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Sustainable Horticultural Practices

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 13521

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mengmeng Gu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
Interests: biochar; substrate; soilless; compost; light-emitting diode; stress physiology; crapemyrtle bark scale; landscape; greenhouse; ornamental
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Hyun-Sug Choi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Horticulture, Daegu Catholic University, 38430 Gyeongsan-si, Republic of Korea
Interests: fruit tree; mineral nutrition; organic; postharvest; soil

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As resources such as arable land and water are becoming more and more limited and consumers are getting more and more environmentally conscious, the horticulture industry is increasingly adopting sustainable practices in various sectors. The practices may include but are not limited to peat alternatives in greenhouse container production, sensor-based irrigation monitoring and control, precision agriculture, crop rotation, ground cover mulch systems, organic fertilizers and herbicides derived naturally from renewable plant and animal wastes, and space- and water-efficient production under increasingly efficient light-emitting diodes in indoor environments. Sustainable horticultural practices may reduce production input, reduce environmental impact, increase resource use efficiency, and improve water body and soil biodiversity. A significant amount of breeding efforts are focusing on adaptability, abiotic stress tolerance, and disease- and insect-resistance/tolerance so that crops can be produced or grown with less input. Of course, economic sustainability is an integral part of sustainable horticultural practices. Consumer preferences for sustainable horticultural products (e.g., organic, local, and responsibly produced) and practices will have substantial influence on the industry’s decision on adoption of certain practices. Therefore, in this Special Issue, we will highlight various sustainable practices in different sectors of the horticulture industry (greenhouse, nursery, fruit and nut, vegetable and viticulture, and floriculture) and the impact on overall sustainability.

This Special Issue will cover any review, mini-review, and research articles on subtopics such as (but not limited to):

Alternative substrates to peat;
Breeding for adaptability, abiotic stress tolerance, and disease- and insect-resistance/tolerance
Sensor-based irrigation and pesticide application;
Crop rotation;
Ground cover mulch systems;
Organic fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides derived naturally from renewable plant and animal resources;
Consumer preferences for sustainable horticultural products and practices.

Dr. MengMeng Gu
Dr. Hyun-Sug Choi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

alternative substrate
sensor-based
crop rotation
organic chemicals
resource efficiency
environmental impact
profitability
consumer preference

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 1311 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Eco-Physiological Properties of Open-Field Cucumbers Responded to Organic Liquid Fertilizers

by Ji-Sik Jung and Hyun-Sug Choi

Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 9830; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12239830 - 24 Nov 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2028

Abstract

This study was initiated to determine the effect of organic farm-derived liquid fertilizer (LF) on (1) the performance of open-field cucumbers (Cucumis sativus L.) and (2) the soil environment. Treatments included fertigation with a 0.2% solution of an equal T-N concentration on each LF, including long-term non-treatment (LNT, groundwater), non-treatment (NT, groundwater), oil cake (OC), bone meal + fish residue (BF), fish extract + active phosphoric acid (FP), sesame oil (SO), and starfish (SF). Electrical conductivity (EC) in LF was increased in the SF or BF, with high concentrations of T-C observed in the OC and BF and high P in the SO. LNT treatment decreased soil mineral nutrient concentrations and numbers of bacterial operational taxonomic units, invertebrates, and earthworms, significantly increasing infection of powdery mildew and downy mildew for the plants but reducing foliar concentrations of T-N, P, Ca, and SPAD values, and vegetative growth parameters. Soil bulk density decreased in the SF and SO plots. Total fruit yield and fruit yield efficiency were enhanced by BF, FP, SO, and SF treatments, with the highest top grade values observed on the FP- and SO-fruit. Overall, all the organic LF, in particular the SO treatment, would have improved eco-physiological sustainability and provided an alternative organic fertilizer for a short growing period. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Horticultural Practices)

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17 pages, 10895 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Kalmia latifolia L. in the Eastern United States: An Essential Step towards Breeding for Adaptability to Southeastern Environmental Conditions

by He Li, Matthew Chappell and Donglin Zhang

Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 8284; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12198284 - 08 Oct 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2140

Abstract

Kalmia latifolia L. (mountain laurel), an attractive flowering shrub, is considered to be a high-value ornamental plant for the eastern United States. Limited information on the genetic diversity and structure of K. latifolia is available, which obstructs efficient germplasm utilization and breeding for adaptability to southeastern environmental conditions. In this study, the genetic diversity of 48 wild K. latifolia plants sampled from eight populations in the eastern U.S. was assessed using eight inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. A total of 116 bands were amplified, 90.52% of which (105) were polymorphic. A high level of genetic diversity at the species level was determined by Nei’s gene diversity (0.3089) and Shannon’s information index (0.4654), indicating that K. latifolia was able to adapt to environmental changes and thus was able to distribute over a wide latitudinal range. In terms of the distribution of genetic diversity, Nei’s genetic differentiation and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed 38.09% and 29.54% of diversity existed among populations, respectively, elucidating a low-to-moderate level of among-population genetic differentiation. Although a relatively large proportion of diversity was attributed to within-population variation, low diversity within populations (mean genetic diversity within populations (H_S) = 0.19) was observed. Both STRUCTURE and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) dendrograms exhibited the clustering of populations that inhabit the same geographic region, and four clusters correlated with four geographic regions, which might be attributed to insect pollination, small population size, and environmental conditions in different habitats. These results function as an essential step towards better conserving and utilizing wild K. latifolia resources, and hence promoting its genetic improvement and breeding for adaptability to southeastern environmental conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Horticultural Practices)

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10 pages, 1039 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Eco-Physiological Responses of Black Chokeberries as Affected by Applications of Oil Cake

by Hyun-Sug Choi

Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7601; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12187601 - 15 Sep 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2087

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the optimum amount of oil cake necessary for the desired nutritional status of “Nero” black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliot) in an experimental field plot between the years 2018 and 2019. The treatments included 0% (0.0 kg/ha), 25% (4.4 kg/ha), 50% (8.8 kg/ha), 75% (13.1 kg/ha), and 100% (17.5 kg/ha) of a recommended amount of oil cake. The pH in the plots with 8.8, 13.1, and 17.5 kg per ha applied ranged between 7.0 and 7.3, and these values were lower than the values observed on the plots with 0.0 and 4.4 kg per ha applied at the end of July in the years 2018 and 2019, with the concentrations of soil NO₃-N and NH₄-N remaining low in the off-season. The foliar concentration of total-nitrogen (T-N) was higher for the plants treated with all the oil cake treatments in 2018 and with the oil cake of 17.5 kg/ha in 2019 compared to that of 0.0 kg/ha. The foliar soil plant analysis development values for June and August increased on the bushes treated with 13.1 and 17.5 kg per ha in both the years of 2018 and 2019. The cane diameter, canopy width, and total dry weight were significantly increased by bushes treated with 8.8, 13.1, and 17.5 kg per ha in both years. The fruit yield, harvest index, and percentage of T-N partitioning into fruit were maximized by the treatment with 13.1 kg per ha. An amount of 75% of the recommend application for young black chokeberry may be the prominent application rate in terms of maximized fruit productivity while balancing with the demands of vegetative growth in order to reset the recommended amount of fertilizer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Horticultural Practices)

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17 pages, 3304 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effects of Mixed Hardwood Biochar, Mycorrhizae, and Fertigation on Container Tomato and Pepper Plant Growth

by Ping Yu, Qiansheng Li, Lan Huang, Kuan Qin, Genhua Niu and Mengmeng Gu

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 7072; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12177072 - 30 Aug 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2618

Abstract

Biochar (BC) has the potential as a peat moss alternative for container plant growth. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of mixed hardwood BC, compost types, mycorrhizae, and fertigation on container-grown tomato and pepper growth. In experiment 1 (Exp1), BC at 50%, 70%, and 90% (vol.) were mixed with 5% vermicompost (VC) with the rest being a commercial peat moss-based substrate (CS) and fertigated at 200 or 300 mg L⁻¹ N. In experiment 2 (Exp2), 80% BC was mixed with chicken manure compost (CM; 5% or 10%) and CS and fertigated at 100 or 200 mg L⁻¹ N. In experiment 3 (Exp3), 90% BC was blended with CS and fertigated at 200 or 300 mg L⁻¹ N. Mixes in all the three experiments were added with or without mycorrhizae. Results showed that, compared with CS, in Exp1 tomato and pepper plants grown in BC-VC mixes had similar soil-plant analyses development (SPAD), growth index (GI), and total dry weight (TDW); in Exp2 and Exp3, plants in BC mixes (80% or 90%) had lower GI and TDW. In conclusion, BC (≤70%) amended with VC mixes could be used for container tomato and pepper production without negatively affecting plant growth, while BC (80%, 90%) mixes could have some negative impacts on plant growth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Horticultural Practices)

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Review

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13 pages, 6892 KiB

Open AccessReview

Assessing the Effectiveness of Natural Coating Application in Prolonging Shelf-Life in Plumcot Fruits

by Seok-Kyu Jung and Hyun-Sug Choi

Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10737; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131910737 - 27 Sep 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1513

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the morphological characteristics, fruit quality, and antioxidant levels in sucrose ester-coated ‘Harmony’ plumcots (Prunus salicina Lindl. × P. armeniaca L.). Fruit samples in the control group were left untreated, with two further groups undergoing coating either after 0 days of cold storage (0 d CS) or after 7 days of cold storage (7 d CS) to evaluate changes in post-harvest quality at three-day intervals throughout 12 days of room temperature storage (12 DAS). Coating treatment significantly reduced fruit respiration during storage time in the 0 d CS samples, with this being attributed to the clogging of pores in peel stomata and lenticel, as observed on the fruits under scanning electron microscopy; however, the same effect was not observed in the 7 d CS samples from fruits with a high initial CO₂ concentration. The coating delayed fruit softening and discoloration during storage in the 0 d CS samples, extending the shelf-life of the fruits for approximately 9 days. However, the coating treatment was found to reduce total flavonoid and anthocyanin content at 6 DAS and 12 DAS in both groups. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Horticultural Practices)

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