There are many reasons why you might want to build your own Air Prune bed. Follow along with these steps and you will have your own Air Prune bed built in no time.
These are steps I followed when I built my air prune bed. Of course your bed size can be adjusted to fit your space, needs, and material on hand.
Making your own Air Prune bed calls for a few common tools and light carpentry skills. Depending on how large or small you make it, you might even be able to repurpose or use scrap materials from your garage or shed to build your Air Prune bed.
Materials to Build an Air Prune Bed
Wood or composite material for making the frame and slats for reinforcing the bottom of the bed. Anything 1-2″ thick by 10-12″ deep should work for the frame. Slats can be made out of 1 or 2×4 type material. I have made beds out of wood already on my property. Remember the more wood and or thicker material you use the heavier your bed will be to maneuver into its final location.
Everything here is a suggestion. Feel free to build your first one out of whatever you have lying around. Down the road you can always construct another one out of all new material.
Hardware cloth, this can’t be too porous. It needs to be small enough that your soil stays inside the bed. 1/2″ squares or smaller have worked nicely for me. If your growing medium is very fine you might need to go with 1/4″ but 1/2″ and even 1″ have worked okay for my beds. Again if you have 1″x2″ hardware cloth on hand already, use it! You might need to spread a small layer of wood chips on the bottom of the bed so your growing medium doesn’t go through the larger sized holes.
Screws and fence staples will be used to fasten everything together. Use galvanized or similar for outdoor use.
Tools include: drill, circular saw, tape measure, wire/metal snips, hammer, speed square, pencil, ear and eye protection, and level if you want to get professional!
It goes without saying your will need a growing medium to fill the bed. A mix of compost and potting soil makes a nice planting bed but you can use whatever is available to you.
Don’t forget the seeds of whatever you decide to grow in the bed. I like to grow tap rooted trees in my Air Prune beds as they do extremely well and produce vigorous root systems.
Determining the Size of your Air Prune Bed
Before we begin making an Air Prune Bed you need to decide how large or small you want your bed. How many plants are you trying to grow? Are you growing for propagation like I am or for another goal? Most of my Air Prune beds measure 3′ by 8′ long. In a bed that size I can produce thousands of tree seedlings. This article will go over plans for building a 3′ x 8′ Air Prune bed. Adjust your cut sheet to match the size bed that fits your needs.
First determine if you have any materials on hand. I had a large roll of 3 foot tall hardware cloth in my garage from a previous project so I determined my beds would be 3 feet wide.
Next I decided to repurpose old shelving that I had long ago dismantled. Always save that extra wood, you never know when it will come in handy! The wood, still in good shape, was 1″ thick by 16″ tall x 8′ long. I had 6 of these wood boards available so I put them to use. My beds will now be 8 feet long and 16 inches deep.
If you don’t have the material on hand already you can follow this cut sheet.
Material List/Cut Sheet
(3) 1″ x 12″ x 8′
Leave two boards to length. Cut the third board into (2) 36″ lengths.
(2) 2″ x 4″ x 8′
Cut board into (2) 35″ lengths. Use the remaining board to cut (2) 10″ lengths. Repeat steps on second board. Off cuts can be discarded.
Now that all your wood cuts have been made you should end up with the following materials:
(2) 1″ x 12″ x 8′
(2) 1″ x 12″ x 36″
(4) 2″ x 4″ x 35″
(4) 2″ x 4″ x 10″
Hardware cloth should be easy. Provided you can assemble the bed properly, you can take cut your hardware cloth. Measure out 8′ of hardware cloth and cut using your wire snips.
All our material is now ready. It’s time to assemble our bed!
Constructing the Bed
If you have any carpentry skills this will be simple. For those of you who don’t, as long as you follow the steps your bed will turn out great.
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