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Check out the current issue of Fruits - The International Journal of Tropical and Subtropical Horticulture online at https://www.pubhort.org/fruits/ (Volume 78, issue 3, May-June 2023).
The July 2023 Newsletter of the ISHS Division Horticulture for Development is now available for download (see link below).
Hello! My name is Melinda Knuth. I am the newly elected Division of Horticulture for Development (DDEV) Chair.
My goals during my term include:
Check out the new issue of eJHS online at https://www.pubhort.org/ejhs/ (Volume 88, issue 3, June 2023) including the following articles:
ISHS Young Minds: Get inspired, search online to find a horticulture course and start your education for a sustainable career!
Our world is facing immense challenges climate change, mass migration from the countryside to mega cities, food shortages, excess consumption, food waste, pollution and freshwater shortages.
With science, advanced technologies, innovation and creativity, solutions can be found. Through sustainable cultivation of plants and an increase in plant-based diets many of these challenges can be overcome.
The convener of the III International Symposium on Moringa (https://www.ishs.org/symposium/733), met online with the Chair and Vice-Chair of ISHS Working Group Moringa, and discussed the roadmap aligned by the FAO Deputy Director-General, in a response to Professor Sharafeldin's correspondence raising the proposal for the designation of an "International Day of Moringa", to be introduced and to be held every year on 14 September.
Check out the new issue of eJHS online at https://www.pubhort.org/ejhs/ (Volume 88, issue 2) including the following articles:
Chronica Horticulturae Volume 63 Number 2 (June 2023) is available for download - proceed to https://www.ishs.org/chronica-horticulturae/vol63nr2.
Topics in this number include
News & Views from the Board
In Memoriam
Dr. Bernadine Strik (1962-2023)
Former Chair, ISHS Division Vine and Berry Fruits
Read the full article in Chronica Horticulturae 63/02 (June 2023) https://www.ishs.org/chronica-horticulturae/vol63nr2 or download the In Memoriam in .pdf format below
As part of my PhD at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, my research has largely focused on vineyard irrigation management and vine physiology. I have a special interest in optimising irrigation scheduling to improve water use efficiency (WUE) for winegrapes, particularly with the use of plant sensors. Irrigation scheduling strategies can be broadly described by four main categories: approaches based on historical applications/personal experience (typically non-data driven), evapotranspiration (i.e.
This study was conducted due to an increase in black rot reports in stored South African pears. This disease is not well documented and studied in South Africa. It has been reported that Diplodia seriata and Botryosphaeria dothidea are the main causal organisms. This study was performed to: 1) determine the distribution and presence of the disease in the Western Cape region of South Africa; 2) to confirm the main causal organism(s); and 3) to test the effectiveness of immersing fruit in currently registered and applied postharvest fungicides such as fludioxonil and pyrimethanil.
Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important crop in the diet of many countries. It has a characteristic alliaceous smell and taste and has a beneficial impact on human health. Wide variability is known in garlic morphological traits. The source of traits of interest for breeding is based on an evaluation of the diversity of plant genetic resources. To date, the morphology of Croatian garlic has not been understood.
ISHS Working Group Cucurbitaceae - Call for nominations Working Group Chair + Call for candidatures next symposium
Dear members of ISHS Working Group Cucurbitaceae,
This message is to announce two calls for the nomination or self-nomination of
- the new Chair of ISHS Working Group Cucurbitaceae;
- a candidature for being Convener of the next International Symposium on Cucurbits.
Second episode in a new ISHS Horticulture Debate series called "Hort Forum"
The present and future of the use of autonomous equipment and robotic harvesters in field-based fruit production
Speaker: Stavros Vougioukas, Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California (USA)
Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture - Webinar Series: Innovating and Scaling for Social Transformation in International Food Systems
Aim of the ERA-Net SusCrop video contest
The ERA- Net SusCrop is launching a video contest to actively involve EVERYBODY from across the world to reflect, communicate and inspire on 'what sustainable crop production means to you?'.
Check out the current issue of Fruits - The International Journal of Tropical and Subtropical Horticulture online at https://www.pubhort.org/fruits/ (Volume 78, issue 1, January-February 2023).
Chronica Horticulturae Volume 63 Number 1 (March 2023) is available for download - proceed to https://www.ishs.org/chronica-horticulturae/vol63nr1.
Topics in this number include
News & Views from the Board
Haruka Kondo is a researcher of the Laboratory of Floriculture & Ornamentals, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan. His research focuses on orchid breeding using intergeneric hybridization. Many intergeneric hybrids of Epidendrum between other Epidendroideae, such as genus Cattleya, Barkeria and Brassavola, have been artificially bred. However, intergeneric hybrids or later generations are usually partially or completely sterile, which makes further breeding programs difficult.
Dr. Jie Gao, a recent Ph. D. graduate, is an associate professor at the Environmental Horticulture Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China. The objective of her study focused on the molecular regulation mechanisms of Chinese orchid, Cymbidium sinense, leaf variegation. The Chinese orchid is a symbol of elegance and purity in China. Among Chinese orchids, the leaf color variation of C. sinense is the most abundant. The leaf color variation makes C. sinense more diversified and more valuable. However, the variegation formation process remains largely unexplored.
In Citrus, flower intensity could be partially reduced or increased by applying gibberellins (GA3) or paclobutrazol (PBZ). However, under extreme harvest conditions, very high or very low treatments of these chemicals do not have any effect. Fruit inhibits flowering by activating CcMADS-box19 gene expression in the leaf, which blocks the inductive signalling preventing the expression of the CiFT3 gene. But signals that activate this repressive mechanism are unknown. The hypothesis of hormonal signalling is based on the inhibitory effect of GA3 on flowering.
In the Laboratory for Flavours and Metabolites of the Laimburg Research Centre (Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Italy), our working group is investigating the degradation products of chlorophyll in methanolic extracts of plant leaves and peels of apple fruits. These so-called phyllobilins (PB) are studied using high resolution mass-spectrometry in an untargeted approach, after previously monitoring the content of chlorophyll and its decreasing in the samples using Ultra-Violet/Visual-spectrophotometry.
Dr. Milena Oliveira holds a PhD in Agronomy from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), an MSc in Plant Physiology from the Federal University of Viçosa, and a BSc in Agronomy Engineering from UFC, Brazil. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Israel, under the supervision of Prof. Noemi Tel-Zur. Milena has expertise in plant physiology, biochemistry, postharvest, and molecular biology for dryland agriculture. Since the completion of her PhD, she has studied Cactaceae species as alternative fruit crop for dryland agriculture.
Tomato is the main horticultural crop for processing industry. Tomato puree is a source of phytonutrients such as carotenoids. Puree viscosity is a major quality trait, and industrial companies need reliable indicators of tomato fruit ability to produce viscous puree. Fruit quality is primarily assessed by measuring the soluble solid content, which is insufficient to predict puree viscosity. The choice of the variety and transformation process are the levers for action used by industrial producers to manage the final puree viscosity.
Sijia Chen is a PhD candidate working on the effect of light spectrum on the fruit set of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), at the Horticulture and Product Physiology Department, Wageningen University (The Netherlands). She studies under the supervision of Dr. Ep Heuvelink, Professor Leo Marcelis, and Professor Remko Offringa. She found that the fruit set of sweet pepper can vary strongly under different light spectra. Far-red radiation strongly reduced the fruit set of sweet pepper grown within climate chambers. However, the underlying mechanism is unknown.
Wounding is a fundamental factor effecting the survival of woody cuttings for plant propagation. Adventitious rooting is directly related to mechanical damage as a result of plant detachment. In this sense, methods of manipulating wounded regions to stimulate adventitious roots have most frequently been applied to hardwood species. Our first experiments investigating the role of wounds in cutting propagation of woody species indicated that additionally injured tissue along the cutting base showed an apparent increase in rooting compared to uninjured controls.
David Wamhoff is a PhD candidate at Leibniz University Hannover, Institute for Horticultural Production Systems, Section Woody Plant and Propagation Physiology (section head: Prof. Dr. Traud Winkelmann), studying the potential genetic reasons for differences in adventitious root (AR) formation in rose. Roses are the most valuable ornamental plants spanning multiple market segments worldwide (cut roses, garden roses, and miniature roses).
Saba Taheri is a PhD candidate in the in vitro plant biotechnology and nanotechnology laboratory at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. She works under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Stefaan Werbrouck and Prof. Dr. Andre Skirtach. Her research focuses on the development of a new method for the slow release of plant growth regulators (PGR) by microcarriers. PGR are essential in the tissue culture of plants. Thus far, the mechanism of delivery of these compounds is through absorption from the growing medium.
Ovidia Agapie is a junior research scientist at the Breeding and Biodiversity Department, part of Vegetable Research and Development Station Buzau, Romania. She is a PhD student at the University of Agronomic Science and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest and her thesis is entitled “Assessment of hot pepper germplasm collection from VRDS Buzau in order to obtain cultivars set by direction of use”, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Florin Stănică. Her research is focused on the breeding and maintenance of genetic resources of hot pepper to obtain new genotypes set by directions of use.
To face the future, farmers and breeders need access to a large genetic diversity. This diversity helps them to adapt to new circumstances, such as droughts by developing and planting drought tolerant varieties. This diversity has to be stored somewhere and while in situ conservation is essential, it is in general more difficult to access and if unprotected at risk of disappearing. Gene banks therefore play an important role, providing ex situ conservation approaches such as field or seed banks. However, these gene banks face their own challenges.
Asparagus officinalis L. (family: Asparagaceae) is the only cultivated member of the genus though many other congeners are widespread within global flora. Among these, A. acutifolius L. and A. albus L. are widely represented in the Mediterranean basin. Since ancient times, they have been used by local populations for food and medicinal purposes. The present focus on these wild plants originates from their rediscovered use in local cuisine, the related biodiversity protection systems, and their consequent agronomic potential as new crops.
A new series of ISHS Talks on Vertical Farming organized by Prof. Dr. Francesco Orsini, Prof. Dr. Leo F.M. Marcelis and Prof. Dr. Murat Kacira is available.
Check out the new issue of eJHS online at https://www.pubhort.org/ejhs/ (Volume 88, issue 1, February 2023) including the following articles:
First episode in a new ISHS Horticulture Debate series called "Hort Forum"
Are 2-D orchard canopy management systems a leap forward or a side-step?
Speaker: Terence Lee Robinson, Professor of Pomology, Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell AgriTech, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University (USA)
Pineapple News #28 - the newsletter of the ISHS Pineapple Working Group - is available.
Check out the Working Group home page at https://www.ishs.org/pineapple and select > Pineapple Newsletters
Chronica Horticulturae Volume 62 Number 4 (December 2022) is available for download - proceed to https://www.ishs.org/chronica-horticulturae/vol62nr4.
Topics in this number include
News & Views from the Board
Check out the current issue of Fruits - The International Journal of Tropical and Subtropical Horticulture online at https://www.pubhort.org/fruits/ (Volume 77, issue 6, November-December 2022).
Check out the new issue of eJHS online at https://www.pubhort.org/ejhs/ (Volume 87, issue 6, December 2022) including the following articles:
Brianna Heilsnis is a Ph.D student in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA, under the supervision of Dr. Shawn Mehlenbacher in the Hazelnut Breeding and Genetics lab. Her research is focused on host plant resistance to eastern filbert blight (EFB), which is caused by the ascomycete Anisogramma anomala. Currently, the hazelnut industry in Oregon is protected by a dominant allele on linkage group (LG) 6, originally discovered in the European hazelnut, Corylus avellana ‘Gasaway’. However, when tested against other A.
Tree architecture is important because it influences the light interception in the canopy. It determines where the different organs (e.g., leaves and fruits) are borne and, consequently, the source-sink interactions on the tree. Tree architecture directly affects the yield of filbert (Corylus avellana L.).
Felix Büchele is a PhD candidate from the University of Hohenheim, currently conducting research at the Kompetenzzentrum Obstbau Bodensee in Ravensburg, Germany, studying postharvest physiology of horticultural crops. Although long-term cold storage has become an essential part of the production and marketing strategy of apples worldwide, it remains associated with significant risks, as well as high energy usage, and subsequently high costs.
Australian mangoes (Mangifera indica) enjoy a high reputation owing to their large size, attractive skin blush, and sweet and juicy taste. Increasing demand in overseas markets, particularly Asian, indicates a great potential for export. However, risks during export such as high storage temperature in air freight or long in-transit times of sea shipments can cause loss of fruit quality and shelf life, and consequently disappoint consumers.
Clara Gambart is a PhD student at the Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement at KU Leuven (the University of Leuven, Belgium) and graduate research fellow at the One CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research). In 2019, she obtained her Master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering (KU Leuven). Triggered by her Master thesis, in which she investigated potential agro-ecological intensification strategies on banana-based farming systems, she started a PhD in 2019.
Leaf fall in the evergreen mango (Mangifera indica L.) is affected by physiological age and light environment. Details of these effects need to be determined. Previous studies have not described the dynamics of annual leaf fall of these trees. Our work aimed to decipher the effects of architectural and environmental factors on leaf fall at the scale of the growth unit (GU) during a year. Our experiment began by describing the initial states of 240 GUs, sampled from five mature ‘Cogshall’ mango trees at three depths, expressed as 1, 2, or 4 GU from the terminal GU along the branch.
Maintaining healthy soil is a major challenge in agriculture. Tree-based intercropping is very promising to ensure high production and conserve soil quality, as shown in agroforestry systems. Trees improve soil fertility through the input of organic matter by litterfall and root turnover, which enhance the soil microbial activity. This study aims to evaluate the effects of apple trees (Malus × domestica Borkh. ‘Golden Delicious’) on soil qualities and their potential to improve the yield of an unfertilized organic radish crop (Raphanus sativus L. ‘Ostergruss’).
To determine strategies to increase plant tolerance to high temperature we must examine plant physiological and metabolic processes. High temperature leads to an alteration in photosynthesis, modification of plant metabolism, plant growth reduction, and overall reduction in the quality of horticultural products. Diplotaxis tenuifolia L., commonly known as wild rocket, is a member of the mustard family, Brassicaceae. This plant is cultivated as a baby-leaf salad. Our goal in this study was to understand the physiological and molecular responses in this plant when subjected to heat stress.
Kenneth Oduor is a Ph.D. Student in the Agronomy Department at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), under the supervision of Professor Jose Dubeux. He holds an MSc in Agronomy (2016) and a first-class honors degree in BSc. in Agricultural Education and Extension (2013), from the University of Nairobi (Kenya), where he received a scholarship award for his master’s degree. His research focused on strategies to reduce the spread of the invasive cactus species Opuntia stricta in Kenya.
Sandra V. Medina-López is a Ph.D. candidate in the Food Science and Technology Institute at the National University of Colombia, in a joint guardianship with the doctoral Advanced Techniques in Food and Agricultural Research and Development program at the Technical University of Cartagena, under the supervision of her academic advisors, Dr. Maria Soledad Hernández and Dr. Juan Pablo Fernández. Sandra’s research focused on exploring sustainable ways to apply local Colombian plant biodiversity resources.
Sofia Flores is a PhD student in the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven in Leuven, Belgium, under the supervision of Dr. Van Meerbeek. She is conducting her research in her home country at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in Lima, Peru. Her research project explores the natural landscapes near the city of Lima, commonly known as “lomas,” to select native species (e.g. Atriplex rotundifolia, Begonia octopetala, Ismene amancaes, Nolana humifusa, Stenomesson flavum) adapted to these harsh environments and incorporate them into the urban green of the arid city of Lima.
Christophe El-Nakhel is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Naples Federico II, Department of Agricultural Sciences (DIA), Portici, Italy. His research interests include several topics within the field of horticulture, comprising soilless cultivation systems, protected cultivation, space farming, nutrient eustress, biofortification, microgreens, and biostimulant application on horticultural crops. Under the supervision of Prof. Youssef Rouphael, he investigated preharvest factors influencing microgreens quantitative and qualitative traits.
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