PERFORMANCE OF CITRUS NURSERY TREES AND TWO-YEAR OLDER TREES GROWN IN PLASTIC BAGS AFTER TRANSPLANTATION IN THE FIELD

More efficient citrus production techniques and practices are needed for rapid recovery of capital investment and maximum net returns. A six year field study was conducted on ‘Valencia’ orange trees budded on ‘Volkamer’ lemon rootstock to evaluate the effect of growing citrus nursery trees for 2-years in various sized bags before planting in a commercial orchard. Before being planted in the grove, three groups of trees came from a container nursery, transplanted in three different size bags (30-, 45-, or 60-cm-long and diameter) and allowed to grow for two years. The trees of the fourth group were two-year young standard container nursery trees grown in 10×10×35-cm plastic citripots. For each group, growth, leaf mineral concentration, fruit production and quality were determined and net income per acre was computed. The young nursery trees accumulated more potassium and less calcium in their leaves and had less soluble solids, acid, and juice in their fruit. During the first four years after planting, tree size and fruit production were the highest for the trees coming from the large size bags. It took six years for the young trees coming directly from the nursery to catch up the trees previously grown for two extra years in 60-cm bags.