Nutrient Uptake and Efficiency of Horticultural Crops

Dear Colleagues,

Crop production in this 21st century is facing a multitude of challenges to meet the needs and demands of an increasing population. These needs and demands must be met with sustainable approaches addressing social, economic, and ecological considerations, particularly under dynamic climate changes and dwindling freshwater resources. Compared to extensive agronomic crops, horticultural crops are characterized by their intensive production systems which utilize large inputs of water and fertilizers. The use efficiency of these inputs is a major concern as it rarely surpasses 50%, leading to economic losses and undesirable environmental impacts. Furthermore, in the case of fertilizers, applications exceeding crop requirements, over short (minutes, hours) and long (days, weeks) periods produce stressful osmotic, toxic, and nutrient imbalance stresses that significantly, and negatively, impact crop yield and quality.

This Special Issue aims to present novel studies, approaches and techniques that lead to significant increases in fertilizer and nutrient use efficiency in horticultural crop production. Contributions could address new fertilizer and fertilization trends, enhanced fertigation management, modelling and modulation of fertilizer applications to actual (short- and long-term) crop demand, uptake and efficiency of alternative fertilizers (biofertilizers, nanofertilizers), biostimulants effects on nutrient use efficiency, and other suitable fertilization practices and nutrient monitoring approaches that augment application, uptake and overall nutrient use efficiency.

Dr. Raul I. Cabrera
Dr. Miguel Guzmán
Dr. María Fernanda Quintero Castellanos
Dr. Maria del Carmen Salas Sanjuán
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.

• plant and crop nutrition
• efficiency
• uptake and absorption
• tissue nutrient status
• integrative nutrient diagnosis