Our new citrus pot has the aerial pruning of lateral roots as the main characteristic. It is a significant development in the professional production of citrus nursery trees. It becomes also immediately a requirement for the Class A Citrus Nursery Tree. This is the 5^th pot design developed by Citrolima in 18 years of production of containerized citrus. Previous models provided aerial pruning of main and lateral roots at the bottom of the container. Now, lateral windows allow for aerial pruning of the lateral roots at their natural position, i.e. laterally. Citrus lateral roots, also known as pioneer roots, grow for several feet superficially at a few inches depth  exploring the soil around the plant. Aerial pruning of lateral roots allow for their natural development to resume immediately after planting in the field. As a result, the tree is better anchored and can better explore the best soil layer nearby. Obviously, another significant advantage of professional citrus pots is prevention of lateral root spiraling, which causes  choking of the tree axis 5 or more years after planting.

          The new citrus pots were developed in conjunction with the company JKS (www.jks.com.br) and have a patent pending.  In addition to lateral root pruning they also provide aerial pruning of main roots even when utilized over tables or platform benches. Therefore, nurserymen that work with polybags can now upgrade to a professional nursery tree growing system with minimal investment. The new pots are 5.78 in wide with round corners. Their height is 13.4 inches and the volume 1 gallon.

           Associated with the new citrus pot we developed some devices that are helpful in the production of citrus nursery trees:
     
      a. Bench-shaped steel stakes which fit into holes at the center of each pot lateral border and allow for easy and efficient tutoring of developing plants.
     
       b. Steel hooks that tie the pots together at the border center hole for pot stability at the edges of beds.
     
       c. Steel hooks for holding rootstocks at the border holes in the bending operation for bud forcing, specially for rootstocks which are more difficult to bend and bents which are more difficult to maintain.