Today’s show is all about the science and application of air pruning to grow hundreds or thousands of trees with incredibly healthy root structures in a small area.
Air pruning is what happens when a tap root or growing root tip gets exposed to air – it essentially dehydrates and goes dormant. This creates a hormonal stimulus that back-propagates up the root towards the stem-root junction of the tree at least 4 inches, and all along that length of root it induces lateral branching. Air pruning is a way to grow non-circling, non-girdling, high-density root systems that increase tree survival and helps them thrive when they are planted out into their final home.
We’ll discuss different ways to leverage air pruning depending on your application and the number of plants or trees you are wanting to grow. We’ll go into the pros and cons of using air pruning pots vs. constructing your own air pruning beds, as well as how to make your own air pruning bed from basic materials, sized according to your needs.
Second to planting a seed in the ground and having it grow in place for its entire life, air pruning is a great way to grow healthy, strong trees that will do in one year what it will take a typical pot-grown or bare root tree to do in three. You can grow up to 500 trees in a single 10’x3′ air pruning bed.
Lots of additional information, including videos and DIY guides, available and linked in the show resources below.
Show Resources
- DIY Article: Air Pruning Beds – Grow Hundreds Of Healthy-Rooted Trees In A Tiny Footprint
- DIY Air Pruning Beds – Illustrated Build Instructions
- Off-Grid Irrigation System – helpful for automating irrigation for air pruning beds.
- Sean Dembrosky from Edible Acres talking about his small, easily-portable air prune beds.
- Akivah Silver – Air Pruning Beds Video
- 7th Gen & Honey Badger Nursery – Air Pruning Beds walkthrough video
- Dr. Carl Whitcomb – Root Pruning Basics
- YouTube Playlist: Air Pruning Science, Pots, DIY Beds
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Music by Alex Grohl
