Meshball-driven air-pruning offers a resource efficient strategy for containerized cultivation in urban horticulture

Containerized plant cultivation is central to urban greening, horticulture, nurseries, and small-scale food production but is often limited by root circling, poor aeration, and inefficient resource use. Conventional air-pruning pots alleviate circling but cause water loss, nutrient leaching, and lack adaptability to diverse root systems. To address these limitations, we developed meshball-mediated air-pruning, a scalable method embedding stainless-steel spheres into soil to create localized aeration pockets, enabling targeted root pruning while minimizing water and soil loss. Testing across four species revealed strong benefits for ornamental shrubs: in dwarf ixora ( Ixora coccinea ), shoot fresh weight increased by 120 %, branch number by 55 %, and root biomass by 139 %, while firebush ( Hamelia patens ) showed 87 % greater height and 59 % higher root biomass compared with controls. These effects were linked to early disruption of apical dominance, stimulation of lateral roots, and improved root–shoot signaling. By contrast, pak choi ( Brassica rapa var. chinensis ) showed no measurable change, and white teak ( Gmelina arborea ) seedlings displayed reduced root biomass, underscoring species-specific responses. Structural evaluation confirmed meshballs provided stable aeration for six months without corrosion or soil intrusion. Overall, meshball-mediated air-pruning represents a resource-efficient alternative to conventional containers, particularly effective for ornamental shrubs in urban landscapes, and offers a sustainable approach to enhance root architecture, plant vigor, and survival in horticulture, forestry, and greening applications.