large trees for the Apple One campus in Cupertino (giant circular space ship looking building) and he did everything in air pruning pots - Pioneer Pots specifically. He's a huge advocate for air pruning, especially for the tap-root dominant dryland/Mediterranean adapted trees. I don't know if he still has his website up but it might be worth searching for him on KZread or Google.

  • @ryleenepinak
    @ryleenepinak3 жыл бұрын

    Is there a supply list of materials and/or blueprint to build this? Trying to build 10 of these this week!

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    3 жыл бұрын

    Hi Rylee, We are working to put that all together right now - just did a write up and materials budget for a project in Michigan, costs are for a 12 bed tree nursery, each bed 8'x3'. You are welcome to check the write up and spreadsheets for details if they are helpful. I don't have drawings yet, but they're coming! Write up: docs.google.com/document/d/18pgJEAlWtHZE5ulfOyeV5nvCWkNLKyhKBuoKAM9ZmMk/edit?usp=sharing Materials Spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KakScTqsXvNGgHMu5AlipoAAxDS1nubdC2Vvnd55kJg/edit?usp=sharing I hope that got to you in time to help.

  • @zakklee
    @zakklee2 жыл бұрын

    What is a good alternative for the shade cloth? I can’t find any locally.

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    2 жыл бұрын

    Any fabric that is very breathable and drains well - while it is biodegradable, and thus you might have to replace it every year or two depending on your climate, you could absolute use burlap sacks or rolled burlap to create a bottom that would air prune well. Geotextile would probably be too densely woven and wouldn't air prune effectively in my estimation. Hope that helps!

  • @danatryde2024
    @danatryde20243 жыл бұрын

    Would this work for Live Oak and Valley Oak?

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    3 жыл бұрын

    Hi Dana, I have grown both of those trees in this type of set up, they did well!

  • @firecloud77
    @firecloud773 жыл бұрын

    What kind of media are the roots growing in?

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    3 жыл бұрын

    The media in this video is a hodge-podge mixture of various soil materials - you can use whatever is suited to the type of trees or plants you are growing.

  • @Rytoast99
    @Rytoast994 жыл бұрын

    hey man I like the video. Do you have any recommendations for how deep i should plan on making it for large trees, like the chestnuts you showed here?

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    4 жыл бұрын

    The bed in this video has about 8-9" of soil medium for the chestnuts. However, if you want to get the maximum root branching stimulus according to Dr. Whitcomb's data the tap roots need to be air pruned within the first 4-5" of growth in order to stimulate root branching back towards the stem root junction. We are trialing deeper and shallower beds this year and will post results when we pull the current year's trees to examine the root structure.

  • @forrestdeno4040

    @forrestdeno4040

    Жыл бұрын

    @@7thGenerationDesign Do you have results posted? Would be great to get a link to the results. Happy planting :D

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    Жыл бұрын

    @@forrestdeno4040 Hi Forrest, here is a link to one of our harvest videos demonstrating the harvest process and the root structure of the young trees: kzread.info/dash/bejne/pa6VlMVyhdOrlpM.html

  • @vballboy11

    @vballboy11

    Жыл бұрын

    @@7thGenerationDesign hey just following up, are you able to share the results of your trial of deeper and shallower air prune beds? I would hope that the shallow ones (closer to 4/5" did better as per dr. whitcombs research. Looking forward to hear how it went!

  • @thunderdove3764

    @thunderdove3764

    Жыл бұрын

    @@vballboy11 I'd like to know as well. One worry I'd have though is if they have to spend one winter in there, I might have to insulate around theb ed. However, maybe they'd be good enough to, big enough, to transplant by autumn when dormant? have you tried this at all, the pruning beds? I'm just learning about them after getting discouraged about the cost of ellepots!

  • @holycrossmath3490
    @holycrossmath34903 жыл бұрын

    Do you use compost, topsoil, or a mix to fill the beds?

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    3 жыл бұрын

    I use a range of different media depending on what I'm growing - faster draining mediums generally for mediterranean/dryland trees and plants, richer soils for more temperature species - and/or whatever is available and affordable.

  • @justtinkering6054
    @justtinkering60549 ай бұрын

    I’m thinking about planting some chestnuts and persimmons in my air pruning bed right now, before winter. My fear is that they will freeze and not germinate. Looks like it works for you. What USDA zone are you in, or what’s your nearest city?

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    8 ай бұрын

    This video was shot in the Santa Cruz mountains of CA - zone 8b/9a if I recall correctly? However, for me one of the primary reasons I like to use the air pruning beds is to set seeds out so they get to stratify naturally - just as if they'd fallen in nature. So all the nuts, fruits etc I'll sow them in late fall or after their harvest time, and then they'll germinate right on time in the spring. Just keep 'em protected from squirrels or other critters that would love to dig them up!

  • @bigtonekd77
    @bigtonekd77 Жыл бұрын

    Where are you located? What is the weather like in the winter? Do anything to protect them from freezing?

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    Жыл бұрын

    We are in the Santa Cruz mountains in Central Coastal CA - we have mild winters. For cold climate adaptations I'd check out EdibleAcres videos and Akivah Silver's Twisted Tree nursery - both upstate NY based I believe). I haven't managed any in a cold climate myself - but keeping them close to ground level (a few inches off it) and mulching around the sides is what I've seen people do.

  • @davidkirby27
    @davidkirby27 Жыл бұрын

    Air pruning, technically speaking is a technique utilised for large tree transplants/movements, pot bound fruit/veg/trees that won't have the ability to anchor in the earth. Ultimately, the build makes total sense from a desired outcome perspective, however, it doesn't. make a lot of sense given you had the opportunity to plant into the ground.

  • @thunderdove3764

    @thunderdove3764

    Жыл бұрын

    It makes sense when you consider RODENTS! :) I've lost Japanese maple, nuts, etc. when planted in a way the chipmunks, squirrels, etc. could get to them.

  • @pokerchannel6991
    @pokerchannel69912 жыл бұрын

    dear sir: I bought two trees, a avacodo, a peach. Both in 15 gallon container. Is it worth while to transfer to a burlap type bag for one year before putting into ground permanently? Winter in 9b zone has a few freeze nights and I need the trees to be ready for outdoor. I want to get them strong indoors using burlap/bag first? Is it worth doing? Is it too late since they are in container for years in the nursery where i bought them?? thx.

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    2 жыл бұрын

    I would just plant them straight away - since they were already pot grown there won't be much to gain by trying to set them up in an air pruning bed for a year. If it were me, I'd just plan them and let the roots do the best they can in the earth at this point - spread them out as best you can to create a good structure etc.

  • @pokerchannel6991

    @pokerchannel6991

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@7thGenerationDesign ok. that makes sense. I am going to plant and irrigate efficiently, and heavy mulch to encourage deep, wide roots. Also, cover it during cold nights. (to get them through the first few winter). thx.

  • @kevinhaddon4942
    @kevinhaddon49424 жыл бұрын

    Has anyone yet thought of what may happens when a gust of hot air hits the roots consistantly. I think it's about timing. Same as harvesting on a full moon 🤔

  • @7thGenerationDesign

    @7thGenerationDesign

    3 жыл бұрын

    The trees thus far have performed just fine, assuming there is consistent automated irrigation to keep the soil mass reasonably moist. We have had the power go out during a heat wave for nearly a week, however, and the trees were still looking just as they did the prior week - the soil does a good job of insulating and retaining moisture.