Does Tree Tubing still work?

Question

I'm trying to tube some trees, to force them to grow large. I planted my sapling in a 1x1x2 hole, but this happened:

enter image description here

Was tree tubing nerfed at some point?

Do not know for sure but that may have gone the way of the dodo when the code was added that let trees grow right next to each other.

fredley · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-16 12:42:44Z

Ok, I've done some research of my own, and the following seems to be the case:

Tree tubing does work, but not with dirt

Using dirt tubes of height 2 and 3, normal trees still grow: enter image description here

However, using cobblestone tubes, large trees always grow: enter image description here