Sand Box propagation Bed

I am learning and expanding my growing capabilities in preparation for retirement.
I am currently building a sand box plant propagation bed that will have overhead irrigation spray heads that can turn on every 10 minutes for as 5/10 seconds during the day light hours.
This is a North Alabama (Zone 7A/B) which has hot humid summers and early springs with late frosts.
Want to be growing perennials like fruit and vegetables that do not require chemicals to succeed.
What shade cloth should I use (50%)?
Does anyone have suggestions on what fruit veggies grow well in a sand box like mine?
Would hardwood or softwood cuttings be best?
Thank you

Do you have a photo of the type of finished product? Or any photos of your work in progress? We’d like to see what you are working on. What are your dimensions?

It's a little hard to imagine your propagation set-up.

Are you doing this in a greenhouse? outside? in your house?  Do you need shade cloth at all?

I'm impressed you're in the deep south at 7B, I guess Northern Alabama is cooler than I imagined. That's roughly the same as what I was living in in Appalachia before I came to Japan.

I imagine trying to propagate trees is going to require a very different set-up than doing herbaceous perennials or annuals.

Can you tell us a little more?

I got this idea from a video where the guy is propagating Goumi in Florida.  Will need to spray the plants for 5 to 10 seconds every hour.  It will also require a shade cloth to keep the plants from drying out.  
The dimensions are 3 cement blocks by 9 cement blocks (each block is 16 inches) and there is an overlap on each corner.  I put down a Permatil (aka Vole Block) layer before pouring the sand on top.  It took 1.5 tons of sand.

I did something similar to this over the winter but smaller.  Back then it had a translucent cover to moderate the cold weather and had minor slices in the cover to allow rain to drip down.  Hazel Nuts grew very well but very few Goumi.

Hi Dennis,
I would not suggest growing vegetables in the sand bed unless you need to. (Storing them in moist sand is good though). The only plants I have seen grown in sand beds are trees and shrubs. They are grown that way so that the roots can be spread out and the plant can eventually be removed without too much root damage, in order to be planted somewhere else. You lose all the benefits of having diverse soil with organic matter in it. You HAVE to water more because the sand dries out so much faster, and this could lead to mold issues if you are dealing with leafy plants as opposed to mostly "sticks". You would probably also need to fertilize. While you probably could grow veggies in that bed, I think it would be much harder than if you simply propagated them using something like soil blocks or a traditional 6-pack and potting soil. The trees, shrubs, even vines, I think you could do well in that type of a setup.

Good luck and let us now how it goes.

I have seen videos on building home made propagation chambers on the Edible Acres YouTube channel.  Brie Arthur also has information about bare root propagation on her sites.  I am interested in building one of these as well, to mess around with in my upcoming retirement, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.