Air Pruning Box Assembly and First Use

 Air Pruning Box Assembly

Pruning boxes were assembled starting with the treated 2x4 layer.  A Kreg pockethole jig was used for strength, rather than drilling into the endgrain of the wood as is shown in Figure 1.  Figures 2 and 3 show how one bottom box looked after adding some thicker gauge fencing + quarter in hardware cloth and the ripped 2x4s for holding it all together.  The staple gun was used to hold the wire mesh in place before the 2x4s were screwed in with 2" deck screws.

Figure 1. Assembling the bottom 2x4 layer.

Figure 2. Adding wire mesh and ripped 2x4s

Figure 3. Final assembled bottom box with full wire fencing support.

For strength comparison, the second box did not use a full section of wire fencing but only a couple strands of extra wire to help support the 1/4" hardware cloth in the center sections of the box as is shown in Figure 4 before final assembly.

Figure 4. Mid-assembly of box 2, with only 2 wires run under the 1/4" hardware cloth for support.

The 2x6 and 2x8 boxes were assembled as before with pockethole joinery (see Figure 5), but without the center support.  Some had to be redrilled a few times due to slight warping in the boards to prevent wobbling in the final box structure.

Figure 5. Adding pocket holes to the 2x6 and 2x8 boards.

Filling and Finalizing the Air Prune Beds

It took approximately 1 bucket of farm topsoil to fill the air prune boxes.  A single layer of pine wood shavings was placed over the 1/4" hardware cloth at the bottom to prevent soil from streaming out during watering.  Figure 6 shows the final assembled boxes.  Figure 7 shows the addition of the 1/4" hardware cloth sides to prevent browsing.  The addition of the sides is a 2-person job and made much easier with a staple gun used to hold the mesh in place until the final wood pieces can be added along the sides.  The stapling method has an additional advantage in that the front side of the boxes can be "opened" to facilitate filling the boxes.  A small piece of wire can be used to weave the door shut when not in use.

Figure 6. Final assembled boxes.

Figure 7. Adding 1/4" hardware cloth to prevent browsing.