Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming of Horticultural Crops
A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Floriculture, Nursery and Landscape, and Turf".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 October 2025 | Viewed by 183
Special Issue Editors
Interests: floriculture; propagation techniques; micropropagation; rooting cuttings; seed germination; exploitation of native plants; medicinal aromatic plants; xerophytic plants; green roofs; greenhouse cultivation; urban horticulture; heavy metals accumulation; interspecific hybridization
Interests: green roofs; substrates; Mediterranean xerophytic plants; medicinal aromatic plants; urban horticulture; drought resistance; chlorophyll fluorescence; leaf stomatal resistance; water use efficiency
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Urban horticulture plays a vital role in offering sufficient and consistent food supply to expanding cities, addressing the challenges of limited land availability and increasing demand for food, and also having positive effects on social, economic, food, and ecological sustainability within cities. Currently, sustainable food supply is under intense pressure due to exponential population growth, expanding urban dwellings, climate change, and limited natural resources. Under these circumstances, urban horticulture and crop cultivation have emerged as potential ways to expand to new locations through urban green infrastructure. Current urban cropping systems, such as home gardening, community gardens, edible landscapes, and indoor planting systems, can be enhanced with new techniques, such as vertical gardening, hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, and rooftop gardening, which are ecofriendly, energy-saving, and promise food security through steady supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables to urban neighborhoods.
In this Special Issue of Horticulturae, we welcome research articles that address the application of urban agriculture and vertical farming to the sustainable production of horticultural crops in the following subject areas: climate-resilient and sustainable urban agriculture; circular vertical farming; horticultural crops, i.e., vegetables, fruits, flowers, and ornamental crops; home gardens; community gardens; urban edible horticultural gardens; indoor growing systems; living edible walls; rooftop gardens or green roofs; greenhouses; plant growth media; the use of soilless cultures; organic horticulture; etc.
Dr. Aikaterini Nikolaos Martini
Dr. Lamprini Tassoula
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. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2200 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
- urban horticulture
- vertical farming
- vegetable
- fruit
- flower and ornamental crops
- cropping systems
- ecological sustainability
- hygienic sustainable food supply
- controlled environment agriculture
- indoor crop production
- resource-use efficiency
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