The nursery has six hectares with 40 citrus greenhouses where it produces 200,000 plants of lemons to supply Tucuman's major citrus producers, "most of these plants will produce lemons that will be exported to the United States soon," said Jose Luis Palacios, owner of the nursery.
"Demand is sustained by lemon exports to Russia, Asia, and now with exports to the United States. We hope to sell more and at a better price," said Palacio.
In 2012 Ralph Hannah, representative of the Guinness World Records for Latin American, toured the nursery and recorded that it had 551,227 plants of lemon, which made it the world's biggest lemon nursery.
Currently, the nursery's production level is lower than in 2012 because of "the new international standards that require the cultivation be carried out in closed greenhouses and not in the open fields, as it was back then," said Palacios who also clarified that they still continue to hold the title as the biggest nursery in this category.
Palacio spoke about the process to grow the plants: "the process begins in one of the nursery's four germination chambers, which have the capacity for half a million plants and which are sealed and have artificial light. There the seeds begin to take root."
"Afterwards, the young seedlings are transferred to pots and taken to the greenhouse. This whole process takes about two years until the plants have the right size for the citrus plantations," he said, adding that the chambers and greenhouses were completely closed to" prevent the entry of any kind of insect, as established by international quality standards."
The owner of Vivero Citrus said they also produced avocado and mango plants.
Source: Telam.com.ar