ChronicaHORTICULTURAE

AA PUBLICATION OF THEPUBLICATION OF THE IINTERNATIONALNTERNATIONAL SSOCIETY FOROCIETY FOR HHORTICULTURALORTICULTURAL SSCIENCECIENCE

Volume 48 - Number 4 - 2008

Symposia and WorkshopsSymposia and Workshops

Horticultural HighlightsHorticultural Highlights

Humulus •• Hazelnut •• Post Harvest Physiology of Ornamental Plants •• FlowerBulbs and Herbaceous Perennials •• Apricot Breeding and Culture •• Plum andPrune Genetics, Breeding and Pomology •• Longan, Lychee and Other FruitTrees in Sapindaceae Family •• Processing Tomato •• Soilless Culture andHydroponics •• Vaccinium •• In Vitro Culture and Horticultural Breeding

Electronic Fruits and Other Sensors •• Plug Technology: Horticultural Revolution•• Carnivorous Plants: New Ornamentals •• Vegetable Crop Production in Iran ••Durian: Southeast Asia’s King of Fruits

CONTENTS

ChronicaHORTICULTURAE

Chronica Horticulturae© ISBN: 978 90 6605 601 5 (Volume 48 – Number 4;December 2008); ISSN: 0578-039X.Published quarterly by the International Society for Horticultural Science, Leuven,Belgium. Lay-out and printing by Drukkerij Geers, Gent, Belgium. ISHS© 2008. Allrights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced and/or published in anyform, photocopy, microfilm or any other means without written permission from thepublisher. All previous issues are also available online at www.ishs.org/chronica.Contact the ISHS Secretariat for details on full colour advertisements (1/1, 1/2, 1/4page) and/or mailing lists options.

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Editorial Staff

Jules Janick, Science Editor, janick@purdue.edu

Kelly Van Dijck, Associate Editor, kelly.vandijck@ishs.org

Peter Vanderborght, Associate Editor - Production & Circulation,peter.vanderborght@ishs.org

Editorial Advisory Committee

Jules Janick, Purdue University, USA, Chair of the Editorial Advisory Committee

Isabel Ferreira, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisbon, Portugal

Kim Hummer, USDA ARS NCGR, Corvallis, USA

Hilde Nybom, Balsgard-Dept. Crop Science, Swedish University of AgriculturalSciences, Kristianstad, Sweden

Robert K. Prange, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Kentville, Canada

Anthony David Webster, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

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Chronica Horticulturae is provided to the Membership for free: Individual Membership60 EUR per year (developed countries) or two years (developing countries), 50 EUR peryear/two years for members of affiliated national societies, or Student Membership30 EUR per year. For all details on ISHS membership categories and membershipadvantages, including a membership application form, refer to the ISHS membershippages at www.ishs.org/members.

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Acta Horticulturae

Acta Horticulturae is the series of proceedings of ISHS Scientific Meetings, Symposiaor Congresses (ISSN: 0567-7572). ISHS Members are entitled to a substantialdiscount on the price of Acta Horticulturae. For an updated list of available titles, goto www.ishs.org/acta. A complete and accurate record of the entire ActaHorticulturae collection, including all abstracts and full text articles is available onlineat www.actahort.org. ISHS Individual membership includes credits to download 10full text Acta Horticulturae articles. All Acta Horticulturae titles – including those nolonger available in print format – are available in the ActaHort CD-ROM format.

Scripta Horticulturae

Scripta Horticulturae is a new series from ISHS devoted to specific horticultural issuessuch as position papers, crop or technology monographs and special workshops orconferences.

The Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology (JHSB)

The JHSB, a "partner" refereed research Journal of the ISHS, is a leading peer-reviewed, citation-rated Journal of international stature, reputation and eminence. Itpublishes high-quality original research findings in horticultural science and biotechno-logy to a world-wide audience. JHSB is an English Charity owned by its Trustees for thebenefit of horticultural science and society-at-large, on a not-for-profit basis. Availableonline at www.pubhort.org

The ISHS has a number of collaboration agreements with other Journals. Additionalinformation can be seen from the PubHort website.

A publication of the International Society forHorticultural Science, a society of individuals, orga-nizations, and governmental agencies devoted tohorticultural research, education, industry, andhuman well-being.

ISHSISHS •• 22

� News & Views from the Board3 Horticulture and the World Food Crisis, N.E. Looney

� Issues4 Electronic Fruits and Other Sensors, C. Jarén, S. Arazuri and

I. Arana

� Horticultural Science Focus7 Plug Technology: Horticultural Revolution, D.J. Cantliffe

� Horticultural Science News11 Carnivorous Plants: New Ornamentals, Cheol Hee Lee

� The World of Horticulture15 Vegetable Crop Production in Iran, R. Salehi and R. Javanpour19 Durian: Southeast Asia’s King of Fruits, S. Somsri23 New Books, Websites24 Courses and Meetings

� Symposia and Workshops25 IInd Int’l Humulus Symposium27 VIIth Int’l Congress on Hazelnut29 IXth Int’l Symposium on Post Harvest Physiology of Ornamental

Plants31 Xth Int’l Symposium on Flower Bulbs and Herbaceous Perennials32 XIVth Int’l Symposium on Apricot Breeding and Culture34 IXth Int’l Symposium on Plum and Prune Genetics, Breeding and

Pomology36 IIIrd Int’l Symposium on Longan, Lychee and Other Fruit Trees in

Sapindaceae Family38 XIth Int’l Symposium on the Processing Tomato39 Int’l Symposium on Soilless Culture and Hydroponics41 IXth Int’l Vaccinium Symposium43 VIth Int’l Symposium on In Vitro Culture and Horticultural

Breeding

� News from the ISHS Secretariat45 New ISHS Members45 In Memoriam47 Calendar of ISHS Events50 Index to Volume 48 of Chronica Horticulturae52 Available Issues of Acta Horticulturae

Cover photograph: Durian, King of Southeast Asian fruits, see p. 19

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 3

Horticulture and the World Food Crisis

NEWS & VIEWS FROM THE BOARD

Norman E. Looney, ISHS President

Norman E. Looney

This past year has seen much media attentionto the rapid increase in the price of staple foodgrains and oil seeds around the world and theeffect that this is having on food prices. Thisstate of affairs is attributed to a combination offactors, but there can be no doubt that the rapidincrease in the price of petroleum is paramount.Diversion of food grains and oil seeds to biofuelproduction has substantially increased demandfor these commodities. Producers everywhereare faced with higher fuel costs, and nitrogenand other chemical fertilizers are in short supplyand at least twice as expensive as a year earlier.In addition, climate related reductions in arableland and water availability and significant cropfailures related to weather must be considered.Some blame those speculating in commodityfutures and others have pointed to the decliningvalue of the US dollar and its effect on commod-ity prices. Finally, there is the rapidly increasingdemand for food and feed grains in China andother emerging economies. Consumers in thesecountries are eating more meat, which meansthat demand for feed grains spirals ever higher.

Many, including myself, point a finger at govern-ments that have failed to sustain support for agri-cultural research and education. Indeed, we arewitnessing serious declines and deficiencies inthe human capacity and new knowledge neededto maintain proper stewardship of naturalresources let alone sustain the gains in produc-tivity arising from crop research a generationearlier. But however egregious this neglect, itcannot be said to have triggered this presentcrisis. Support for agricultural research and edu-cation, especially in those countries most able toafford it, has been declining for decades whilepoverty and under-education have long disadvan-taged more people than not.

A CRISIS ROOTED INPOVERTYIt is important to recognize that those mostadversely affected by this crisis are the poor,especially the rural poor in Africa, Asia, and LatinAmerica. For them the cost of food relative totheir income has always been too high. Eventhough citizens living in the most affluentsocieties are starting to think about the cost andsecurity of their food supply there is a glaring dif-ference: the inability to obtain food is rare inaffluent societies but common for those living insevere poverty. This world food crisis is moreabout poverty than about food supply.

So how do we as horticultural science profes-sionals position ourselves as a positive force foraddressing this crisis? Allow me to suggest a rolethat is consistent with the fact that this presentcrisis is fundamentally about poverty.

It may seem counter intuitive to suggest thatincreasing production and distribution of highvalue crops like fruits, vegetables, and evenornamental and medicinal plants is an effectivestrategy for dealing with rural poverty in thedeveloping world. Clearly, we are in one of thoserecurring periods in history when there is anurgent need for more, and more affordable foodgrains and oil seeds in the world’s poorestregions. These situations inevitably call attentionto the fact that the small-hold farmers who pre-dominate in many such regions are seldom com-petitive producers of these crops. They morecommonly produce staple crops for family sur-vival rather than for feeding a nation.

The historic approach to dealing with suchcalamities is an international intervention provid-ing emergency food supplies for a limited periodof time. But while profoundly welcome, theseinterventions cannot address the intransigentissue of rural poverty. In the worst case scenariothey can even destroy the market for those fewfarmers in the region who might have thesestaple foods available for sale.

HORTICULTURE: THE HIGHVALUE CROP ALTERNATIVEWhat we can argue with great conviction is thatinitiating and supporting high value plant agri-culture, i.e., horticulture, is an excellent long-term approach to addressing the multiple chal-lenges of ending poverty, improving nutrition,and sustaining rural communities in the develop-ing world. We can point to the fact that manydecades of targeting staple crops with interna-tionally-supported research and developmenthave not succeeded in reducing rural poverty. Itis time for some fresh thinking.

We know that when small-hold farmers areproperly prepared to engage in horticulture theyquickly change their mindset from one of subsis-tence or survival to one of entrepreneurship.Entrepreneurship because the production of per-ishable plant products must be time-linked to amarket, whether it is local, regional or eveninternational; entrepreneurship because horticul-tural products of good quality command ahigher price – a reality that motivates producersto maximize the proportion of the crop thatmeets basic quality standards, reduce posthar-vest losses, and embrace new knowledge aboutproducing safe food.

Of course, these elements of successful horticul-ture take time to develop. Such enterprise mustbe supported by public and private infrastructurelike roads and highways, irrigation districts,packinghouses and cold stores, and providers of

the wide range of supplies needed by horticul-ture crop producers. But before anything trulysustainable can happen there must be a commu-nity of researchers, educators and extension spe-cialists ready to initiate and provide ongoing sup-port for what amounts to a profound culturechange for many small-hold farmers and ruralvillages.

WE ARE THAT COMMUNITYOF PROFESSIONALS Those of us who work at institutes and universi-ties in the developed world address this chal-lenge when we train students interested andprepared to work in developing countries. Wewelcome postgraduate students and visitingscientists from developing countries, and someof us lead successful research for developmentprojects. But much more is needed to addressthe myriad of crop production, protection andutilization problems in developing countries andthis effort must be led by scientists and educa-tors living and working in these countries.

Each of us can contribute to overcoming this andfuture food crises by helping poor countriesdevelop and sustain the professional capacityneeded to support economically viable and envi-ronmentally sustainable horticulture industry.Through diversification involving horticulturethey can escape from the bondage of subsis-tence farming and the poverty that ensues.

It is unfortunate that policy-makers within theinternational development bureaucracy havebeen slow to recognize that horticulture is oftenthe most appropriate use of small land holdingsin many parts of the world. Horticulture enter-prise can provide work for whole families (evenwhole neighborhoods at peak periods).Horticultural industry spawns value-addedopportunities that can provide employment forentire communities. Horticulture makes moreefficient use of scarce or costly inputs like waterand fertilizer and fruits and vegetables areneeded to avoid nutrient deficiencies prevalentin many parts of the world. All of this adds up towealth-creation potential far exceeding that oftraditional staple crop agriculture.

A message we must convey to decisionmakers everywhere is that despite this lat-est food crisis now is not the time to reducefunding for research and education in sup-port of horticulture.

ISHS • 4

ELECTRONIC SENSORS

During the 1970s, several sensors includingelectronic “fruits” were developed with variousshapes and different systems of data acquisitionand information transference. Many of theseelectronic instruments were developed to mon-itor quality in the packing lines in order to iden-tify and reduce the number and intensity ofimpacts. The first data acquisition system usedtelemetry in Frequency Modulation (FM) butthis had limitations concerning range, calibra-tion, and reliability.

Later, pseudo-fruits were developed thatrecorded impacts and transferred this informa-tion to data analysis systems by means of a

Electronic Fruits and Other Sensors

ISSUES

C. Jarén, S. Arazuri and I. Arana

Quality is a critical factor in the food industry and is the key factor for success in horticulturalmarketing. However, the concept of quality is complex since there are several componentsincluding appearance, texture and taste. Quality can best be defined as a group of characteris-tics that consumers desire in the product. However, consumers usually select fruits and vegeta-bles based on external appearance since they cannot ascertain internal attributes at the point ofsale.

There are several events during preharvest and postharvest that can damage the internal andexternal appearance of edible horticultural products and reduce quality by producing injuries,defects and rots. These damages occur chiefly during harvest, transport, grading and processing.Thus, reducing fruit damages during the harvest and the postharvest manipulation is a vital stepin increasing quality. Due to the importance of qualitative and quantitative losses in fruits andtubers caused by mechanical damages and the increasing demand of quality products, devicesknown as sensors have been developed to locate quickly the points in which damagesoriginate.

(IRD) that is able to identify the critical points inpacking lines (Fig. 2). These devices were devel-oped in the USA by a team headed by Dr. GelenK. Brown. The first prototypes of IS consisted ofa cube of 12 cm or a sphere of 14 cm diameter.The second generation of these devices waslighter, smaller, and provided better accuracy.

In the 1990s, electronic fruits were furtherdeveloped and used for the control of harvesterdamage in the field, for evaluation of fruitgraders, and for selection of shock absorbingmaterials. Evaluation is complex since the elec-tronic fruit undergoes two types of movements:the forward machine movement and the move-ment of the elements that carry the fruits fromone to another part of the harvester (forinstance, from the pick up to the selectionchain). The last type would be similar to theelectronic fruit movement in a selection chainof horticultural industries.

The advantages of these instruments in moni-toring damages that reduce the final quality ledto the development of new devices such asSmart Spud (Fig. 3), manufactured by SensorWireless, Canada in 2000 and PTR 200 (Fig. 4),manufactured by SM Engineering, Denmark in1999. In addition, a new prototype developedby Herold et al. (2005) consists in a miniaturisedimpact detector placed directly into the realproduct. These devices include the followingelements:

Impact Sensors

This consists of a triaxial piezoelectricaccelerometer. It has the ability to detect theintensity and the direction of the impact on anXYZ configuration recording shocks with differ-ent shape casings. The special shapes of thePTR 200 and Smart Spud compared with thespherical shape of the IS 100 and the PMS 60may be considered an improvement to assessthe dynamic behavior of the sensor under real

Figure 1. SEP in onion fruit packing lines.

Figure 2. Impact Recorder Device or IS100 manufactured by Techmark Inc.

cable. However, the mobility of these pseudo-fruits differs from real fruits because of thecable. To overcome this problem, new proto-types were developed with impact sensors,internal recording devices, and transmissiondata systems, as PMS 60, SEP and IS 100. PMS60, a pressure measuring device, made at theInstitute for Agricultural Engineering of Bornirn(Germany), was used to determine static andquasi static loads (Ramos and Barreiro, 2008).The simulated electronic products (SEP) devel-oped by the Scottish Centre of AgriculturalEngineering of Edinburgh were able to measureacceleration and time (Zapp et al., 1989; Jarénet al., 1992) (Fig. 1). The Techmark Instru-mented Sphere (IS 100) manufactured inMichigan (USA) is an impact recording device

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 5

conditions. These sensors make it possible toknow the movement of fruits or tubers in har-vesters and graders in order to identify the zonein the apparatus where the damages occurred,the zone of the plant organ where damageoccurred, and the relation between the dam-ages and the position of the organ in each ofthe transference points.

Battery

The sensors require energy to operate correctly.There are three different energy systems: (1) IRD(impact recording device) sensor has a Ni-Cd(nickel-cadmium) inner battery rechargeablefrom the electrical network; (2) PTR 200includes a non-rechargeable lithium thionylchloride 1,200 hours battery (sensors withempty batteries must be returned to thefactory to be recharged or replaced); (3)CR123A lithium batteries are used in SmartSpud, which can be replaced by the sensor user.

Information Transference System

IRD includes a microprocessor that records theinformation achieved by the sensor (data pro-ceeding from the accelerometer and the innerclock) during the test and sends it to the com-puter. These data can be analyzed using thespecific PCIRD software. The PTR 200 uses radiowaves to transmit the data to a receiver, whichsends the data to the computer by means of acomputer cable. This receiver allows modifyingthe sensibility and the measure scale of the

impact sensor to adapt it to the test conditions.The data sent by the electronic potato areshown continuously in the receiver making itpossible to mark all the impact points that theresearcher considers important for analysis. TheSmart Spud is similar to PTR 200 but the receiv-er is replaced by a handheld computer.

Internal Clock

All the devices register the precise time and theimpact duration. It is especially important tocritical points identification, which is made bycomparison between the times registered bythe internal clock and a previously synchronizedexternal chronometer.

The impact intensity is the main variable record-ed by these devices during the tests. It can beexpressed in gravitational acceleration units (g)as measured by the IRD, where the impact forcecapacity is up to 500 g, or in a subjective scaleas is expressed in the PTR 200, in which themaximum measurable acceleration is 150 g,although the output value is expressed in termsof a percentage of the force registered in a 0.5m high fall on concrete. The maximum impactenergy for calibration of the PTR 200 applied bythe manufacturer is approximately 0.8338 J(which is equivalent to the energy level of a 0.5m high fall on concrete) and the correspondingoutput is set as the maximum sensor value of100% (Van Canneyt et al., 2003).

COMPARATIVE TRIALS

Jarén et al. (2005) compared three differentelectronic fruits: IRD, PTR 200 and Smart Spud.The three devices were calibrated and theywere tried on different surfaces. Researchersconcluded that the three electronic sensors canbe used to study the impacts received by fruitsin a packing line but demonstrated differentsensibilities to impacts. PTR 200 was the leastsensitive electronic fruit and did not record theimpact on the softest surface. When the impactwas on the hardest materials as metal, nosignificant differences among the sensitivitieswere found. IRD detected low impacts evenfrom 1 or 2 cm high on any surface, whileSmart Spud, which has a high sensitivity, wasunable to record those low impacts.

It is necessary to compare recorded damagewith electronic fruit with the real damages pro-duced during harvest and transport to assessfinal quality in the real world. This has been car-ried out in a number of trials. Arazuri et al.(2006, 2007) measured the impacts producedduring the mechanical harvesting of tomato inNavarre, Spain using the instrument sphere IS100. They were able to decrease tomatodamage, usually 20 to 29%, to less than 10%by identifying the critical points of eachmechanical harvester model, by instructionsrelayed to the drivers, and by using tomato cul-tivars adapted to harvest mechanization (Jarénet al., 2007). PTR 200 and IS-400 were used todetermine the optimal conditions of potato

Figure 6. Using the IS 100 to evaluate apotato harvester.

Figure 5. Similitude between the IRD anda potato.

Figure 4. PTR 200 manufactured by SMEngineering.

Figure 3. Sensor and casings of the SmartSpud manufactured by Sensor Wireless.

harvester management in Galicia, Spain.Machine forward speed and chains speed wereselected by means of the information of thesesensors in order to minimize damages. It wasobserved that damage increased when thespeed increased and that only 26% of themachines were correctly regulated (Expido-Cárdenas and Bueno-Lema, 2005). Theresearch team of Agricultural Mechanization ofthe Public University of Navarre is using the IS100 to evaluate potato harvesters (Fig. 5 and 6)and postharvest packing lines. Torregrosa et al.(2003) used the PMS 60 to evaluate thedamages produced during the apricot mechan-ical harvest in Murcia (Spain). Ortiz et al. (2007)used the PTR 200 to compare three differentcushion systems used in fruit harvesting equip-ments. The electronic sensors have been morewidely used to evaluate fruit and vegetablegrading than harvesters. Salvadores et al.(2001) determined the damages producedduring the onions sorting in Tauste, Spain,García et al. (2000) used different electronicfruits to evaluate pepper grading and García-Ramos et al. (2003) studied decelerating ele-ments for ramp transfer points in fruit packinglines in Madrid.

Manufacturers are continually adapting har-vesting and grading machines to conform tospecific products by the incorporation of newtechnology. Further research is needed toevaluate the features of the new machines inrespect to impacts and damages in order toimprove the final quality demanded by con-sumers.

ISHS • 6

C. Jarén is a Professor of Mechanization at theRural Engineering Department of the PublicUniversity of Navarra, member of the SpanishSociety for Horticutlura Science (SECH), andPresident of Horticultural Engineering Group.Email: cjaren@unavarra.es

S. Arazuri is a Professor of Mechanization at theRural Engineering Department of the PublicUniversity of Navarra and SECH member.Email: silvia.arazuri@unavarra.es

I. Arana is a Professor of Mechanization at theRural Engineering Department of the PublicUniversity of Navarra and SECH member.Email: ignacio.arana@unavarra.es

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

From left to right: Dr. Ignacio Arana,Dra. Silvia Arazuri and Dra. CarmenJarén.

RREFERENCESEFERENCES

Arazuri, S., Jarén, C., Arana, J.I., Arnal, P.,Arméndariz, R. and Gervas, C. 2006. Evaluationof damage produced by tomato harvesters usingthe IS-100. Acta Hort. 724:263-267.

Arazuri, S., Jarén, C., Arana, I. and Perez de Ciriza,J.J. 2007. Influence of mechanical harvest on thephysical properties of processing tomato(Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). J. Food Eng.80:190-198.

Expido-Cárdenas, J. and Bueno-Lema, J. 2005.Utilización de sensores basados en acelerómetrostriaxiales para inspecciones técnicas de cosecha-doras de patatas. III Congreso de Agroingeniería,Leon, Spain.

García, F.J., Valero, C. and Ruiz-Altisent, M. 2000.Detección de daños en líneas de clasificación depimientos. Horticultura 149:52-58.

García-Ramos, F.J., Ortiz-Cañavate, J. and Ruiz-Altisent, M. 2003. Decelerating elements forramp transfer points in fruit packing lines. J. FoodEng. 58(1):53-57.

Herold, B., Truppel, I. and Geyer, M. 2005.Miniaturised sensor to detect mechanical impactson real perishables. Information and Technologyfor Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Production,FRUTIC 05, Montpellier, France.

Jarén, C., Anderson, G., Ruiz-Altisent, M. andMuir, A. 1992. Detección de impactos con frutoselectrónicos. Máquinas y Tractores AgrícolasV.3(9):65-68.

Jarén, C., Gómez, E., Arazuri, S., Arana, I. andArnal, P. 2005. Estudio comparativo de distintossensores electrónicos para la determinación dedaños en frutos. III Congreso de Agroingeniería,Leon, Spain.

Jarén, C., Arazuri, S., Arana, I. and Arnal, P. 2007.Processing tomato mechanical harvesting costevaluation. Acta Hort. 758:295-297.

Ortiz, C., Torregrosa, A. and Bemad, J.J. 2007.Capacidad de protección frente a daños en lafruta de diferentes superficies de recogida. IVCongreso de Agroingeniería, Leon, Spain.

Salvadores, C., Callejas, E., Arana, I., Arazuri, S.and Jarén, C. 2001. Utilización de esferas instru-mentadas IS-100 para la determinación de dañosen líneas de manipulación de cebollas. I Congresode Agroingeniería. Vol. 1. p.329-334. Valencia,Spain.

Ramos, M. and Barreiro, P. 2008. Daños mecánicosen patata. Evaluación mediante productos elec-trónicos. Agricultura 142:94-100.

Torregrosa, A., Bernard, J.J., Ortiz, C., Martín, B.,Aragón, R. and Chaparro, O. 2003. Recolecciónmecánica de albaricoque Búlida para la industria.Ed. Instituto Murciano de Investigación yDesarrollo Agrario y Alimentario.

Van Canneyt, T., Tijskens, E., Ramon, H.,Verschoore, R. and Sonck, B. 2003. Charac-terization of a potato-shaped instrumenteddevice. Biosystems Eng. 86(3):275-285.

Zapp, H.R., Brown, G.K., Armstrong, P.R. andSober, S.S. 1989. Instrumented sphere perfor-mance: dynamic measurements and demonstra-tion. Agr. Eng. Dept. and USDA/ARS MichiganState Univ., East Lansing, 1989 Int. SummerMeeting, Paper 89-0008.

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Logon to www.ishs.org/membersand renew online!

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 7

Plug Technology: Horticultural Revolution

HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE FOCUS

Plug production is now a major industry inmany parts of the world, especially in the USAwhere over $2.5 billion worth of plugs are sold.Other areas of the world where plug produc-tion has been widely adapted for production ofboth bedding plants and vegetables includeJapan, the Netherlands, China, Mexico, Korea,Israel, Australia, and Canada. Major vegetablesgrown as plugs include, but are not limited totomato, pepper, eggplant, watermelon, cucum-ber, melon, cabbage, celery, strawberry, lettuce,onion, and various herbs. The most importantbedding plants include pansies, impatiens,

Daniel J. Cantliffe

Plug transplants for both vegetables and ornamentals are a relatively new phenomenon world-wide. They were first introduced in the 1960s and called containerized transplants. The advan-tage of a plug is that it can be grown individually in a cell and both production and planting canbe mechanized. Plugs are generally grown in some type of protected culture, mostly greenhou-ses. A plug can be custom grown in order to meet the customer needs, as well as specific qua-lities for mechanizing the transplant process. The advantage of a plug system lies in the fact thatthe roots are not disturbed at anytime during the growing process: they are containerized, andthus kept intact. Plugs can be removed from the tray they were grown in and transplanted direct-ly into boxes, pots, or field soil.

Plug technology has come a long way since its inception in the 1960s. Mechanization and laborreduction have been two key factors that make the prospects of growing transplants more effi-cient and less costly, while simultaneously providing the customer with a superior plant. The plugsystem has been improved from seeding to transplanting. Presently, mechanical seeders rapidlydispense seed into a tray that is mechanically filled, topped, and watered. Seeds are singulatedin the cell to eliminate thinning. Germination rooms provide optimum temperature for seeds tosprout and flats can be moved to greenhouses where essentially all the floor space is coveredwith plant material. Some great strides of recent years have been in transplanting equipment,thus, greatly decreasing labor requirements while increasing transplant survival. What the custo-mer sees from a plug transplant is a plant that is singulated, healthy (disease and insect free),uniform and rapidly growing once transplanted. Seed costs, especially for hybrid cultivars andmany bedding plants, are greatly reduced via singulated seed placement in cells. Initially, growersfelt that plugs cost too much compared to conventional bare root transplants. However, theyquickly adopted plugs as the preferred method because of the advantages so listed above.

petunia, geranium, marigold, begonia, salvia,dianthus, and lisianthus. Essentially, any cropthat is produced via seed can be grown as aplug with the general exception of crops grownfor roots.

HISTORY

The mass production and global use of plugscan be directly related to the invention of the“Speedy Seedling” invented by George Todd,Sr., which he termed Speedling. George Toddwas a cauliflower grower who produced sum-mer crops in New York State and then moved toFlorida for winter production. Because of theslow growth habit of cauliflower, and his needto grow a minimum of two crops a year, Toddused transplants, but many times found thatboth the quality of the transplant grown frombare roots and plant uniformity were extremelypoor. He examined many designs and finallycame up with the inverted pyramid containedin a tray, for which more media was placed atthe top of the cell. He also developed a traywhere he could change cell volume, but keeptray size uniform in a rectangular configuration.By making the trays out of styrofoam theycould be used on a floatation system as well ason a T-rail system. Styrofoam was a cheap pro-duct and one which was sturdy enough to be

reusable. In order to contain the root system inthe cell, a hole for both drainage and airpruning the roots was drilled at the bottom ofeach cell. Cell volume could be varied in orderto grow crops requiring small cells such as cele-ry, or larger cells for crops such as watermelon,in the same rectangular sized flat.

The Speedling system’s first franchised licenseagreements in 1973 consisted of a lightweightmulti-celled growing container, soilless mix, inan open sided greenhouse system where 80%of the space was utilized. The greenhouse in-cluded a mobile overhead watering system, andthe package included the ability to buy differenttypes of planting equipment. The patentedSpeedling flats were purchased directly throughSpeedling or from one of its production sub-sidiaries. Todd franchised transplant nurseries inover 20 other countries outside the USA.

Figure 1. Automated plug transplanterutilizing heavy plastic trays and rapidpunch removal system.

Figure 2. Various cell sizes for Speedlingflats. Cells are inverted pyramids withholes at bottom for drainage and rootpruning.

Figure 3. Typical drum seeder used to sowplugs.

ISHS • 8

The use of plugs skyrocketed from the 1970s tothe 1980s. By mid-1984, Todd was openingwhat he termed “Speedling II” in Bushnell,Florida, which was a new concept using floata-tion of his styrofoam flats to manage both irri-gation and nutrients. He had seen this beingused in European nurseries for ornamentals inebb-and-flow systems. The advantages of thefloatation system were several, in that: (1) waterfor irrigation and nutrients were not put onfoliage, thus potentially reducing disease pres-sure; (2) the new system utilized well over 90%of the floor space; and, (3) through the floa-tation model, partial mechanization of the har-vesting procedure was possible. In 1989,Speedling had about 50,000 m2 in theirBushnell facility and in 1991 an equal area in afloatation style set up in Nipomo, California.The new structures were somewhat moreexpensive to construct as the floors were madewith poured concrete. The system also requiredthat there was a reservoir for holding irrigationwater and nutrients. The bonus for the system,of course, was that it would recycle water andnutrients. These new production facilities werenot constructed proximal to the field produc-tion areas to avoid the transfer of disease by airdrifts, especially from bacterial pathogens.

Over the years that followed, Speedling movedto new areas including China where severallarge installations were built in the 1990s. Therehave been other countries that have developedplug systems, but many of them are reinven-tions of the original Speedling systems in oneform or another. Tray design has been a key tothe long-term success of the plug industries;they must be inexpensive, durable, andreusable.

MECHANIZATION

Mechanization of the plug system is a key tokeeping costs down, and makes it an efficientand profitable operation. The plug producerlooks at their business similar to running a storeat a shopping mall. In order to maximize profit,space must be filled 100% of the time andrapid turnover of the product is a necessity forprofitability. Plug producers must effectively uti-lize as much floor space as possible wherein allcells in every flat are filled with a plant that isuniform and robustly growing. The idea of pro-ducing a plant in 4-6 weeks during all seasonsof the year is one that leads to greater profitsfor the plug producer.

Ornamental and vegetable transplant plug sys-tems have evolved around various degrees ofmechanization from seeding to transplantingover the past 30 years. However, due to the bio-logical nature of the system, plug growing stillrequires labor. Initial work to mechanize theseeding process led to the use of pelleted seedsand vacuum drum seeders. Tray size was stan-dardized leaving cell size as a variable. Changeson the drum head for numbers of cells in a rowand dimensions of the cells in the tray could be

easily altered but still require different drumheads for different tray cell sizes. Trays and cellsare an important part of the overall mechaniza-tion of the system in that they must be durable,inexpensive, and recyclable. For the most part,styrofoam was used and fit these criteria withthe exception of long-term durability. Styro-foam cells lent themselves well to floatation irri-gation systems and thus were adopted andused by the industry on a worldwide basis forover four decades. Presently, more durable plas-tic trays that can be floated are being used. Upto 1200 trays per hour can be sown, so long asseed size and shape are not factors.

Figure 4. Germination room with flatsstacked on pallets for moving to green-house after seed germinates at opti-mum temperatures.

Figure 5. Germination chamber for high-priced light-requiring ornamental plantseeds.

Figure 6. Melon germination inStyrofoam Speedling flat with vermicu-lite cover over peat mix.

Figure 7. Plug system in the Netherlandswith flats on the floor, glass greenhouseswith lights. Bottom heat can be provided.

Figure 9. Uniformity of pepper plugs onfloatation system.

Figure 10. Floatation system with wiresto support flats to allow aeration androot pruning.

Figure 8. Floatation system of Bushnell,FL, showing complete usage of floorspace. Areas needed for using sprayequipment minimized.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 9

The planting line consists of automatic trayfillers, the seeder, automatic flat media covers,watering, and pallet stacking. The trays are bar-coded for computer identification and trackingthrough the greenhouse as well as to the pro-duction area. This type of tracking system givesexact information for species, cultivar, plantingdate and other requirements used to producequality transplants.

After trays are stacked on pallets they aremoved to a germination room, where the flatsare kept for a period of time until seeds are ger-minated, but long before they emerge throughthe media surface. Through singulated seedingand use of high quality seeds, almost perfectstands can be achieved in flats. As previouslystated, doubles are not generally tolerated bythe customer and missing plants in cells relateto space lost by the plug producer. In the past,cells were filled by hand; however, automatictray fillers have been developed whereby robotscan identify, empty and refill any empty cells ina tray using a computer vision system. Whereautomated robot repluggers are used, laborcosts can be reduced by 75% for tray filling.

Once in the greenhouse automation takes overfor irrigation, fertilization, and in many casespest management. Trays must still be manuallyput on and removed from T-rails or wire systems

Figure 11. Small round lettuce plug ofTechniculture transplant system for auto-mated planting.

Figure 12. Harvesting plug flats on afloatation system at Speedling II inBushnell, FL.

Figure 13. Ready to plant lettuce plug.

Figure 14. Pull and pack system for trans-port of plugs.

in floatation irrigation houses. Crop cycles varyaccording to weather conditions, especiallytemperature and light. As an average, 35 to 45days are required for growing and finishingmost plugs. It takes approximately one growerto manage several transplant houses dependingon their size. Plugs may be shipped in the origi-nal growing tray (generally to local destinations)or they can be pulled and packed into boxesand shipped via refrigerated transport trucks totheir ultimate destination for planting.Mechanization of field planting varies accord-ing to crop and grower, from growers that usetransplanters that require one person per rowup to sophisticated transplanters that requireone person per six rows. Each level of sophisti-cation of transplant equipment requires anequivalent increase in equipment costs; thelong-term benefit obviously being reduction ofoverall labor costs.

RELATED TECHNOLOGIES

Hybrid Seed

Up to the 1970s, many growers used open-pol-linated cultivars. Seed costs were relatively inex-pensive and in many cases averaged approxi-mately $50 per kg for tomatoes and peppers.The increase in use of hybrid seeds in the 1980sto present has led to a greatly increased pricefor seeds as well as an increased demand foreach seed to germinate and grow into a normalplant. Some hybrid seeds can now cost inexcess of $30,000 per kg. This caused a signifi-cant change in the way seeds were sold: num-ber instead of weight. As a result the plug pro-ducer had to be sure that each cell contained asingulated seed that germinates and produces anormal plant uniformly. This in turn placesheavy emphasis by the seed production compa-

ny to only produce and market the highest qua-lity seed.

Germination and Priming Technology

Many plug produced species are generatedfrom small and/or irregularly shaped seeds.Since many producers used cylindrical vacuumseeders with a capacity to produce over 1200flats per hour the use of pelleted seed wasrequired. At the present time mechanizedplanting of lettuce, tomato, pepper, eggplant,onion, celery, begonia, petunia, lisianthus, isgenerally the norm for plug producers. In manyinstances the use of seed coatings can also helpimprove the efficiency of the seeding process.Seeds commonly coated include cucumber,watermelons, muskmelons, marigolds, zinnia,dahlia, impatiens, and anemone. The use ofcolored coatings or colored pellet material canhelp the seed operator determine efficiency ofthe seeding process. In order to further improveemergence uniformity, many species can beprimed in order to increase uniformity of germi-nation rates and seedling growth proceed on amore uniform basis especially under low or hightemperature conditions. Seed priming is a pre-sowing treatment in which seeds imbibe waterunder controlled conditions and go through thefirst stages of germination before radiclegrowth begins (Parera and Cantliffe, 1994). Themain advantage of seed priming is improvingstand uniformity by bringing all seeds to thesame stage of germination.

Greenhouse and Environmental Control

Vegetable plugs are almost exclusivelyproduced in greenhouses; the exception beingin rainless arid climates. A typical vegetableplug house has little enhanced environmentalcontrol other than plastic side curtains that canbe raised up and down for temperature controlin the wintertime. The growing process withinthe house is mechanized but additional lightingfor temperature control is generally unecono-mical. Environmental control tools for ornamen-tal plugs is generally a vastly different story:because of their high return value to the produ-cer, they are often grown in glass greenhouses

ISHS • 10

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel J. Cantliffe

Daniel J. Cantliffe is Distinguished Professor andChairman of the Horticultural SciencesDepartment at the University of Florida, USAand a Fellow and Past-President of theAmerican Society for Horticultural Science andPast President of the Florida State HorticultureSociety. He is also a Past-Chair for the SectionVegetables of the International Society forHorticultural Science and is an ISHS Fellow.Email: djcant@ufl.edu

with supplemental lighting and supplementalheating and cooling. Temperatures can bereduced within the house by automated screensthat close based on solar radiation and tempe-rature. The more sophisticated houses will havewet mats and fans for cooling in the summerand heater systems for winter use that directheat to the bottom of the bench for other rootzone areas of the growing plugs. In this caseabove screens can be closed at nighttime tokeep heat in the greenhouses. All of the green-house environmental control systems are con-nected to a computer system governed byweather stations both inside and outside of thegreenhouse. Through changes in solar radia-tion, temperature, wind velocity and rain,greenhouses can be directed to open and closecurtains, and turn on and off heat or ventilationsystems.

THE FUTURE: ONE TRILLIONPLUGS

Production of transplant plugs for vegetables,bedding plants, tobacco, ornamentals andother various tree species are worldwide indus-tries today and their importance is increasingevery year. As a starting point, in 1967, notransplants were recorded as being producedby plugs. By 1997, only 30 years later, 25 billion

plants per year were produced on a worldwidebasis from plugs, and in 2001 over 40 billionplants were produced from plugs. It is estima-ted that over one trillion plugs will be producedand sold by 2010.

Production of plugs is greatly expanding andmay in fact far exceed the estimated one trillionplug number by 2010 due to the recent impor-tance and use of grafted transplants. Sincethese all must be put through a plug productionprocess, the demand for grafted transplants forcrops such as tomato, pepper, watermelon,cucumber, melon and eggplant will furtherincrease plug technology worldwide. The initialexpertise and usage of grafted transplants wasderived in Korea and Japan and has now movedto many other countries that produce green-house crops. The initial requirement for graftedplants came from the ability of certain root-stocks to withstand nematodes and certain soilborne diseases. Recent research has shown thatgrafting can also vastly improve plant vigor andtherefore potentially increase both fruit qualityand quantity. The legislated decrease in the useof methyl bromide fumigation in areas wherefield production is prevalent and where croprotation is not possible, has created a surge ininterest in the use of grafted transplants toovercome soil borne diseases, insects, andnematodes. However, the cost of grafted plugscan greatly increase the cost of the finaltransplant because not only is the scion expen-sive (hybrid seed), but rootstocks are, in manycases, also derived from specially designedhybrids of equally expensive seed. Thus, thecost of seeds plus the additional cost of thetransplant and the grafting process leads to agreatly increased cost for the final plugproduct. Regardless, many commercial farmoperations, as well as greenhouse growers, findthat the benefits of grafted plugs far outweighprevious methods of open pollinated, non-plugtransplants.

Although transplanting of various species hasbeen carried out for hundreds of years, it is onlyin the last four decades that the transplantindustry has been revolutionized through theuse of plug transplants. This change has beencontributed to by several factors, which have allled to an industry that can insure quality trans-plants that are uniform. These changes include:a switch from less expensive open-pollinatedseed to more expensive hybrid cultivars of bothornamentals and vegetables; systems that haveled to seed germination approaching 100%;the expanded popularity of expensive ornamen-tal and bedding plants; automation of trans-plant systems and plug seeding equipment;greenhouse automation for production;improved media for early seedling develop-ment; and the ability to germinate plugs undermore or less ideal conditions. To the commercialgrower, this means a plant that has a morerapid rate of uniform development, strongerroot growth, improved vegetative matter, andultimately high yielding capacity. Container cell

FURTHER READINGS

Cantliffe, D.J. 2008. Plug transplant technology.Horticultural Reviews 35:397-436.

Lee, J. and Oda, M. 2003. Grafting of herbaceousvegetable and ornamental crops. HorticulturalReviews 28:61-124.

Parera, C.A. and Cantliffe, D.J. 1994. Presowingseed priming. Horticultural Reviews 16:109-141.

sizes can be altered to help both maximizingtotal space utilization within the plug produc-tion greenhouse, as well as the ability tomechanize planting of the finished product.Postharvest technology has come a long way inhelping to preserve plug and plant qualitythrough the transportation process, but this isan area still requiring more work for both auto-mation and improved biology of the plant.Further mechanization of the planting processof the finished plug is still in need of muchresearch in order to make highly sophisticatedautomation equipment available at morereasonable prices.

In conclusion, the advent of plug transplantshas allowed growers of many specialty cropsthe ability to increase stand uniformity, and inmany cases increase yield and quality of theirproducts. This phenomenon has led to a signifi-cant increase in the use of plug transplants eachyear over the last three decades.

Figure 16. Results of four row transplantsystem with minimal labor requirements.

Figure 15. Open plug carrier for localshipping flats.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 11

HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE NEWS

Carnivorous Plants: New Ornamentals

INTRODUCTION

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive someor most of their nutrients from trapping andconsuming small animals such as insects andspiders. They are more widely called carnivorousplants because some use small animals likesnails and frogs as their food (Schnell, 2002).Insect capture by plants is believed to be anadaptation to life in nitrogen-poor soils such asacidic peat bogs and rock outcroppings. There,many of the essential nutrients, including nitro-gen compounds, are leached away by water orconsumed by anaerobic bacteria. As a result,oxygen is in short supply as well. Unlike carni-vorous animals, however, such plants do notuse their prey as an energy source but only

Cheol Hee Lee

make use of their nitrogen and phosphorus(Wallace et al., 1990; Kamarainen et al., 2003).

Carnivorous plants, about 600 species world-wide, grow mainly in tropical or semi-tropicalareas (Table 1, Fig. 1).

There are five types of carnivorous plants basedon their trapping mechanism: pitcher, flypaper,snap, suction and lobster pot traps.

Pitcher

Pitcher plants trap prey in a rolled leaf that con-tains a pool of digestive enzymes or bacteria.Usually insects are attracted by bright flower-like anthocyanin patterns in the leaves or bynectar bribes secreted by peristomes. They thenfall into the pitcher due to slippery wax lining

the inside leaves. The plants that produceattractants, like those in Nepenthaceae, arecalled pitcher traps and plants with no attrac-tants, like those in Sarraceniaceae, are calledpitfall traps.

Flypaper

Flypaper traps capture prey by using stickymucilage and sundews (Drosera). Pinguiculaand Drosphyllum belong to this type.

Steel Trap

Snap traps (sometimes called steel traps) utilizerapid leaf movement to capture prey. Only twospecies, the Venus flytrap (Dionaea mucipula)and Aldrovanda cesiculosa, belong to this type.These snap traps close rapidly when triggeredto trap prey between two lobes. At the begin-ning of capture, hold on insects is just strongenough to prevent insect escape, but onceplants detect protein, the hold becomes stron-ger. In this way, unnecessary snapping triggeredby materials other than insects can be pre-vented. The prey inside the tightly closed leavesis digested over a period of one to two weeks.Leaves can be reused 3 or 4 times before theybecome unresponsive to stimulation but usual-ly leaves wither after one capture.

Suction Trap

Suction (bladder) traps are exclusive to thegenus Utricularia. Suction traps suck in preywith a bladder that generates an internalvacuum by pumping ions out of the interiorand allowing water to enter by osmosis. Thebladder has a small opening, sealed by a hingeddoor. In aquatic species, the door has a pair oflong trigger hairs. Aquatic invertebrates such asDaphnia touch these hairs and deform the doorby lever action, releasing the vacuum. Then theinvertebrates are sucked into the bladder,where they are digested.

Lobster Pot

Lobster pots are the trapping mechanism inGenlisea, the corkscrew plant. Lobster-pot trapsforce prey to move towards a digestive organwith inwardly pointing hairs.

ECOLOGY AND CULTIVATION

For commercial propagation of carnivorousplants, not only seed propagation and cutting

Figure 1. Representative genera of carnivorous plants.

Drosera Dionaea Pinguicula

Nepenthes Sarracenia Brocchinea

ISHS • 12

but also tissue culture technique can be used(Fig. 2). The soils of carnivorous plant’s habitatsare characterized by very low nutrients such asnitrogen, phosphorus, and alkali ions, as well ashigh acidity. Since they obtain nutrients by con-suming animal prey rather than absorbing viaroots, the nutrient absorbing ability of roots isvery limited. As a result, the roots of carnivo-rous plants will not tolerate nutrient-rich com-mercial horticultural mix. Nutrient-poor, acidic

Sphagnum peat moss, or 3:1, or 2:1 mixture ofpeat moss to perlite are recommended forgrowing media (Lee, 2007).

Generally, the habitats of carnivorous plants arewarm, sunny and constantly moist so the plantsexperience relatively little competition fromother low growing plants. Therefore, a green-house is the ideal facility for commercial cultiva-tion of carnivorous plants (Fig. 3). Most carnivo-rous plants require bright light and most will

look better under such conditions. So whengrowing inside, a fluorescent light supplement,15-30 cm above the plants, is recommended.

Most carnivorous plants grow in bogs, soalmost all are quite resistant to drying due tolow humidity. For plants growing on bogs,watering done under surfaces with a completechange of water once every 3-5 days is recom-mended. To increase air humidity, frequentwater spray is needed, except for flypaper traptype plants in which frequent spray will washout digestive enzymes in the leaves, resulting inretarded plant growth.

Generally fertilization of carnivorous plants isnot recommended. In rare cases, when mineraldeficiencies do occur, foliar spray or under sur-face watering supplemented with Hyponex isrecommended (Lee et al., 2003a, b; Joe et al.,2003; Kim et al., 2003).

Most carnivorous plants grow in habitats thatare inhospitable during some season. To survivethese times, plants either produce seeds anddie, or enter a dormant resting period. Popularornamental plants, such as Venus flytrap andSarracenia, have a cool dormancy period ofabout three months. Plants should be kept attemperatures below 4°C during this period, andwatered once or twice a month on warm days.“Well rested” plants grow more vigorously thanthose that do not undergo a dormant period.

ORNAMENTAL, AGRI-CULTURAL, AND PHARMA-CEUTICAL USES

Carnivorous plants are a fascinating group ofplants, and have long been the subject of popu-lar interest (Fig. 4 and 5). Due to the variousshapes and sizes of leaves of carnivorous plantsthere are wide ranges of choice for landscapingpurposes. Furthermore, their leaf color variationas well as their beautiful flowers make theseplants ornamental materials with a high com-mercial potential. For example, large and color-ful Nepenthes and Sarracenia are recommend-ed for garden plants. Sarracenia is a cold-tole-rant garden plant and many can be grown fromparts of southern Canada to Florida, acrossmost of the United Kingdom, much of Europe,

Figure 2. In vitro propagation of carnivorous plants.

TaxonNo. of species Global distribution

Family Genus

Sarraceniaceae Darlingtonia 1 Northwest USAHeliamphora 5 North-central South AmericaSarracenia 8 Southeast USA - east Canada

Nepenthaceae Nepenthes 60 Indonesia - Australia, Madagascar

Droseraceae Aldrovanda 1 EurasiaDionaea 1 North CarolinaDrosera 141 Global

Drosophyllaceae Drosophyllum 1 Portugal, western Spain

Dioncophyllaceae Triphyophyllum 1 West Africa - Ivory Coast

Byblidaceae Byblis 5 Northwest Australia

Cephalotaceae Cephalotus 1 Southwest Australia

Lentibulariaceae Genlisea 19 South America, AfricaPinguicula 69 N. America, Europe, AsiaUtricularia 219 Global

Martyniaceae Ibicella 1 South America

Bromeliaceae Brocchinia 2 South AmericaCatopsis 1 Florida, South America

Table 1. Carnivorous plants worldwide. Figure 3. Greenhouse cultivation of carni-vorous plants.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 13

and through most of non-tropical Australia andNew Zealand. It is one of the easiest plants togrow in temperate climates, thrives best in opengardens, and usually shows the richest color infull sun (Romanowski, 2001).However, most carnivorous plants are notrecommended for outside landscaping purpose

Figure 4. Utilization of carnivorous plants.

because they require nutrient-poor and acidicsoils. Accordingly, carnivorous plants can beused only for special outdoor landscaping suchas swamps and bogs (Fig. 4). Thus, carnivorousplants are utilized more for interior landscapingpurposes. Their use as pot plants is most popu-lar, and growing them in hanging baskets or

Figure 5. Exhibition of carnivorous plants.

terrariums is also gaining popularity. This isespecially true because a terrarium is an excel-lent container for carnivorous plants. A pieceof plexiglass placed over the top will help main-tain a high relative humidity. Ventilation canbe provided by keeping the plexiglass slightlyajar.

ISHS • 14

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cheol Hee Lee

Cheol Hee Lee is a Professor at the Department ofHorticultural Science, Chungbuk NationalUniversity, Cheongju 361-763, Korea. His cur-rent research emphasizes carnivorous plants,ferns, moss, and various plant resources. Email:leech@chungbuk.ac.kr

RREFERENCESEFERENCES

Crouch, I.J., Finnie, J.F. and Staden, J. 1990.Studies on the isolation of plumbagin from invitro and in vivo grown Drosera species. PlantCell Tiss. Org. Cult. 21:79-82.

Didry, N., Dubrevil, L. and Pinkas, M. 1994.Activity of anthraquinonic and naphthoquinoniccompounds on oral bacteria. Die Pharmazie49:681-683.

Itoigawa, M., Takeya, K. and Furukawa, H. 1991.Cardiotonic action of plumbagin on guinea-pigpapillary muscle. Planta Med. 57:317-319.

Jayaram, K. and Prasad, M.N.V. 2005. Rapidly invitro multiplied Drosera as reliable source forplumbagin bioprospection. Current Sci.89(3):447-448.

Joe, H.T., Hwang, J.K. and Lee, C.H. 2003. Effectof media, shading, watering and liquid fertilizeron growth of Dionaea muscipula. J. Korean Soc.Hort. Sci. Technol. 21(2):91(Abstr.).

Kamarainen, T., Usitaro, J., Jalonen, J., Laine, K.and Hohtola, A. 2003. Regional and habitatedifferences in 7-methyjuglone content ofFinnish Drosera rotundifolia. Phytochemistry63:309-314.

Kim, J.K., Kim, Y.J., Chang, Y.D. and Lee, C.H.2005. Effect of media on ex vitro acclimatiza-tion of nine genus in carnivorous plants. Proc.Korean Plant Res. Soc. 12:149.

Kim, Y.J., Kim, J.K., Hwang, J.K. and Lee, C.H.2003. Effect of media, shading, watering andliquid fertilizer on growth of Drosera rotundifo-lia. J. Korean Soc. Hort. Sci. Technol.21(2):92(Abstr).

Krolicka, A., Szpitter, A., Gilgenast, E., Romanik,G., Kaminski, M. and Lojkowska, E. 2008.Stimulation of antibacterial naphthoquinonesand flavonoids accumulation in carnivorousplants grown in vitro by addition of elicitors.Enzyme Microbial Tech. 42:216-221.

Kubo, I., Taniguchi, M., Chapya, A. and Tsujimoto,K. 1980. An insect antifeedant and antimicro-bial agent from Plumbago capensis. PlantaMed. Suppl. 185-187.

Lee, C.H. 2005. Several factors affecting in vitromasspropagation of carnivorous plant, Droseraburmanni. J. Korean Flow. Res. Soc. 13:331-335.

Lee, C.H. 2007. Insectivorous plant. In: J.M. Lee,G.-W. Choi and J. Janick (eds.), Horticulture inKorea, Korean Soc. Hort. Sci., Korea.

Lee, C.H. and Kwon, S.J. 2005. Effect of mediumcomponents on plant regeneration of Droseracapensis in vitro culture. J. Korean Flow. Res.Soc. 13:301-307.

Lee, J.Y., Hwang, J.K. and Lee, C.H. 2003a. Effectof media, shading, watering and liquid fertilizeron growth of Drosera aliciae. J. Korean Soc.Hort. Sci. Technol. 21(2):93 (Abstr).

Lee, J.Y., Hwang, J.K. and Lee, C.H. 2003b. Effectof media, shading, watering and liquid fertilizeron growth of Sarracenia purpurea. J. KoreanSoc. Hort. Sci. Technol. 21(2):92 (Abstr.).

Likhitwitayawuid, K., Kaewamatawong, R.,Ruangrungsi, N. and Krungkrai, J. 1998.Antimalarial naphthoquinones from Nepenthesthorelii. Planta Med. 64:237-241.

Miles, D.H. and Kokpol, U. 1976. Tumor inhibitorsII: Constituents and antitumor activity ofSarracenia flave. J. Pharm. Sci. 65(2):284-285.

Miles, D.H., Kokpol, U., Zalkow, L.H., Steindel, S.J.and Nabors, J.B. 1974. Tumor inhibitors. I.Preliminary investigation of antitumor activity ofSarracenia flava. J. Pharm. Sci. 63(4):613-615.

Parimara, R. and Sachdanandam, P. 1993. Effectof plumbagin on some glucose metabolizingenzymes studied in rats in experimental hepato-ma. Mol. Cell Biochem. 12:59-63.

Romanowski, N. 2001. Gardening with carni-vores: Sarracenia pitcher plants in cultivationand the wild. UNSW Press, Inc., Australia.

Schnell, D.E. 2002. Carnivorous plants of theUnited State and Canada. Timber Press, Inc.,Portland, Oregon, USA.

Shin, K.S., Lee, S.K. and Cha, B.J. 2007.Antifungal activity of plumbagin purified fromleaves of Nepenthes ventricosa x maximaagainst phytopathogenic fungi. Plant Pathol. J.23:113-115.

Tokunaga, T., Takada, N. and Ueda, M. 2004.Mechanism of antifeedant activity of plumba-gin, a compound concerning the chemicaldefense in carnivorous plant. Tetrahedron Lett.45:7115-7119.

Wallace, R.A., Sanders, G.P. and Ferl, R.J. 1990.Biology: The Science of Life. 3th ed. HaroerCollins Publishers Inc., New York.

Zenk, M.H., Fürbringer, M. and Steglich, W. 1969.Occurrence and distribution of 7-methyljugloneand plumbagin in the Droseraceae.Phytochemistry 8:2199–2200.

Recently, attempts on the improvement of car-nivorous plants by hybridization have been car-ried out mainly by many nurseries and growers.Presently, breeders use chemical mutagens toinduce novel characters in many carnivorousplants.

It was once considered that carnivorous plantscould be used as one way of insect controlbecause of their ability to eat insects. However,the amount of a catch is too low and it takestoo long for the plants to digest insects.Consequently, the idea of pest control wasquestioned and consumption of carnivorousplants decreased. Recently, a volatile com-pound called plumbagin, which has antifeed-ant activities and insecticidal effects, has beendiscovered, boosting interest in this group ofplants (Tokunaga et al., 2004). Many carnivo-rous plants produce volatile compounds callednaphthoquinones similar to plumbagin thathave anticancer and antimicrobial effects.Therefore, growing carnivorous plants thatyield a high amount of volatile compoundsinside houses or in any closed area might helpto increase anticancer and antimicrobial func-tions of people who inhale those volatiles(Didry et al., 1994; Parimara and Sach-danandam, 1993; Tokunaga et al., 2004).

THE FUTURE

Carnivorous plants, due to the unusual abilityof ingesting insects and other prey, haveattracted much attention and curiosity.However, so far their use has been limited toesthetic purposes since their ornamental valueis high. Because they have desirable leaf shapesand patterns as well as striking flowers, theycan make good houseplants if grown underlight without fertilization. Watering is the mostcritical factor when growing vigorous carnivo-rous plants.

Recently however, various functional and phy-siologically active substances have been identi-fied in many carnivorous plants. In Dionaeamuscipula and Drosera capensis, two majorgroups of pharmaceutically important substan-ces include: (1) Naphthoquinones, plumbagin,and ramentaceone; and (2) flavonoids: myrice-tin, and quercetin. These materials are knownto have anticancer, antimicrobial and antispas-modic activities (Krolicka et al., 2008). Also itwas found that Sarracenia flava produced sub-stances with antitumor activity (Miles et al.,1974; Miles and Kokpol, 1976).

Especially important is plumbagin, a kind ofnaphthoquinone found in genera Nepenthes,Drosera, and Dionaea (Crouch et al., 1990;Shin et al., 2007; Zenk et al., 1969), which hasvarious effects: insect antifeedant (Kubo et al.,1980; Tokunaga et al., 2004), cardiotonic(Itoigawa et al., 1991), anticancer (Parimaraand Sachdanandam, 1993), antimicrobial(Didry et al., 1994), antimalaria (Likhitwitaya-wuid et al., 1998) and antifungal (Shin et al.,2007). In the near future, many carnivorous

plants will certainly be utilized for the isolationof medicinal and pharmaceutical substances.For this purpose, a stable and mass supply ofthe carnivorous plants is of the utmost impor-tance. New techniques in micropropagationhave made possible the stable mass supply ofcarnivorous plants (Jayaram and Prasad, 2005;Joe et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2003, 2005; Lee,2005; Lee and Kwon, 2005; Lee et al., 2003a,b).

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 15

THE WORLD OF HORTICULTURE

Vegetable Crop Production in Iran

INTRODUCTION

Iran consists of a major portion of what wasonce the Persian Empire. Geographically, Iran islocated in southwestern Asia between 25-40°North latitude and 45-63° East longitude. Thearea of Iran is 1,648,195 km2 with a popula-tion of 70.5 million people of which 25 million

Reza Salehi and Roghayeh Javanpour

(35%) are involved in agriculture. Admini-stratively, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) con-sists of 31 provinces. Based on the IranianMinistry of Agriculture statistics for 2006, 15million hectares were under agricultural pro-duction. Variations in climate and presence ofnumerous mountains, lakes, rivers, and naturalsprings have created a unique country capableof producing all types of fruits, vegetables,flowers, and agronomic crops. About 81.5% ofthe cultivation area is used for agronomic cropproduction and 18.5% of the arable land is forhorticultural crop production; 0.8 million ha forvegetables (Table 1) and 2 million ha for fruit.

Iran’s climate is mostly arid or semiarid, to sub-tropical along the Caspian coast. On the north-ern edge of the country (the Caspian coastalplain), temperatures nearly fall below freezingand it remains humid for the rest of the year.Summer temperatures rarely exceed 29°C.

Khuzistan, Kirman, Fars, Isfahan,Hormuzgan, East Azerbaijan,

Khurasan Razavi and Hamadanare the important vegetable

growing states of Iran. Theseregions are claiming nearlyhalf of the vegetables pro-

duced (241,000 ha, com-pared to a total of 483,000

ha). The main regions ofcucurbit growing are

Khurasan Razavi,Kirman, Khuzistan

and Hamadan with49.8% of total culti-vation area (322,000

ha). In this group,share of water-melon is 37.0%,

cucumber 25.6%and melons 24.3%.

Agriculture share of land utilization in Iran.Based on the Iranian Ministry of Agriculturestatistics for 2006, 15 million hectares wereunder agricultural production.

Iran has a mostly arid or semi-arid climate for the mostpart and because of its size, topography and altitude,experiences great climatic extremes. In the north andwest, winters (December to February) can be unplea-santly cold and in the summer (June to August) thePersian Gulf coast and southern provinces are very hot.Due to the barren mountains and deserts, humidity isusually quite low, except in the Caspian provinces,which receive an annual average rainfall of 1300 mm.which receive an annual average rainfall of 1300 mm.

ISHS • 16

Annual precipitation is 680 mm in the easternpart of the plain and more than 1,700 mm inthe western part. To the west, settlements inthe Zagros basin experience lower tempera-tures, severe winters with below zero averagedaily temperatures and heavy snowfall. Theeastern and central basins are arid, with lessthan 200 mm of rain, and have occasionaldeserts. Average summer temperatures exceed38°C. The coastal plains of the Persian Gulf andGulf of Oman in southern Iran have mildwinters, and very humid and hot summers.The annual precipitation ranges from 135 to355 mm.

PRODUCTION STATISTICS

The vegetable production is an important andgrowing segment of the horticultural crops inIran. Due to the wide range of climatic condi-tions in Iran, vegetables are produced in one ormore regions throughout the year. The states ofKhuzistan, Kerman, Fars, Isfahan, Hormuzgan,East Azerbaijan, Khurasan Razavi and Hamadanare the important vegetable growing states ofIran.

Vegetable crops accounted for 5.3% of totalagricultural land, 805,000 ha, with 21 milliontonnes (t) of production (Table 1). Vegetableproduction in Iran as of 2006 had increased 1.8times since 1986 and 1.5 times since 1996.

Cucurbits (watermelon, melons, cucumber andpumpkins) occupy the major portion, about40% (322,000 ha) of the total cultivation areain Iran. Kerman, Khuzistan, Khurasan Razavi,Fars and Hamadan are the leading cucurbitsproducing states with 55.57% of total cucurbitproduction. Iran ranks third in production ofcucurbitaceous vegetables in the world afterChina and Turkey (Table 1).

Vegetable crops such as potato, tomato, onion,pepper, eggplant and leafy vegetables, accountfor more, about 483,000 ha, 60% of the totalvegetable area. Potato is the top ranking vege-table occupying about 23.5% of the total vege-table cultivation area (Table 1).

In Iran, most of vegetables are being cultivatedin open fields, only 5% of the total vegetablecultivation areas are under protected cultiva-tion. The major growing system for most vege-tables has been spring and summer cultivation.The massive production of fresh vegetables inwinter under protected structures or in warmerclimatic zones at the southern coastal areasincluding Hormuzgan, Bushehr and Khuzistanregions makes it possible to supply fresh vege-tables year-round at reasonable prices.

The protected cultivation area in Iran wasincreased more than 3-fold during the last 5years from 2,420 ha in 2002 to 6,700 ha in2006. In 2006, 60% of the total protected cul-tivation areas were used for vegetables. At thepresent time, 98% of the protected cultivationareas are plastic houses mostly covered withlow density polyethylene film. Glasshouses con-sist of only 0.5% of the total protected area inIran. The cultivation area of vegetable hydropo-nics cultivation is increasing, showing signi-ficant increase in the last years. Fruit vegetablessuch as cucumber and tomato are grownhydroponically using various substrates such asperlite, coco peat and peatmoss.

MAJOR VEGETABLES

Potato

Potato has ranked first among vegetables interms of both planted area and production inIran. The planted area in the field for tuber pro-duction was 189,645 ha in 2006 (Table 1). Total

Table 1. Status of Iran vegetable crop production (FAO, 2006).

Vegetable Cultivation area (ha) Yield (kg/ha) Total production (t) Rankof Iran

World Iran Iran % World Iran Iran % World Iran Iran %of world of world of world

Watermelon 3,785,475 131,455 3.5 26,575 24,794 93 100,602,392 3,259,411 3.2 3

Melons 1,288,837 71,259 5.5 21,707 15,797 72 27,977,132 1,125,713 4.0 3

Cucumber 2,530,339 77,000 3.0 17,344 22,350 128 43,887,464 1,721,000 3.9 3

Tomato 4,597,219 138,791 3.0 27,308 34,447 126 125,543,475 4,781,018 3.8 7

Potato 18,830,238 189,645 1.0 16,733 25,469 152 315,100,319 4,830,121 1.5 14

Onion 3,340,549 49,950 1.5 18,451 33,742 182 61,636,915 1,685,450 2.7 7

Cabbage and other brassicas 3,137,682 12,002 0.4 21,988 26,509 120 68,991,380 318,163 0.5 -

Lettuce and chicory 1,059,180 4,958 0.5 21,839 25,312 116 23,131,432 125,500 0.5 -

Garlic 1,165,758 3,469 0.3 13,024 8,037 61 15,183,600 27,882 0.2 -

Carrot and turnip 1,206,563 1,600 0.1 22,236 25,000 112 26,830,267 40,000 0.1 -

Cauliflower and broccoli 957,976 1,099 0.1 18,936 25,009 132 18,141,002 27,485 0.1 -

Chilli and pepper 25,923,774 128,028 0.5 14,906 26,283 176 25,923,774 128,028 0.5 -

Eggplant 1,857,230 3,724 0.2 17,192 25,217 146 31,929,797 93,910 0.3 -

Spinach 876,033 700 0.1 15,727 14,285 90 13,777,674 10,000 0.1 -

potato production has increased from 300,000t in 1961 to 4.8 million t in 2006 by improvingproductivity. The average potato yield hasincreased from 10 t/ha in 1961 to 25.5 t/ha in2006, a 2.5-fold increase in 45 years. Such adramatic increase of potato yield is due to theimprovement of seed production technologies,supplying healthy seeds by the official seedpotato certificate system, breeding of new cul-tivars and technical development of culturalpractices such as fertilizing, pest protection, andmechanization.

Tomato

Tomato, one of the most popular fruit bearingvegetables of Iran, is cultivated throughout thecountry and occupies an area of 138,791 hawith a total production of 4.8 million t (Table 1).Even though both fresh and processed toma-toes are used for various recipes, only cultivarsfor fresh use are grown in Iran. Tomato is grownin the states of Hormuzgan, Bushehr, Fars,Kerman, Khuzistan, Khurasan Razavi, NorthKhurasan and Golistan. Several types of cultiva-tion method can be found depending upon thegrowing season of the year, i.e., field, green-house or protected, hydroponics and forcing.Tomato is normally consumed fresh but paste isthe most common product.

Onion

About 6% of the total vegetable productionarea is used for onion production, thus ranking6th among the vegetables following potato,tomato, watermelon, cucumber and melons.Cultivation area in 2006 was 49,950 ha (1.5%of the total world cultivation area). Total pro-duction in 2006 was 1.7 million t (2.7% of theworld total) (Table 1).

Allium cepa is known only in cultivation, but

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 17

Several local open-pollinated cultivars that arecommercially grown in different regions areavailable in Iran. A highly promising open-fieldcultivar ‘Khatooni’ that contains very highsoluble solids content of 14-15% or higher iswidely cultivated in Iran.

Watermelon

According to records of FAO, world productionof watermelon in 2006 exceeded 100 million twith China (71%), Turkey (4%) and Iran (3%),the major production countries. Watermelonproduction of Iran ranked third in the worldand was over 3 million t in 2006 (Table 1).Watermelon produced in Iran is mostly con-sumed in the domestic market. Watermelon isa very important crop in Iran. In 2006, water-melon occupied 15% of total vegetable cropproduction in Iran, which ranks third afterpotato and tomato. In Iran, watermelon is cul-tivated only in open fields. Kerman,Hormuzgan, Khuzistan, and Khurasan Razaviare the leading watermelon producing states.All of the watermelons in Iran are seeded.

WAYS OF VEGETABLECONSUMPTION BY IRANIANS

The mean annual consumption of vegetablesamong Iranians is estimated to be 260 kg perperson. Iranians consume vegetables in a num-ber of special ways. Iranians are very fond ofTorshi, a fermented and salted vegetabledelicacy, usually made with cabbage, cauli-flower, celery, carrot, cucumber, Jerusalem arti-choke and different types of leafy vegetablessuch as basil, parsley, estragon and mint spiced

related wild species occur in Central Asia. Twoclosely-related species are found in Iran: Alliumvavilovii and Allium asarense.

Cucumber

Several local cultivars had been available in Iran,although these are not commercially grownanymore. Cucumbers are widely consumedfresh by Iranians. Cucumbers are well suited forprotected cultivation. The total cultivation areaof cucumber in Iran is about 77,000 ha with anestimated production of 1.7 million t (Table 1).

Melons

Iranians have a very high preference for melons,which have a great socio-economic signifi-cance. A total of 1.1 million t of melons wereproduced in 2006 (Table 1). Various melon cul-tivars are sold at local markets at reasonableprices, and per capita consumption of melons isextremely high. This preference may be closelyrelated with the predilection of Iranians forsweet and crispy fleshed fresh fruits; Iranianslike to chew firm flesh of fruits before theyswallow. Melons are widely grown in Iranranging from tropical to subtropical and arid tosemi-arid areas. Iran is the third producer ofmelons in the world, producing 1.1 million tannually, 4% of world output. Melons occupy71,259 ha out of the 0.7 million ha under vege-table cultivation in Iran. Total of this cultivationarea is open field cultivation. Khurasan Razavi,Khuzistan, Semnan and Qazvin are the leadingmelon producing states.Cultivation of melons is highly labor-intensive,especially for proper pinching to obtain uniformfruit setting.

The major greenhouse fruiting vegetablesgrown in protected structures in Iran: (A)and (B) cultivation of tomato in soil andsoilless culture medium; (C) growing pepperin soil with drip irrigation in greenhouse;(D) cucumber production in plastic green-house.

A

B

C

D

Onion cultivars of different shapes and colors grown in Iran (with permission of Dr. Darabi).

with garlic, hot pepper, bunching onion andginger. Mixed vegetables are soaked in vinegar,and fermented in a large jar for several days orweeks from fall to winter. Iranians also consumea dish called Ash, a bowl of boiled vegetablessuch as Iranian leek, spinach, parsley, dill andcoriander well-mixed with noodles, chick-peas,lentils and dried beans. A dish called Qormeh-sabzi is a stew composed of Iranian leek,parsley, coriander, fenugreek and meat servedwith rice. The habit of eating salad vegetables

has become very popular among Iranians. Freshvegetable leaves or shoots such as Iranian leek,parsley, lettuce, basil, mint, coriander and estra-gon are consumed at lunch and at dinner.

CONSTRAINTS AND FUTUREPROSPECTS

There are a number of serious problems thatneed to be resolved for the vegetable produc-tion of Iran to expand. Market price fluctua-tions of some vegetables especially fruit vegeta-bles cause hardship to producers. The con-sumption preferences and market conditionsare dynamic. Unfortunately, there have beenfew attempts to breed for cultivars that wouldincrease the production area for vegetables. Atpresent, certified seeds and plant materials areinsufficient and need to be expanded.

Management practices such as irrigation, ferti-lization, pest management, need to be up-graded. Extension efforts need to be expandedin the vegetable production industry. Attemptsneed to be made to increase vegetable con-sumption. The progress of farm mechanizationin Iran has been much slower than expected.Furthermore, significant increases in freshvegetable export are not expected due to diffi-culties associated with transportation, grading,packing and storage techniques to maintainhigh quality.

Several development actions are needed inorder to improve quality in order to makeIranian-grown vegetables more competitive inthe global market. The most pressing issuesneeded are marketing, statistical analysis andeconomic forecasting; establishment of farmertrade associations or cooperatives; enhance-ment of production; and improving postharvestcapacity, diversity, and quality.

There is an important need to conserve plantgenetic resources. Iran is a unique center of ori-gin and genetic diversity for many different

RoghayehJavanpour

ISHS • 18

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Reza Salehi

Reza Salehi is a Ph.D. student in the Departmentof Horticulture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.Email: salehir@ut.ac.ir

Roghayeh Javanpour is a member of the scientificboard of the Iranian Academic Center forEducation, Culture and Research (ACECR),Karaj, Iran. Email: javanpoor@ut.ac.ir

RREFERENCESEFERENCES

FAO. 2006. Yearbook of food and agriculture for2006.

Iran Ministry of Agriculture. 2006. AgricultureStatistical Yearbook.

Vegetables are an intrinsic part of Iranian cuisine.

Iran is a rich resource of melon germplasm inthe world (with permission of Dr. Kouhpaye-gani). Cultivars include Inodorous andCantalupensis groups of melons.

A melon field planted with ‘Khatooni’, afamous and unique melon cultivar in Iran.This cultivar belongs to Inodorous group ofmelons.

crops that are of great value to the entire inter-national community. Nevertheless, there areneither plant variety protection systems norgenetic conservation programs in Iran today.Genetic erosion of horticultural crops has beenobserved and actions are urgently needed torescue and safeguard these resources.

Torshi

Ash

Fresh vegetable leaves

Qormeh-sabzi

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 19

The durian has been cultivated for hundredsof years in tropical Asia. Durian was probablyfirst made known to the West during the 16thcentury by the Dutch traveler John Hurghen vanLinschoten, who wrote that “the durian is ofsuch excellent taste that it surpasses all otherfruits in the world.” The English naturalistAlfred Russel Wallace made the now famousstatement that it was worth a journey to theEast just to taste the fruit of durian.

The durian is a favorite fruit of most of the Thaipeople. The ‘Mon Thong’ cultivar is particularlyprized because of its sweet and buttery tastecombined with soft and fine texture and mildaroma. However, no other fruit has had somany contradictory descriptions written of itsodor and flavor. To many outside of the area,the smell is offensive (it has been described asFrench custard passed through a sewer), but

Durian: Southeast Asia’s King of FruitsSongpol Somsri

Durian (Durio zibethinus, Bombacaceae) is the most favorite and flavorful fruit of southeast Asia,where it is known as “King of Fruit.” Its popularity and notoriety arises from its unique taste andits intense and controversial aroma. Thailand is the world’s largest producer and exporter of duri-an, followed by Malaysia and Indonesia. In 2005, 132,781 tonnes were exported valued at US$59 million. The area planted to durian in Thailand in 2004 was about 147,230 ha with annualtotal yield 1,006,467 tonnes. Approximately 200 durian cultivars have been named in Thailandbut only 60-80 cultivars have been commercially grown; four cultivars (‘Chani’, ‘Kra Dum’, ‘MonThong’ and ‘Kan Yao’) are now common in the market. Among these, ‘Mon Thong’ has thelargest area of about 46% of the total durian area.

then, most have never tasted the fruit. Someairlines prohibit transfer of the fruit by passen-gers. Durian fruit is rich in nutrients; and locallyhas the reputation of being an aphrodisiac.The fruit is also attractive to a great variety ofanimals, including elephant, tiger, dog, and cat.

Durian pulp (aril) is nutrient rich with 62.5%moisture and (per 100 g edible portion) 2.1 gprotein, 3.3 g fat, 31.2 g carbohydrate, 1.4 gcrude fiber, 0.9 g ash, 29 mg calcium, 34 mgphosphorous, 1.1 mg iron, 46 μg β-carotene,8 μg total vitamin A (Retinol Equivalent), 0.16mg thiamin, 0.23 mg riboflavin, 2.5 mg niacin,and 35 mg vitamin C. After ripening, eachdurian cultivar has its own natural aroma whichis a combination of many volatile components,including sulphurous compounds.

Although most durians are consumed as a freshfruit after meals, immature durian pulp, cookedin sweetened coconut milk, can be used to pre-pare many local dishes such as spicy dips, cur-ries, deep-fried patties, and spicy salad. Durianseeds, either boiled or baked, are especially richin carbohydrates. Many products can be pre-

‘Chanthaburi 1’ durian, new F1 hybrid durianintroduced by the Thailand Department ofAgriculture named after the home town ofSongpol Somsri.

Six edible Durio species: (A) D. zibethinus, (B) D. graveolens, (C) D. kutejensis, (D) D. testudi-narum, (E) D. dulcis, and (F) D. oxleyanus.

A

C

E

B

D

F

ISHS • 20

pared from durian pulp and seed, such as duri-an paste, durian chips, durian powder, durianice-cream, freeze-dried durian, durian cake,durian candy, durian toffee, and durian insyrup. Durian pulp can be frozen for long-termstorage.

The most important durian product in Thailandis durian paste, which is a traditional product ofdurian growers. Durian paste or durian k-wan isproduced by mixing durian pulp with somesugar in an open pan heated over a charcoal orwood stove while stirring with a paddle, toremove moisture (4 kg of durian pulp can pro-duce 1 kg of durian paste). The paste from fruitharvested three days before ripening, when the

starch content is the highest, can be used for afried product. It has potential for export toAsian markets. Another popular durian productis fried chips commonly processed from imma-ture fruit and packed in plastic cases or bags.

SPECIES DISTRIBUTION

The tropical genus Durio comprises 27 species,all found within an area covering Sri Lanka anda large part of Southeast Asia. Of these, 19 arefound in Borneo, 7 in Sumatra, 11 in Malaysia,and 6 in Thailand. At least six species are consi-dered edible: Durio zibethinus, D. graveolen, D.kutejensis, D. testudinarum, D. dulcis, and D.

oxleyanus. Durio zibethinus has been foundgrowing spontaneously over a much wider area,extending from Sri Lanka and Southern Burmathrough southern Philippines and western Irianto Java and Northern Australia, Thailand,Malaysia, and Brunei.

PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

The first durian cultivar collection in Thailandwas established at the Plew HorticulturalExperiment Station, Chanthaburi province, in1956. Later, wild durian from Southern Thailandand Indonesia was collected and maintained atKhaochong Rubber Experiment Station, Trangprovince, Chanthaburi Horticultural ResearchCenter, Chanthaburi. The popular durian culti-vars commercially grown in Thailand are: ‘KanYao’, ‘Chani’, ‘Mon Thong’, ‘Kradum Thong’,‘Kop Phikul’, ‘Kop Ta Kham’, ‘Kop Mae Thao’,‘Phuang Mani’, ‘Nok Yip’.

In Thailand, many institutes, universities andresearch stations are involved in the conserva-tion of plant genetic resources. The Departmentof Agriculture (DOA) developed a genebank in1992. Horticultural research centers, stations,and concerned organizations under the DOAhave surveyed and maintained existent plantspecies. The Royal Forest Department is respon-sible for the in situ conservation in the pro-tected areas such as Conservation Forests,National Parks, Botanic Gardens.

MORPHOLOGY

Durian is a large tree with a long life of 80-150years. A full-grown tree has a trunk diameter of50-120 cm. The bark is dark brown, rough andpeels off irregularly with many deep, longitu-dinal splits. The wood is softwood. The bran-ches grow out from the main trunk in everydirection. They may be straight or curved,depending on the cultivar and amount of expo-sure to sunlight.

Leaves are simple, alternate, 15-20 cm long and5.0-7.5 cm wide, shiny smooth, dark greenabove and brown and scaly beneath. The leaf

Durian fruit.

Durian trees and flowers.

Five popular durian cultivars: (A) ‘Chani’, (B) ‘Mon Thong’, (C) ‘Kradum Thong’, (D) ‘PhuangMani’ and (E) ‘Nok Yip’.

A B

EDC

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 21

stem is round, about 2.5 cm long, and the leafapex is acuminate. Young leaves are at firstfolded at the mid-rib then stretch out whenthey are mature.

Durian grown from seedlings will have one pri-mary tap root growing directly down from thetrunk and secondary roots growing out from it.Tertiary roots grow out from the secondaryroots. The tree will not have a primary tap rootif grown by vegetative propagation. Instead itwill have adventitious or secondary rootsgrowing directly from the base of the trunk.Durian does not have root hairs. The roots thatabsorb water and nutrients are fungus rootswhich grow out from the secondary or tertiaryroots. These fungus roots grow only near thesoil surface, not deeper than 50 cm.

Durian flowers come out in clusters directlyfrom the branches or trunk of the tree. Thereare 1 to 45 flowers per cluster. They are com-plete or perfect flowers, meaning each has astamen and pistil in the same flower. Howeverwhen the flowers open, the pistil and the sta-mens do not appear at the same time. Normallythe stigma from the pistil emerges first, longbefore the anthers appear and shed their pol-len. With some Thai cultivars, the stigma willstart to be receptive at about 7.00 pm. Fullbloom will be at about 4.00 pm to 4.45 pm.The anthers will shed their pollen from about5.45 pm to 7.00 pm. However at 7.30 pm thegermination ability of the pollen is very low andfew pollen will germinate. The germination ratepeaks between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm. Thus,self-pollination rarely occurs because when thestigma is receptive, the stamens are not ex-posed. Alternatively, when the pollen is active,the stigma is no longer receptive. Artificialpollination can increase fruit set. Under self-pollination, fruit set will be 0-6% in ‘Chani’,and 21% in ‘Kan Yao’. However, cross-pollina-tion greatly increases fruit set in these two cul-tivars. After two weeks of hand pollination,using pollen from different cultivars, the per-centage fruit set was 30-64% in ‘Chani’ and87-90% in ‘Kan Yao’. Foliar sprays of paclobu-trazol at the rate of 1,000 ppm can induceflowering. Durian pollen grains are sticky andreleased in clumps, indicating that insects maybe a major pollinator.

The durian has an aril fruit with sharp spines onthe pericarp. Each fruit usually contains fivelocules. Some locules will contain incomplete,infertile seeds due to lack of pollination. Theflesh or aril starts to form four weeks afteranthesis. The aril starts as a white sheet, thenexpands to cover the whole seed. When thefruit starts to mature, the flesh color willdevelop to become cream, yellow or deeporange, depending on the cultivar. The fleshsoftens when the fruit starts to ripen. Initialyield may be 10-40 fruits for the first year offruiting to about 100 fruits for the sixth year.Yield of up to 200 fruits is common after thetenth year of fruiting.

Durian seeds are oblong-shaped with the colordepending on the cultivar. Usually fully matureseeds will be yellow-brown or red-brown.

CULTURE

Climatic Requirements

The durian requires constantly high tempera-tures and a regular supply of moisture for goodgrowth and production. The areas where itthrives well usually have a yearly rainfall of2,000 mm or more. The durian grows best in arich deep well-drained sandy clay or clay loam.Heavy clay soils with poor drainage should beavoided because durian roots are very sensitiveto standing water, and such conditions are con-ducive to proliferation of the most devastatingdurian disease, Phytophthora palmivora. InThailand durian trees usually are not grownabove an altitude of 300 m.

In bearing trees, the first soil applications of fer-tilizer should be done right after harvesting torestore tree vigor (recommended fertilizer is16N-16P2O5-16K2O at the rate of 2-5 kg/tree).The second soil application is done when thefirst leaf-flush becomes mature, using 12-24-12or 8-24-24 at the rate of 2-5 kg/tree in order toinduce flower bud initiation. The third soil appli-cation to ensure good fruit set is done when thefruit is about betel nut size, using 12-12-17-2(Mg) fertilizer at 1-3 kg/tree. Foliar sprays withurea are sometime recommended.

Areas with a dry season of greater than 3months are regarded as marginal for durian, butwith adequate irrigation this limitation isremoved. The critical periods for soil moistureare at flowering and during fruit development.

Propagation

Durian is typically propagated by grafting. Themost common and useful methods are modifiedsplice approach grafting (the same as mango)and cleft grafting. The principal rootstocks usedare native cultivars of durian. Durio malaccensis,D. mansoni and D. lowianus have a potential asPhytophthora-resistant rootstocks. Micropro-pagation is under investigation.

Fruit shape, fruit size and flesh colour of three newly recommended F1 hybrids: Chanthaburi 1(left), Chanthaburi 2 (center), Chanthaburi 3 (right).

Planting distances are 8-10 m following thesquare system of planting, corresponding with156,100 trees/ha. Grafted durian trees maybegin to bear fruit in the fourth year fromplanting. The peak of production occurs in the12th year.

Harvesting and Storage

In general, durian fruit will mature 3-5 monthsafter anthesis depending on the cultivar: earlymaturing cultivars in 95-105 days, mediummaturing cultivars in 105-120 days, and latematuring cultivars in 120-150 days.Durian is very seldom refrigerated mainly be-cause it is a bulky fruit and markets are notsophisticated. However, sound fruit will storesatisfactorily for up to 3 weeks at 15°C. Freshpulp (aril) can be kept up to 3 months by quickfreezing at -24°C without change in flavor.

Diseases and PestsThe most serious durian disease is stem rotcaused by Phytophthora palmivora. Diseases ofminor importance are fruit anthracnose, flowerwilt, leaf spot and leaf fungal disease. The mainmite and insect pests are red mites, red spider,scale insects, fruit borer, seed borer and stemborer. The outbreak of red mite is in August toSeptember. The solution containing Guzathionand Parathion is recommended as an effectivecontrol measure. A mixture of carbaryl andwhite oil is effective in controlling scale insects.The longhorn stem borer, Batocerra rufomacu-lata has been a serious problem.

BreedingDurian progeny is very heterozygous. Durianclones differ in tree form, vigor and leaf size,flowering intensity and frequency, fruit size andshape, rind color and thickness; aril volume,color, aroma, texture and flavor; seed numberand size. Most durian seedling trees have a highdegree of self incompatibility and flowers mustbe cross-pollinated to set fruit. However, inThailand, a number of clonal selections are self-compatible.There is little known about the genetics ofdurian. The somatic chromosome of durian is

ISHS • 22

Durian fruit marketing: (A) Durian fruits packaged for export; (B) Fruits in box; (C) Frozen durianfruits on shelf; (D) Fresh-cut durian on shelf in Seoul, South Korea.

2n=56. The somatic chromosome number of 4species of Durio is 2n=54 to 69.

Quality selection has been consistently practicedfor centuries in Thailand resulting in accumula-tion of many good cultivars. Most cultivars ori-ginated from selection of open pollinated seed-lings with cultivar names based on shape, pulpcolor, or the persons who selected them, or theplaces where they were found. Many are similaror only slightly different from one another. Thenumber of cultivars exceeds 200. There is there-fore ample scope for selection of superior treesfor genetic improvement. The criteria used inpreliminary evaluation are: good eating quality(good flavor, aroma and texture), medium fruitsize, thick flesh, high percentage of flesh perfruit, high percentage of aborted seed, seasonof maturity, fruit setting ability, and high yield.Recently, three Department of Agriculture F1

hybrids were released (Chanthaburi 1, 2 and 3),which are early maturity hybrids with fine fleshtexture and of good eating quality. Chanthaburi1, which has a very mild aroma, is recommend-ed for those unfamiliar with durian fruit andmight be suitable for European, American,Japanese, and Korean markets in the future.

Marketing

The area planted to durian in Thailand is about150 thousand ha with annual total yield of 1.1million tonnes. An average yield is about 11thousand kg/ha and farm price about 12-55Baht/kg (1 Baht = US$ 0.03). Fruit weight variesfrom 1.5 to 4.0 kg for commercial grades butodd fruit up to 8 kg are common.

The exported quantity of durian was 133 thou-sand tonnes with value of US$ 59 million in2005. In terms of area, the cultivars grown com-mercially are ‘Mon Thong’ (46%), ‘Chani’(31%), ‘Kanyao’ (5%), ‘Kradum Thong’ (2%),and others (16%). Considering the fact thatdurian trees do not bear fruit 4-5 years afterplanting and take about 14 years to reach maxi-mum production, it is predicted that productionwill increase substantially in the immediatefuture.

The marketing of durian in Thailand is mainlyfor domestic consumption. Annual exportsaccount for about 15% of the total production.The traders usually collect durian fruits from thegrowers and send the produce to a centralwholesale market in a major centre such as

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Songpol Somsri

Dr. Songpol Somsri is Senior Expert inHorticulture, at the Department ofAgriculture, Bangkok, Thailand. Email:songpolsom@yahoo.com

Neon Sung Fruit Market, Chanthaburi. Thefruits will be distributed to wholesalers inBangkok or to other traders. Some growers sellthe produce directly to Bangkok wholesalers. Itis estimated that about 70% of durians aremarketed through Bangkok.

Processing into durian paste accounts for only0.8% of production. Currently, Thailand exportsabout 15% of total production in 2006.

The durian fruits harvested from the tree have ashelf life of 1 week and considerable quantitiesare exported to Malaysia, Singapore, HongKong, Korea and Europe. Major problems thathinder marketing are its extremely short-life andsulphurous odor once ripe, which is oftenobjectionable during shipping. The smell andflavor of durian is abhorrent to many people atfirst experience. The subtlest approach to pro-moting the fruit would be to introduce it as aflavoring of ice-cream. yogurts, and sweets.Attempts have been made to export frozendurian pulp and fresh cut.

FURTHER READING

Ketsa, S. and Paull, R.E. 2008. Durio zibethinus,durian. In: J. Janick and R.E. Paull, Encyclopoediaof Fruit and Nuts, CABI Int., Wallingford,Oxfordshire, UK.

Somsri, Songpol. 2007. Thai Durian. HorticulturalResearch Institute, Department of Agriculture,Bangkok, Thailand.

A B

C D

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 23

The books listed here are non-ISHS-publica-tions. For ISHS publications covering theseor other subjects, visit the ISHS websitewww.ishs.org or the Acta Horticulturaewebsite www.actahort.org

BOOK REVIEWS

Le Specie legnose da Frutto: Liste deiCaratteri descrittivi (The Fruit WoodySpecies: Descriptor List). 2 volumes. EvioBellini (General Editor). 2007. Arsia,Florence, Italy. 1069p. ISBN 978-88-8295-084-2. € 62.

This large two volume work, written in bothItalian and English, is a compendium on thedescriptors of fruit and nut species that will beuseful for the identification of old and new cul-tivars with special reference to Italy. The work isdivided into three parts: pomological history (78pages), descriptors of 41 temperate and subtro-pical fruit tree species (823 pages); and an illus-trated pomological glossary (133 pages). Thebook begins with a brief section entitled Historyand Evolution of Pomology followed by a list offruit monographs from 1900 (Italian andforeign), information on conservation of fruitgermplasm, and a discussion of fruit descriptors.The main portion of the book consists ofdescriptor lists of major and minor fruit speciesincluding small fruits. Included for most entriesare phenological stages in fruit developmentfrom dormant bud to ripe fruit. The last sectionis an illustrated pomological glossary that in-cludes tree type, bark, fruiting shoots (stone andpome fruits), buds, vegetative sprouts, leavesand leaf margins, nectaries (Prunus), flowers,fruit at various stages, flesh, and seeds. This isan enormous work, profusely illustrated, largely

New Books, Websitesin color, that will be helpful to all fruit workersespecially those in the germplasm communitybut will also be helpful for those attempting todescribe and patent new cultivars. FrancoScaramuzzi has rightly pointed out that allpomologists owe a debt to Elvio Bellini and hiscollaborators for putting together this signifi-cant contribution to pomology.

Reviewed by Jules Janick, Purdue University, USA

Compendium of Onion and Garlic Diseasesand Pests. 2nd Edition. Edited by Howard F.Schwartz and S. Krishna Mohan. 2008. APSPress, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. 127p. ISBN978-0-89054-357-3 (soft cover). $59.00.www.shopapspress.org

The second edition of the “Compendium ofOnion and Garlic Diseases and Pests” is anotherbook in the series produced by the AmericanPhytopathological Society and maintains thehigh standard of previously published compen-dia. This edition provides an updated, compre-hensive and modern account of onion and gar-lic diseases and pests and is designed to assist intheir diagnosis both in the field and in the labo-ratory, and to provide management options. Assuch the compendium is intended for plantpathologists, entomologists, and those specia-lists involved in crop production and crop pro-tection. It will also be invaluable to growers,crop consultants, regulatory agencies, resear-chers and others interested in the recognitionand management of pests and diseases asso-ciated with these crops worldwide. A keyfeature of the book is the selection of high qua-lity photographs showing symptoms and signsof the important diseases and pests and thedamage caused. These provide the reader withexcellent assistance in the recognition and

diagnosis of onion and garlic diseases, disordersand injuries due to pests.

The book contains information from numerousscientists and practitioners, mainly from theUnited States, but also from Canada, who areclosely involved in onion and garlic diseases,disorders and pest damage research, diagnosis,and advisory services.

The compendium provides interesting informa-tion of the significance of the genus Allium, itsorigins, its botany, and the cultivation of onionand garlic worldwide. For most of the diseasesthe compendium describes survival, transmis-sion, infection, host range, response to environ-ment, variability of the pathogen, genetic resis-tance and other characteristics of the plant, andcultural practices of the production system.There are clear descriptions of the direct effectsof insect feeding damage by some insect pests.However, for others, an understanding of therole they play as vectors in transmission of yield-reducing viruses is key to the managementpractices for the crops.

The compendium is divided into three parts.Part I presents detailed descriptions of infec-tious/biotic diseases of subterranean partscaused by fungi and oomycetes; diseases ofaerial parts caused by fungi; and diseases ofbulbs caused by fungi. Also described arediseases caused by bacteria and yeast; diseasescaused by nematodes; diseases caused byviruses and phytoplasmas; and the effects ofthe parasitic plant, dodder. Part II is devoted todescriptions of insect pests having direct effectson crop production as a result of feeding andthose that are involved in transmission of impor-tant viruses and phytoplasmas. Part III describesnon-infectious/abiotic conditions. Extremelyuseful is the appendix providing information onthe scientific names of microbes, nematodes,and pests associated with Allium spp., and a listof hosts of Allium pathogens and pests. Thefinal section is a comprehensive glossary of theterms used by the contributors in each of thedetailed descriptions of the diseases and pestsof onion and garlic. This will make the compen-dium so much more useful to those practi-tioners that do not have an extensive back-ground in plant pathology and entomology.

Descriptions of each disease and disorder followthe format of other compendia in the series thathas proved to be so successful. Information isincluded about their geographical distributionand economic importance. Detailed descrip-tions of symptoms together with excellentphotographs are followed by details on thecausal agents, epidemiology and disease cycles,control strategies, and selected references.Recommendations by the authors for diseaseand pest control, especially using agrichemicals,are deliberately general, as such information

ISHS • 24

can become outdated very rapidly. Parts II and IIIdealing with insect pests and abiotic and physi-cal disorders respectively, tend to be brief incomparison with the coverage accorded to thediseases in Part I. However, they still provideimportant information for practitioners withboth extensive and limited experience in recog-nition and diagnosis of onion and garlic disea-ses and disorders encountered during produc-tion of these crops. In most cases the recom-mendations for control suggest an integratedapproach to management of the most impor-tant problems encountered in onion and garlicproduction systems.

The excellent colour photographs provide thereader with comprehensive coverage of symp-toms, disorders, and causal agents regularlyseen in onion and garlic production worldwide.These enable individuals with only limited expe-rience with the crops to make reasonably accu-rate diagnoses. The accounts of each disease,pest, and disorder provide up-to-date informa-tion and are written with a clarity and concise-ness that results in an invaluable diagnostic andreference guide. The information on diseasecycles and epidemiology with clear diagrams forsome of the more important diseases providesthe reader with a guide to the formulation ofappropriate control measures, bearing in mindthe ever-changing nature of agrichemical com-pounds and their usage.

The updated second edition of the compen-dium provides a comprehensive treatment ofonion and garlic diseases, disorders, and pestsand their control in production systems. It en-sures that the information is available to plantpathologists, growers, consultants, and othersassociated with the production of onions andgarlic worldwide, in a format that is easilyunderstood.

Reviewed by Chris HaleChair Commission Plant Protection

NEW TITLES

Bosbach, Franz and Gröning, Gert (eds.). 2008.Landschaftsgärten des 18. und 19.Jahrhunderts. Beispiele deutsch-britischenKulturtransfers. Prinz-Albert-Studien. Band 26. /Landscape Gardens in the 18th and 19thCenturies. Examples of British-German culturaltransfer. Prince Albert Studies. Volume 26. K.G.Saur Verlag, München, Germany. 207p. ISBN978-3-598-21426-4. € 58.

Brewster, James L. 2008. Onions and OtherVegetable Alliums. 2nd edition. CropProduction Science in Horticulture SeriesNumber 15. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.448p. ISBN 978-1-84593-399-9 (paperback).£37.50 / $75.00 / € 60.00. www.cabi.org

Nath, P., Srivastava, V.K., Dutta, O.P. andSwamy, K.R.M. (eds.). 2008. Vegetable Crops:Improvement and Production. Dr. Prem NathAgricultural Science Foundation, Bangalore,India. 398p. ISBN 978-81-901815-0-1. Rs 125.

Pessarakli, Mohammad (ed.). 2007. Handbookof Turfgrass Management and Physiology. CRCPress, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton,Florida / Atlanta Georgia, USA. 720p. ISBN9780849370694. $159.95. www.crcpress.com

CD ROM

ASSESS 2.0: Image Analysis Software for PlantDisease Quantification. 2008. APS Press, St.Paul, Minnesota, USA. ISBN 978-0-89054-369-6. $295.00 (CD + manual). www.shopaps-press.org

Parmar, Chiranjit. 2008. Some Wild GrowingFruits, Nuts and Edible Plants of the WesternHimalayas. Basic information about 30 wildgrowing fruits, 11 wild growing nuts and 10

wild growing edible plants, given in 203 PowerPoint slides. The CD also has 153 pictures (89 offruits, 22 of nuts and 36 of wild edible plants).US$15. Info: Dr. Chiranjit Parmar, 186/3 JailRoad, Mandi HP 175001, India, Phone: 01905-222810, 94181 – 81323, www.fruitipedia.com

DVD

Blätter, die die Welt deuten (Pages that interpretthe world): 50 minutes film about the GermanHorticultural Library in Berlin. The German word“Blätter” has several meanings. Here it relatesto the leaves of a plant also, and it is this wordplay which the title of the film alludes to. DVDPAL can be ordered from Bücherei desDeutschen Gartenbaues e.V., z.Hd. Herrn PD Dr.Clemens A. Wimmer, Potsdamer Str. 187, D-14469 Potsdam-Bornstedt, Germany. € 7.50.

50 Video Clips of Fungal Diseases of Cereals:video sequences from Biology of FungalPathogens Video Series. 2008. APS Press, St.Paul, Minnesota, USA. ISBN 978-0-89054-362-7. $159.00. www.shopapspress.org

WEBSITES

www.agrobiodiversityplatform.org: the Plat-form for Agrobiodiversity Research (PAR) seeksto improve the maintenance and use of agro-biodiversity by synthesizing and sharing existingknowledge, identifying areas where research isneeded and stimulating the development ofnew and innovative research partnerships toaddress knowledge gaps. PAR tries to promoteresearch on agrobiodiversity loss and its conse-quences, on the beneficial roles of high levels ofagrobiodiversity and on management practicesthat can enhance these functions to increaseagricultural sustainability.

Courses and MeetingsThe following are non-ISHS events. Makesure to check out the Calendar of ISHSEvents for an extensive listing of all ISHSmeetings. For updated information log onto www.ishs.org/calendar

International Conference on Plant Abiotic StressTolerance, 8-11 February 2009, Vienna, Austria.Info: Prof. Alisher Touraev, Vienna University,Department of Plant Molecular Biology, Dr.Bohr-gasse 9, Vienna 1030, Austria, Phone:+431427754681, Fax: +43142779546, email:stressplants.pflanzenmolbio@univie.ac.at, web:www.univie.ac.at/stressplants/

International Conference on Advances in PlantVirology 2009 (AAB/SGM), 1-3 April 2009,Harrogate, Yorks, UK. Info: Rachel Cousins, The

Association of Applied Biologists, WarwickEnterprise Park, Wellesbourne, Warwick, CV359EF, Phone: +44 (0) 1789 472020, Fax: +44 (0)1789 470234, email: Rachel@aab.org.uk, web:www.aab.org.uk

3rd International Symposium on Crop PlantResistance to Biotic and Abiotic Factors: CurrentPotential and Future Demands, 14-16 May2009, Berlin, Germany. Info: Dr. Falko Feld-mann, Managing Director, German Phytome-dical Society, Messeweg 11-12, D-38104Braunschweig, Germany, email: Feldmann@phytomedizin.org or dpg@phytomedizin.org,web: www.dpg-bcpc-symposium.de

4th International Symposium on PlantDormancy, 8-11 June 2009, Fargo, ND, USA.

Info: Dr. Wun S. Chao, USDA, ARS, BiosciencesResearch Laboratory, Plant Science Research,1605 Albrecht Boulevard, Fargo, ND 58105-5674, Phone: (701) 239-1256, email:Wun.Chao@ars.usda.gov, web: www.plantdor-mancy.com

XXXIII CIOSTA-CIGR Conference, 17-19 June2009, Reggio Calabria, Italy. Info: Mediter-ranean University of Reggio Calabria, DiSTAfA,Dept. Agroforestry and Environmental Sciencesand Technologies, Agricultural EngineeringSection, Feo di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria,Italy, Phone: +39 0965 801277, Fax: +39 0965801234, email: ciosta2009@unirc.it orgzimbalatti@unirc.it, web: www.ciosta.unirc.it

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 25

Section Medicinal and AromaticPlants – Commission Plant GeneticResources

Second Int’l Humulus Symposium

SYMPOSIA AND WORKSHOPS

From 1 to 5 September 2008, about 100 hopexperts from 18 countries gathered in Ghent,Belgium for the 2nd International HumulusSymposium (the first symposium was held inCorvallis, Oregon, USA from 1 to 7 August2004). The symposium was a co-organization of3 institutes in and around Ghent that haveongoing research programs on the hop plant:Ghent University, ILVO – Institute forAgricultural and Fisheries Research, and KaHoSt. Lieven. Co-Conveners were Prof. Dr. DenisDe Keukeleire from the Laboratory ofPharmacognosy and Phytochemistry at theGhent University in Belgium and Dr. Kim E.Hummer from the US Department of Agri-culture, Agricultural Research Service, NationalClonal Germplasm Repository-Corvallis,Oregon, USA (khummer@ars-grin.gov).Sponsors included the Bart Haas Group,Metagenics and Naturex, Kalsec, Hopsteinerand Kirin, and local breweries: Huyghe, The

Anchor, Lindemans, Bios – Van Steenberge,Contreras, The Grail, De Leyerth, Rodenbach.

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

The scientific sessions occurred at ILVO-Plant,Caritasstraat 21, 9090 Melle, Belgium, in thevicinity of the city of Ghent. The opening cere-mony had the presence of the heads of theorganizing institutes and the mayor of Melle,while Dr. Hummer, Chairperson of theCommission Plant Genetic Resources, welcomedthe delegates as official representative of ISHS.

The format of the symposium featured 4 sec-tions. Section 1 on Hops, Breeding, andMolecular Genetics was highlighted by 4 invit-ed speakers: Dr. Paul Matthews (Hopsteiner,USA): Application of newly developed tools fortargeted metabolomics of hops (Humulus lupu-lus); Prof. Dr. Jonathan Page (National Research

Council Canada): Dissecting terpenophenolicbiosynthesis in hop lupulin glands using ESTanalysis and proteomics; Prof. Dr. JaroslavMatousek (Biological Centre of the Academy ofSciences of the Czech Republic): Cloning andmolecular analyses of hop transcription regula-tion factors; Dr. Elisabeth Seigner (BayerischLandesanstalt für Landwirtschaft, Germany):Breeding of hop varieties for the future.Section 2 on Hops, Cultivation, andManagement included 2 invited speakers:Prof. Dr. Jean-Marc Jeltsch (Université deStrasbourg, France): Tackling hop fungal disea-ses by studying a Fusarium graminearum/hopcell wall model; Prof. Dr. Maria Ángeles Revilla(University of Oviedo, Spain): Molecular assess-ment of biotechnological procedures to pre-serve hop genetic resources. Section 3 onHops and Health was presented by: Prof. Dr.Axel Brattström (Zeller AG, Switzerland):

Participants of the Symposium.

ISHS • 26

CCONTACTONTACT

Prof. Dr. Denis De Keukeleire, Co-Convener, GhentUniversity, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences,Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Phyto-chemistry, Harelbekestraat 72, 9000 Ghent,Belgium, email: denis.dekeukeleire@ugent.be

Humulus lupulus (hops), is there any evidencefor central nervous effects related to sleep?Prof. Dr. Clarissa Gerhäuser (German CancerResearch Center, Germany): Xanthohumol fromhops (Humulus lupulus L.) prevents hormone-dependent tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo;Dr. Sam Possemiers (Ghent University, Belgium):Activation of pro-estrogens from hops(Humulus lupulus L.) by intestinal bacteria: fromdiscovery to product development; Dr. HiroakiYajima (Kirin Brewery, Japan): Anti-obesityeffects of isohumulones by modulating lipoidmetabolism via peroxisome proliferator-activat-ed receptors. Section 4 on Hops and Beershowed presentations by Prof. Dr. ThomasShellhammer (Oregon State University, USA):Particular features of hop-derived compoundsand beer quality; Prof. Dr. Sonia Collin(Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium):Hop allylic alcohols are precursors of sulfur-con-taining odorants in fresh beer. The 12 invitedlectures were complemented by 15 oral presen-tations and 20 posters.

During the ISHS Business meeting, which wasattended by 35 people, venues for the 3rdInternational Humulus Symposium were solicit-ed. The first offer was from Dr. AnthonyKoutoulis, University of Tasmania, School ofPlant Science, Hobart, Australia. He would coor-dinate the meeting with other Australian scien-tists with tours of Tasmanian hops productionand perhaps a post-symposium tour includingNew Zealand hops production. Dr. Koutoulisexpects to host the meeting probably inFebruary 2012. The second offer was from agroup of scientists at the Hop ResearchInstitute, Zatec, Czech Republic. The potentialtime for them to host the meeting would be inFall 2012. Both groups will solicit funding sup-port possibilities and give their final response toDr. Hummer in due time.

HOP-RELATED EVENTS

In connection to the topic of the meeting,appropriate events were organized. An initialreception took place in the magnificent city hallof Ghent on Monday evening 1 September. OnWednesday afternoon 3 September, the dele-gates were taken to Poperinge, the hop grow-ing area in Belgium, some 90 km away fromGhent. A visit was dedicated to the fully reno-vated Hop Museum in Poperinge and the hopharvest could be observed at the farm of JorisCambie, who is the sole organic hop grower inthe country. The delegates were graciouslyreceived by the mayor of the city and this eventwas followed by the symposium dinner thatfeatured typical regional dishes and local beers.The symposium ended on Friday noon 5September with a farewell ceremony to Prof. Dr.Denis De Keukeleire at the occasion of hisretirement and a reception with speciallyselected well-hopped beers from regionalbreweries. Next, an excursion was organized to

the 10th Belgian Beer weekend at the splendidGrand Place of Brussels. The evening endedwith a great farewell party for Prof. DeKeukeleire and a final superb firework closed amemorable week that was well covered by theFlemish radio and TV.

Denis De Keukeleire

Visitors to the hop harvest observing how the hop cones are detached from the vines.

Co-Convener Prof. Dr. Denis De Keukeleireenjoying a well-hopped local beer.

Co-Convener Prof. Dr. Denis De Keukeleire in the company of all-female participants.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 27

Section Nuts and MediterraneanClimate Fruits

Seventh Int’l Congress on Hazelnut

The International Congress on Hazelnut hasnow a long story. The first two congresses wereheld in Reus, Spain (1976) and Avellino, Italy(1983); then, since1992, a 4-year schedule wasestablished and the congress was hosted inAlba, Italy (1992), Ordu, Turkey (1996),Corvallis, USA (2000), Tarragona-Reus, Spain(2004). The last edition, which corresponds tothe Seventh International Congress, was held inViterbo, Italy in June 23rd - 27th 2008.

Viterbo is located nearby the Monti Cimini, thecore of one of the principal hazelnut productionareas of the world. In an area of 33,000 ha,there are over 9,000 farms that produce hazel-nuts “Tonda Gentile Romana” coveringapproximately 18,000 ha and giving an averageyear production of 40,000 tons (about 5% ofthe world’s production). The highly productivespecialization has contributed to the creation ofa very dynamic sector, where several hazelnutfarmer associations, as well as firms specializedin assembling specific harvesting machines or inprocessing and marketing, are present.

The congress was organized by the HazelnutResearch Centre together with the InternationalSociety for Horticultural Science (ISHS),Università della Tuscia and the local Chamber ofCommerce and it was supported by manypublic institutions, as well as by private localcompanies.

The opening session included authorities’greetings, the welcome speech of theConvener, Leonardo Varvaro, and two generalcommunications held by the invited speakers. Inthe first communication Shawn Mehlenbacher,Chair of the ISHS Working Group on Hazelnuts(Department of Horticulture, Oregon StateUniversity, USA) gave an overview of the state-of-the-art and future perspective of geneticresources for hazelnut; in the second one adraft of the world hazelnut situation and of theresearch programs agenda was sketched byCarlo Fideghelli (Horticulture Research Centre ofRome, Italy).

A total number of 133 scientific papers, divided

in 58 oral presentations and 75 posters, waspresented covering the themes of the sixdifferent scientific sessions: 1) Germplasm andGenetic Improvement, 2) Biology andPhysiology, 3) Orchard Management, 4) Pestsand Diseases, 5) Post Harvest, Quality andIndustry, 6) Marketing, Economics and Policies.

The proceedings of the congress, containingthe full paper of all communications, will bepublished as a volume of Acta Horticulturae inthe near future.

The main issues discussed in each session aresummarized in Table 1.

All communications stressed how the produc-tive, technical and market context of the hazel-nut sector is rapidly changing. The high numberof participants (over 150), coming from 20 dif-ferent countries representing all 5 continents, isa proof of the interest and the relevance of thetopics discussed during the meeting.

Within this context, the 7th InternationalCongress on Hazelnut gave the opportunity to

Participants of the Congress at the Congress Venue (S. Maria in Gradi).

ISHS • 28

Main issues and remarks

• Utilization of biotechnologies to avoid long times for germplasmevaluation

• Phenotypic evaluation of both productive and phenological aspects• The genetic improvement program at the Oregon State University

(USA) is focusing on new cultivars resistant to the Eastern FilbertBlight (EFB)

• The European project SAFENUT is carrying out the evaluation andclassification of the Mediterranean hazelnut germplasm

• Studies on flower biology• Radication physiology for the different cultivars and improvement

of in vitro propagation techniques• Rootstocks of Corylus colurna L. and grafting methods• Studies on sporophytic self-incompatibility

• Irrigation: definition of schedules, shifts and volumes• Pruning: dry, green and mechanical techniques• Leaf fertilization• Mechanization: elimination of suckers, pruning, pest control, har-

vest

• Control of common diseases: bacteriosis, virosis and mycosis• Alternative control techniques: organic methods with predators and

parasitoids

• High nutritional and dietary value: different cultivar characteristics• Storage and conservation techniques• Sensory analysis to evaluate the quality and to typify the products

• Price evolution and farmers’ revenues• Economic results of organic management• The role of public support

Session(n° of contributions)

1. Germplasm and GeneticImprovement(24)

2. Biology and Physiology(18)

3. Orchard Management(26)

4. Pests and Diseases(28)

5. Post Harvest, Quality andIndustry(23)

6. Marketing, Economics andPolicies(14)

CCONTACTONTACT

Silvio Franco (Scientific Secretariat), BarbaraPancino and Valerio Cristofori, Università dellaTuscia, Via S.Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100Viterbo, Italy, email: franco@unitus.it,bpancino@unitus.it, valerio75@unitus.it

establish tighter relations among researchersand experts of the different countries. Thescientific communications, the technical tours,the round table, focused on innovation and

Round table at Palazzo Farnese.

Mechanization test in the field during thevisit to APRONVIT.

Damiano Avanzato (left) and ShawnMehlenbacher (right) handing out the ISHSmedal to the convener Leonardo Varvaro(center).

As announced during the last day of the con-gress by Damiano Avanzato, Chairman of theISHS Section Nuts and Mediterranean ClimateFruits, the 8th International Congress onHazelnut will be held in Pucon City, Chile inMarch 2012.

Silvio Franco, Barbara Pancino and Valerio Cristofori

market topics, and even the informal and con-vivial moments, gave an opportunity to discussabout the state-of-the-art and the possibledevelopment of the hazelnut sector.

Table 1. Main issues discussed in each session.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 29

Section Ornamental Plants –Commission Quality and Post HarvestHorticulture

Ninth Int’l Symposium on Post HarvestPhysiology of Ornamental Plants

The 9th International Symposium on PostHarvest Physiology of Ornamental Plants washeld in Odense, Denmark with 75 participantsfrom all over the world in a relaxed but veryactive atmosphere. The topics covered allaspects of post harvest from the chain approachto molecular biology. The professional visit tocommercial nurseries and the annual flower fes-tival in Odense brought the visitors out of themeeting rooms. The symposium also had alittle satellite meeting with a PhD-course.

Many growers suffer under the energy prices;there is a lot of work being done to improve thepost harvest performance of ornamental plantsusing different approaches. The symposium wasorganized in topics that reflect the problem –the production, post harvest phase and themore general aspects of ethylene and senes-cence and the chain approach.

The symposium was organized under the wingsof the ISHS Section Ornamental Plants andCommission Quality and Post HarvestHorticulture, trying to cover the field of the veryspecialised topics and the cross disciplinarytopics. The symposium was opened by theMayor of Odense, Jan Boye; while the openingon behalf of ISHS was made by the Danishrepresentative of ISHS, head of Department ofHorticulture, University of Århus, Ole Callesen.

THE CHAIN FROM GROWERSTO CONSUMERS

If we want to improve the income in the orna-mental industry, it is about time to find outwhat the consumer really wants stated Prof.

Olaf van Kooten, from Wageningen University.Growers and retail seem to focus on the pro-duct rather than developing the performancethroughout the supply chain. So why not startby finding out what consumers want and dothis in a cost effective way. In the UK the retailchains such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco wanted toimprove their ornamental categories and withsuccess while the total flower consumption inthe UK doubled in the past 15 years. It wouldbe obvious to assume that the ‘Vase LifeGuarantee’ was the main factor, but compar-isons between the Netherlands and the UK indi-cated that very few shoppers knew about theGuarantee and few had used it; thus, it could

not have been the incentive for buying. Thecomposition, price and freshness might havehad more influence on the buyers.

The freshness might be improved by coldstorage in the display as Terrill Nell from Floridashowed in his presentation. Long storage mightbe possible, such as buffering the amount ofplants around Thanksgiving, but it does notimprove the shelf life. It is clear that more workon potted plants and cold storage either as abuffer in the nursery or during transport mightbe needed.

PRODUCTION FACTORS ANDQUALITY

Which factors affect the “life” of ornamentalsand how to extend that life? Many of the fac-tors that are critical to successful handling offruits and vegetables are also important forornamentals.

In a current Danish large-scale research projecton the relationship between production factorsand post harvest quality, we focus on a numberof aspects during crop production, for instance,how to improve the carbohydrate uptake toincrease the post harvest performance. Wefocus on the effects of irrigation and nutrientsupply and the understanding of the humidityeffects. The results shown by Dr. Koefoed andDr. Ottosen indicated that the productionmethods are difficult to manipulate in order toobtain an improvement of the internal qualityof the plants (the ability of the plants to sustaina post harvest period) without affecting theexternal quality (the visual appearance of a

Participants of the Symposium.

Ole Callesen handing out the ISHS medaland certificate to the Convener.

ISHS • 30

plant). The plasticity of the plants to the grow-ing conditions is often so large that a decline inpost harvest performance in many cases isobtained by changes in cultivation that wouldbe close to mismanagement and thus not realis-tic to implement with a grower.

Uulke van Meeteren from WageningenUniversity found that more emphasis should beput on critical control points for quality in thedistribution chain. This could be by models – forexample, looking into temperature is one of themost important factors to control quality lossesand simulations of Botrytis, and temperaturecould be important in finding the weak pointsin the chain.

A nursery comparison made by CasperSlootweg from PPO in The Netherlands conclud-ed that when a sufficient number of spores arepresent in the greenhouse environment, thehumidity level and the intensity and duration ofirradiation have the strongest influence oninfection. Thus, a dry microclimate (ventilators,assimilation lamps and a low plant density)reduces infection with Botrytis in Gerbera.

Product quality is of growing importance intoday’s markets. Auction research, as shown byVan Nieuwenhoven from FloraHolland, providesuseful data on the non-visible post harvest qua-lity. The growers of for example roses can distin-guish themselves at point of sale by performingtests and by presenting the non-censured testresults to other growers and buyers.

The initial focus in the Danish project as pre-sented by Dr. Ottosen has been to develop aforced quality control with higher temperaturesduring transport simulation and post harvest.The observations during the post harvest testare entered into a database using a tabletPC.The outcome of this validation showed that thesystem provides a flexible platform, which effec-tively facilitates the analysis of the effect of con-trolled stress on the durability of ornamentalplants.

The cultivation also affects the post harvest lifeof cut flowers as shown by Dr. Dole from NorthCarolina. Quality of lily stems was reduced asthe soil moisture deficit increased. Vase life incut lily stems was negatively correlated with thechange in fresh weight in both humidity andwater stress experiments.

Dr. Spinarova from Geisenheim, Germanyshowed studies of roses in which acoustic

methods could be used to detect bent neckrisks.

TRANSGENIC PLANTS –A MIXED FUTURE

“Genetic modification has proved to be aneffective way in controlling ethylene synthesisand perception in several species,” was the mes-sage from Prof. Serek and collaborators inHannover. Use of the mutant ethylene receptorgene, etr1-1, from Arabidopsis seems most pro-mising, but before the ethylene insensitiveplants are available, several issues have to besolved. The selection methods may block regis-tration especially in European countries. Further-more, in some cases the transgenic plantsshowed lower ability of rooting in cuttings.A method for solving the problems of intro-ducing transgenic plants was demonstrated byDr. Brian Christensen from LIFE, Denmark. As analternative to chemical growth retardants plantswere transformed with rol-genes (root loci)from the natural occurring soil bacteriumAgrobacterium rhizogenes. Apart from changesin morphology, the transformants had improvedpost harvest performance in Kalanchoe blossfel-diana.Dr. David Clark from the University of Floridagave a clear message both to the growers andalso the students for the international PhD-course that was held just after the symposium.Each transgenic cultivar that passes the US sys-tem has a price tag of 10.000 dollars. As thiscost has to be added to the costs of developersand the patent costs, it is a bit difficult to ima-gine that that amount was possible to earnback.The work with focus on molecular biologymaintains an important issue as it allows loca-

tion and description of the mechanism for regu-lation of senescence and ethylene. The novelgene analytical tools allow for rather quicktesting for specific genes or markers for differ-ent responses. This allows for the screening ofpotential varieties for specific responses at anearly stage.

During the meeting, the roses were often a cen-tral issue. The shelf life of roses with the tradi-tional fragrance is assumed to be shorter, butresearch in Florida indicates that the answer isnot that simple. However, addition of raised fra-grance to cut roses would be economicallymore feasible than any breeding project andwould allow for different fragrances to beadded; a kind of provocation, but Dave Clark iscollaborating with scientists from other areas toevaluate how the different fragrances andvisual clues are affecting the brain. A number ofstudents act as the test panel.

GROWERS ANDPHD-STUDENTS

In another presentation for the Danish growersin connection with the symposium, Olaf vanKooten showed that a focus on the stage ofdevelopment of the plants at point of sale isimportant. If the plants are sold in the right“window” of development and combined withclear marketing the chances of shoppers toselect the plants is larger, resulting in a largerturn-over.

In connection with the symposium an interna-tional PhD-course focusing on networking andskills development was held by the DanishResearch Schools RSHS and SAFE. No less than12 students (9 nationalities) and 4 teachers (4nationalities) discussed scientific presentationsand documentation techniques with great suc-cess. Perhaps this is an idea for other symposiato engage young scientists.

Carl-Otto Ottosen

Rosa-Danica nursery.

Uulke van Meeteren and Terrill Nell presentating their research.

CCONTACTONTACT

Carl-Otto Ottosen, Department of Horticulture,University of Århus, Denmark, email:co.ottosen@agrsci.dk

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 31

Against the inspiring scenery of floweringbulb fields the Xth International Symposium onFlower Bulbs and Herbaceous Perennials washeld from April 20-24, 2008 in Lisse, theNetherlands. For the first time the herbaceousperennials were included in the scientific pro-gram of the symposium. Both for flower bulbsand perennials current research topics like bio-diversity, sustainable production and quality inthe chain were presented, next to the more‘classical’ themes like production, forcing,breeding and diseases.

At the opening session the convener of thesymposium presented the theme of the sympo-sium “dare to share”. Scientific and appliedresearch on flower bulbs and perennials haveplayed an important role in solving problemsand creating innovations throughout the chain.Improvement of the knowledge exchange, notonly between scientists but also betweenscience and industry, will speed up the innova-tions process. Therefore, the OrganizingCommittee allocated one day in the program tomeet representatives of the bulb and perennialindustry, listen to their views on future develop-ments and exchange ideas for solving problemsand creating new opportunities.

In the session “Breeding and Biotechnology”the state of the art in plant breeding of bulbousornamentals was presented. Under the title“adding wit to chance” Dr. Frans Krens showedthe possibilities with new molecular techniquesto move from classical ways of general enlarge-ment of the assortment to breeding for specifictraits like disease resistance. As prevention fordiseases is a major topic in sustainable produc-tion, resistance against pathogens is an impor-tant factor. However, it is not the only factor, aswas shown by Dr. Marjan de Boer in the session“Pests, Diseases and Sustainable Production”.She showed that a variety of instruments is at

Section Ornamental PlantsTenth Int’l Symposium on Flower Bulbsand Herbaceous Perennials

hand to prevent and control pests and diseasesand that only an integrated approach will leadto a sustainable bulb production. In the session“Quality in the Chain” Dr. Art Cameron de-scribed the production chain of herbaceousperennials from breeding and propagation tillfield production and sales. Using ModifiedAtmosphere Packaging to extend the shelf-lifeof flower bulbs and perennials can have a dra-matic positive effect on the quality in the chain,as shown by Dr. Henk Gude in the same session.Clear progress has been made in the knowledgeof internal processes like florigenesis and in-duced resistance responses. Prof. RinaKamenetsky presented a thorough overview onflorigenesis in the session “Flowering and Phy-siology” and Dr. Iris Yedidia presented impres-sive results in a study on induced resistanceresponse in calla lily towards Pectobacteriumcarotovorum. In order to further deepen the

Poster session.

Participants of the symposium visiting Mak Breeding Company.

CCONTACTONTACT

Dr. ir. Ernst van den Ende, PO Box 85, 2160 ABLisse, The Netherlands, email: Ernst.vandenende@wur.nl

knowledge on internal processes in geophytesProf. Rina Kamenetsky made a strong plea tostart working within the global scienitific com-munity on a model species for molecular studiesand genome sequencing. New markets can becreated in flower bulbs and perennials byadding value to traditional crops. Prof. RobVerpoorte showed that by exploring the naturalresources of the plant many products can beidentified that can be used for the health ofhumans and plants, hence creating new mar-kets for bulbs and perennials.

During the symposium professional tours weremade to bulb and perennial growers, whole-salers, breeding companies and a companyspecialized in large scale storage and prepara-tion of bulbs and perennials. These visitsshowed the state of the art of the Dutch bulband perennial industry and participants of thesymposium were impressed by the manyinnovations that were shown by the companies.

The symposium was closed by the “sciencemeets industry” market. In several presenta-tions it was shown that public-private partner-ships between science and industry may resultin innovations for the bulb and perennial indus-try that could not have been achieved without“dare to share”. The 135 participants of thesymposium have another four years to gainknowledge in order to have a successful XIthInternational Symposium on Flower Bulbs andHerbaceous Perennials”. Let’s share it in Turkeyin 2012.

Ernst van den Ende

ISHS • 32

Section Pome and Stone FruitsFourteenth Int’l Symposium on ApricotBreeding and Culture

The XIV International Symposium on ApricotBreeding and Culture was held in Matera, Italyon June 16-20, 2008. The aim of the sympo-sium was to examine the current concerns andfuture research of apricot biology, physiology,orchard design and management, fruit quality,post-harvest and processing, cultivars, root-stocks and breeding, socio-economic aspectsand marketing. Much of the focus was on inte-grated and multidisciplinary approach to topics

including fruit and human health benefits andenvironment defence.

The program consisted of invited papers, contri-buted papers and posters, round tables andfield trips to visit specialised orchards and apacking house. In addition, the Organisersoffered a rich cultural programme at historicand naturalistic places of the Basilicata Region.

The symposium attracted over 150 participantsrepresenting Armenia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile,China, Czech Republic, France, Greece,Hungary, Italy, Korea, New Zealand, Norway,Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia,Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, and the UnitedStates of America.

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME

Genetic Resources and Breeding

Prof. Francesco Salamini, from Italy, presented alecture on Biotechnology. He pointed outaspects related to the current status and futureresearch lines of the biotechnology and molecu-lar biology to support the creation of “geneticplatforms” to be used during genetic studies ofplant populations. There were 9 more presenta-tions, emphasising the apricot genetic resourcesmanagement in North America, China and theMediterranean Basin.

Ecophysiology, Orchard Management,Pests and Diseases

The lecture “Food and Health” by Prof.Lorenzomaria Donini, from Italy, opened thesession. The presentation focused on how foodintake and nutritional status may influencehealth status. This topic is essential for growersand researchers, but often it is not properly con-sidered during the whole production process.

The lecture was followed by 14 oral presenta-tions on practices related to mineral nutrition,canopy management, irrigation, floral biologyand dormancy in the light of economic efficien-cy, soil and water conservation and environ-ment protection. Particularly, the contributionof orchard systems to mitigation of globalwarming (via CO2 storage into soil) has beenhighlighted. Talks on insect and virus diseasescompleted this session.

Fruit Quality and Postharvest

Dr. Shane Max, from New Zealand, opened thesession giving the lecture “Technology Transferin the ZESPRI Supply Chain - Past successes andchallenges for the future”. He presented theresearch, development and technology transferprogrammes as essential tools to empowerthe industry to produce and deliver to marketrequirements. The importance of close collabo-ration between industry technical staff andorchardists in ensuring new initiatives in devel-oping research and implementation pro-grammes was illustrated. The session continuedwith 8 oral presentations devoted to evolutionof quality attributes, use of spectrometry tech-niques to assay development and fruit ripening,conservation technologies.

ROUND TABLES

Within the Genetic and Orchard Managementsessions, the Scientific Committee had pro-

Participants of the Symposium.

Introduction of the Armenia delegation (4people on right side) by Prof. Bassi (thirdfrom left) and Prof. Xiloyannis (Convener,fourth from left).

Poster Area – Apricot Exhibition.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 33

posed a round table to summarise and furtherdiscuss the main topics presented during thesessions. The tables were coordinated by JeanMarc Audergon and Cristos Xiloyannis respec-tively. This method has facilitated the coordina-tors to stimulate the debated involving parti-cipants.

CONSUMER TEST ANDAPRICOT FRUIT EXHIBITION

On Tuesday 17, at the end of the scientific ses-sions, 3 cultivars (Kyoto, Pellecchiella, OrangeRubis) were tested by participants at the PosterArea. There was also a small exhibition orga-nised with about 30 cultivars grown in SouthItaly and with some cultivars from Armenia.

TECHNICAL TOUR

On Wednesday 18, a technical visit was orga-nised to Di Donna and Fortunato farms locatedat Metapontino area. In those farms apricot,plum and grapevine were cultivated usingmodern technologies following internationalrules, such as traceability, biological control andintegrated production. Later, participants wereat the Prometas soc. coop. Global GAP certifiedpacking house to have an overview of tech-niques, timing and care to prepare fruit for cen-tral and northern Europe markets.

BUSINESS MEETING

During the business meeting, activities of theISHS Working Group on Apricot Breeding andCulture were updated. Particularly, the follow-ing points were discussed and decisions weremade:

- Future meeting: Armenia, 2012

- Future Chairman of the Working Group

Candidature of Armenia to host the nextApricot Symposium was formally presented bythe Vice Minister of Agriculture Mr. SamvelAvetisyan who was with an Armenian delega-

The “winner” of the Best Poster Award.Prof. Bellini (first from right) gives the com-pendium “Le specie Legnose da frutto -Liste dei caratteri descrittivi” as price to Dr.Jean Marc Audergon (first from left).

The “tarantella” traditional dance by afolk group during the social dinner.

Technical tour.

CCONTACTONTACT

Prof. Cristos Xiloyannis, Dipartimento di Scienzedei Sistemi Colturali, Forestali e dell’Ambiente,Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Vialedell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy,email: cristos.xiloyannis@unibas.it

tion. Armenia was appointed as Organiser ofthe XV International Symposium on ApricotBreeding and Culture.

Prof. Daniele Bassi was elected as the new Chairof the Working Group.

BEST POSTER AWARD

During the Social dinner, at the Castle ofVenosa, a commission guided by Prof. Bassiannounced the best poster: “ISAFRUIT IP Project- Genetic and Molecular Bases of Peach andApricot Fruit Quality” by J.M. Audergon, A.Bachellez, A. Blanc, M. Bogé, K. Boudheri, S.Bureau, M.N. Corre, C. Croset, C. Deborde, E.Dirlewanger, L. Dondini, A.M. Ferréol, B.Gouble, M. Grotte, P. Lambert, M. Maucourt, A.Moing, S. Monllor, T. Pascal, J.L. Poëssel, B.Quilot, M. Reich, P. Reling, C. Renaud, D. Ruiz,V. Signoret and P. Arus. It was selected mainlybecause of the effectiveness of simplicity usedto present a European Integrated Project en-gaged in January 2006. The project deals withthe improvement of fruit consumption by theconsumers under both objectives: the optimiza-tion of the quality of the raw products, and theoptimization of the cultural practices. The pro-ject involves 40 Research Institutes and 20Companies issued from 14 European countriesand 2 associated countries.

The Symposium was very successful. It was anopportunity for participants to rekindle com-mon interests, integrate new members into theapricot community, and allow for the exchangeof knowledge and development of plans for

future collaborations. The Organizing Commit-tee would like to thank all people who contri-buted to the success of the Symposium, particu-larly those involved in administration and spon-sorship.

Cristos Xiloyannis

ISHS • 34

Section Pome and Stone FruitsNinth Int’l Symposium on Plum andPrune Genetics, Breeding and Pomology

The IX International Symposium on Plum andPrune Genetics, Breeding and Pomology tookplace in Palermo (Italy) from 16 to 19 March2008. It was organized by the Dipartimento diColture Arboree of the University of Palermoand under the auspices of the InternationalSociety for Horticultural Science, the Universityof Palermo and the Assessorato Agricoltura eForeste of Sicily.

The Symposium also secured the patronage ofthe Italian Horticultural Society (SOI), of theAccademia dei Georgofili, of the RegionalGovernment, of the Slow Food Foundation for

Biodiversity Onlus, of the Faculty of Agricultureand of the Consiglio per la Ricerca e laSperimentazione in Agricoltura (CRA) within theMinistry for Agriculture, Food and ForestPolitics.

A large number of researchers and techniciansfrom all over the world (Japan, Russia, Romania,Bulgaria, Germany, Norway, Denmark, England,Belgium, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Greece,Spain, Argentina, USA, Italy) took part in theSymposium and had the chance to share anddiscuss the main recent scientific and technicalinnovations concerning plum cultivation.

The opening session involved the participationof Professor Francesco Sottile, Convener of theSymposium, of Dr. Anthony Webster (UK),Chairman of the ISHS Section Pome and StoneFruits, of Dr. Walter Hartmann, Chairman of theISHS Working Group on Plum, and of ProfessorTiziano Caruso, Head of the Dipartimento diColture Arboree at the University of Palermo.Welcoming speeches were also delivered byProfessor Franco Scaramuzzi, President of theAccademia dei Georgofili, and Professor PaoloInglese, President of the Società dell’Ortofloro-frutticoltura Italiana.

The Symposium was organised and divided into5 oral and poster sessions and opened with anintroductory lecture delivered by FrancescoSottile who spoke, on behalf of a wide numberof Italian researchers, about the present stageand perspectives of plum cultivation in Italy.

Later, Walter Hartmann gave an historicalperspective on the situation of this ISHSWorking Group since the beginning of its activi-ties up to and including its present aimsregarding the genetic improvement of plumsand prunes at an international level.

On the first day, the oral session opened withtopics related to genetic resources and geneticimprovement and was followed by the sessionon “Orchard management, nutrition, quality

Francesco Sottile and Walter Hartmannduring the post-symposium tour.

Pill Ardel and Koraljca Paskas receiving theprize for the best poster presentations.

Traditional photo of all participants attending at the Symposium.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 35

and post-harvest”; the preservation and charac-terization of genetic resources connected to theplum, the management of orchard systems,nutrition and the maintenance of high qualitystandards in the post-harvest phase were themain arguments of the day, which were alldeeply investigated through the oral presenta-tions, the posters and the associated discus-sions. The first day of sessions ended with asocial dinner during which Tony Webster for-mally thanked the organizers and the Convenerof the Symposium, Francesco Sottile, who re-ceived a commemorative medal from the ISHS.

The second day was entirely dedicated to topicsregarding research at a biological and plant/treedefence level and there were several presenta-tions about floral biology and innovations forthe defence and control of ‘sharka’ virus, bymeans of various strategies of genetic improve-ment, requiring more and more detailedevaluation experiments of the tolerance andresistance sources and of the expression mecha-nisms.

On the afternoon of the 18th, during the ISHSBusiness meeting, coordinated by Tony Websterand Walter Hartmann, Davis (California) wasrecommended as the next venue for the 10thSymposium of the Working Group in 2012.Professor Ted DeJong offered to act asConvener. Walter Hartmann retired as Chair ofthe group and Michael Neumuller was unani-mously elected as the new Working GroupChairman.

At the end of the meeting, all participantsenjoyed a guided tour of Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri, site of the University of Palermo, wherethey were welcomed by the Rector ProfessorGiuseppe Silvestri who strongly appreciatedboth the great participation to the Symposiumand the massive presence of researchers whohad chosen Palermo to meet and share theirwork on international topics.

On the 19th, as part of the oral and poster pre-sentations and discussions, during the cultivarand rootstock session, several experiences in thestudy of scion-rootstock relationships, in their

Participants at the post-symposium tour having a pause at the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.

The opening session (from left: WalterHartmann, Francesco Sottile, AnthonyWebster and Tiziano Caruso).

CCONTACTONTACT

Prof. Francesco Sottile, Dipartimento di ColtureArboree, Università di Palermo, Facoltà diAgraria, Viale delle Scienze 11, 90128 Palermo,Italy, email: fsottile@unipa.it

expression mechanisms and in vigour control ofsuch combinations in relation to recently devel-oped scion cultivars were presented.

The main features of recently released cultivarswere introduced, especially those present insome countries such as those in Eastern Europe,where the species is widely grown. In the after-noon, posters and discussions were completelyfocused on biological, physiological and econo-mic topics. There followed the plenary session,which stimulated great enthusiasm and vividparticipation towards further study and deeperscientific investigations.

During the closing session, Francesco Sottile,Tony Webster and Walter Hartmann outlinedthe main elements of the meeting and pinpoint-ed the high quality standards of the work andthe excellent relationships apparent among dif-ferent researchers from different areas of theworld. A ‘get well soon’ message was dedicatedto Jan Blazek, an important member of theScientific Committee, who was not able to jointhe symposium because of health problems.

On the 20th and 21st there was a PostSymposium Tour organized in order to allowparticipants to visit some arboricultural exam-ples connected to the Sicilian tradition. The firststep was to examine plum cultivation in the ter-ritory of Monreale (PA), in the heart of thebeautiful Conca d’oro, well-known for the“Monreale white plum” cultivation, a variety ortype of plum long associated with the SicilianPrunus germplasm. During the tour, orchards atfull bloom were visited, the cultivation tech-niques illustrated as well as the main characte-ristics of the cultivars and the traditions con-nected to fresh use and post-harvest activities.

Attention was later focused on the wine sector,thanks to a visit to Marsala (TP), one of thefinest and richest wine factories in Sicily,

producing the famous liquor “Marsala”; thevisit included a guided tour of the CantinePellegrino with a tasting of today’s best pro-ducts. The day concluded with a visit to oliveproduction/transformation factories in the pro-vince of Trapani where all participants had thechance to come into contact with the produc-tion techniques of oil and table olives.

On the subsequent day, there was a short visitto the wonderful scenery of the ancient Valledei Templi, near Agrigento – perfect for theobservation of Sicilian almond cultivars collect-ed in the Almond Museum ‘F. Monastra’ andthen the group moved to Castrofilippo (AG)where they visited a biodynamic plum orchardset up by adopting a Japanese cultivar; this isone of the research activities of the Diparti-mento di Colture Arboree at University ofPalermo. The owner explained the rules andtechniques regulating biodynamic agriculture,referring to those other species growing withinhis field: peach, grape and apricot.

The Symposium was marked by the presence ofmore than 70 participants and by the full appre-ciation from the ISHS representatives who wel-comed the renewed interest in the Japanesecultivar in areas other than the Northern orEastern European ones.

Francesco Sottile

ISHS • 36

Section Tropical and SubtropicalFruits

Third Int’l Symposium on Longan, Lycheeand Other Fruit Trees in SapindaceaeFamily

The 3rd International Symposium on Longan,Lychee and Other Fruit Trees in SapindaceaeFamily organized by Fujian Agriculture andForestry University (FAFU), the InternationalSociety for Horticultural Science (ISHS), theChinese Society for Horticultural Science, co-organized by Fujian Provincial Department ofAgriculture, Fujian Academy of AgriculturalSciences, Fujian Society for Horticultural Scienceand Government of Quanzhou Municipality,was successfully held in Fuzhou, China fromAugust 25 to 29, 2008 at the Meeting Hall ofFujian Agriculture and Forestry University.

The symposium was attended by 130 partici-pants from China, Thailand, Australia, SouthAfrica, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico, Germany,Israel, Indonesia, USA and UK. A total of 138papers were presented during the conference,66 as oral presentations and 79 as posters,along with five lectures from Keynote speakers.Professor Sisir Mitra, Vice Chair of the ISHSSection Tropical and Subtropical Fruits, delivereda lead paper on Lychee production in the Asia-Pacific Region. Professor Pan Dongming,Symposium Convener, presented an overview oflongan resources and breeding in China duringthis decade. Professor Karl Friedrick Bangerth ofthe Universität Hohenheim, Institut Sonder-kulturen, Produktionsphysiologie, Stuttgart,Germany spoke on Hormonal regulation of theregular and off season floral induction processof longan trees. The fourth presentation byProfessor Sainarong Rasananda of Maejo

Longan Research and Development Center,Maejo University, Chiangmai,Thailand empha-sized the marketing in his topic “Marketing –the key to success” and Dr. Yan Diczbalis, QDPI- Centre for Wet Tropics Agriculture, SouthJohnstone, Australia, presented Sapindaceaeproduction and research in Australia.

In the morning of August 25, officials from localgovernment, FAFU authorities and reporters oflocal mass media as well as 130 participantswitnessed the opening ceremony chaired byProfessor Qiu Dongliang. Professor ZhengChuanfang, the Chairman of the AdministrativeBoard of FAFU, gave an address extending his

warm welcome to the participants on behalf ofthe university. Professor Sisir Kumar Mitra pre-sented greetings and welcome from ISHS, pro-vided updated information about the interna-tional organization and handed over the bannerto host, and certificate and medal from ISHS toProfessor Pan Dongming, the SymposiumConvener, for his effort in organizing this event.This was followed by greetings and welcome byProfessor Han Zhenhai, Vice-President of theChinese Society for Horticultural Science. TheConvener Professor Pan Dongming presentedthe welcoming address stressing the signifi-cance of organizing this symposium in China,

Opening ceremony.

Participants of the Symposium.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 37

Field trip in Luojiang,Quanzhou.

The ancient litchi tree ‘Songli’ in XichanTemple.

Longan orchard in Tong-An.

The representatives of the business meeting during the symposium.

Medal and certificate transferred fromISHS official Prof. Sisir Mitra (right) to theConvener Prof. Pan Dongming (left).

where longan and litchi originated, and wherethe industry is the largest. He expressed hissincere thanks to all persons and institutes whosupported the symposium to make his dreamcome true. Mr. Jiang Shaofeng, Vice-Presidentof Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture,congratulated the opening of the symposiumwith a hope that it will be a success and help toupgrade the longan and litchi industry in FujianProvince. Participants exchanged informationabout longan and litchi production and researchunder six themes: (1) world production; (2)germplasm, genetics, breeding and biotechno-logy; (3) cultural practices and physiology; (4)postharvest physiology and biochemistry, hand-

lings and processing; (5) pests, diseases andtheir control and (6) others.

During the symposium, a business meeting withrepresentatives from each participating countrywas organized to discuss: (1) establishment of aLitchi, Longan and Other Sapindaceae FruitsWorking Group under ISHS, and (2) selection ofa country to host the fourth Litchi, Longan andRambutan symposium planned for 2012. Therepresentatives unanimously agreed to set upan ISHS Working Group on Litchi, Longan andOther Sapindaceae Fruits and requested it to beunder the Tropical and Subtropical Fruits Sectionof ISHS. Professor Chen Houbin, South ChinaAgriculture University, Guanzhou, China waselected as the first Chairman of the WorkingGroup. Mr. Julian Fisher and Mrs. ReginaCronjie from South Africa, Professor Sisir Mitrafrom India, Professor Sainarong Rasanandafrom Thailand, Mr. Yan Diczbalis from Australia,Professor Ikramullah Khan from Pakistan andProfessor Pan Dongming, Professor QiuDongliang, Professor Huang Xuming, ProfessorPan Jiechun and Professor Tang Zhipeng fromChina expressed interest in hosting the fourthsymposium in their own country. A decision bythe ISHS Executive Committee will be madewhen official bids are received and afterconsultation with the members of the workinggroup. An editorial board was set up for theproceedings of the symposium, which will bepublished in Acta Horticulturae, consisting ofProfessor Sisir Kumar Mitra, Dr. Yan Diczbalis,and Professor Qiu Dongliang.

Apart from academic exchanges, the organizersof the symposium arranged an ancient litchi

tour and a field trip. On the afternoon ofAugust 26, participants first visited the ancientlitchi tree with characteristic of shriveled-seedfruit on one branch and normal-seed fruit onthe other in Minhou county and the ancientlitchi tree ‘Songli’ in Xichan Temple. On August28, all participants took a bus to the longanorchard of Xin-Lai Agricultural DevelopmentCo., Ltd. in Luojiang District, Quanzhou, wherethe pollution-free technology of longan produc-tion was successfully applied and participantstasted the fruits of 3 cultivars (Dongbi, Lucky-eye, and Songfengben).

The symposium formally closed on the after-noon of August 29 after the poster session withaddresses by the Vice-President of FAFU,Professor Huang Yifang, Professor PanDongming, Professor Sainarong Rasananda andMr. Julian Fisher. Ten participants joined theoptional two-day post-symposium tour to LuXiAgricultural Development Co., Ltd., FengLanFarm, and World Heritage ‘Earth Building’ and‘JiuHu Litchi Sea’ and were warmly welcomedby Nan-An City, Quanzhou, Tong-An District,Xiamen and Zhangzhou, respectively.

Social and cultural events during the sympo-sium and tour included a 1 hour tea-art perfor-mance before the poster session, tasting variousteas (TieGuanYin tea, Jasmine tea), and last butnot least, wonderful banquets featuring cuisinefrom Fuzhou and Quanzhou. All participantsagreed that the symposium, tours, and culturalevents were a great success and that theexchange of information and creation of newfriendships would have a lasting impact on thelongan and litchi world.

Qiu Dongliang and Pan Dongming

CCONTACTONTACT

Qiu Dongliang and Pan Dongming, Collegeof Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture andForestry University, 350002, Fuzhou, China,email: qiudl1970@yahoo.com.cn andpdm666@126.com

ISHS • 38

The Eleventh International Symposium on theProcessing Tomato was held in Toronto,Ontario, Canada on June 9 to 11, 2008. Morethan 200 delegates attended from 32 differentcountries to hear researchers exchange theirknowledge and latest research results on theprocessing tomato.

Silvana Nicola, Chair of the ISHS SectionVegetables, provided opening remarks for theSymposium. The Symposium discussed sixdifferent session themes concerning the mostimportant topics to the global processing toma-to industry. Session topics included:1. Plant Breeding2. Crop Management – Irrigation and

Fertigation3. Crop Protection4. Tomato Evaporation Technologies5. Nutrition and Health

Section Vegetables – CommissionIrrigation and Plant Water Relations

Eleventh Int’l Symposium on theProcessing Tomato

6. Technology Transfer

Each session was moderated by a distinguishedmember of the global processing tomato indus-try. In total, 26 oral presentations were givenand 24 posters were displayed.

A few of the highlight items included a betterunderstanding of the importance of genomesequence in tomatoes and how its applicationwill speed up and provide the opportunity toinclude more of the beneficial aspects demand-ed by modern day tomato production practices.The audience was amazed at the potential ofusing a hand-held identification kit where onlya small sample of the unidentified organismwould provide immediate feedback identifyingto the species level, whether it concerns a plant,insect, disease or any other living creature. Welearned how advancements in drip irrigationcan not only improve yields but also improvesoluble solids, especially when adding the bene-fits of fertigation. The subject of plant diseasesthat attack processing tomatoes provided areview of disease warning systems like TOMcastwhile providing information on new and up-coming potential problems and their anticipat-ed solutions. A large section of the oral presen-tations were devoted towards nutrition andhealth aspects of tomato products focusingespecially on the benefits of lycopene.

The information at the poster session wasequally compelling. A range of subjects were ondisplay from waste water disposal, insect,disease and weed information and various cropmanagement practices to improve the quality offruit harvested. Improving tomato seedling qua-lity was also on display.

Another highlight of this event was the hostingof several joint sessions between the EighthWorld Processing Tomato Congress and theSymposium. This provided participants with theopportunity to hear presentations on an unpre-cedented number of additional topics including,global production and consumption, consumertrends, developments in tomatoes and health,food safety preparedness, impact of changingglobal weather patterns, and future directionsfor bio-technology. One of the topics that wasfeatured at this Congress was the Ontariotomato transplant industry with presentationsmade by individuals representing the 4 legs ofthe program including growers, processors,seedling growers and research.

Participants also enjoyed a wonderful galareception and dinner held at the Royal OntarioMuseum, with excellent food and drink, andoutstanding entertainment provided by theCanadian folk music band, Leahy.

For those who could stay around longer a post-congress tour allowed delegates to “see andfeel” tomato agriculture in Ontario. The tourstopped at John Marie Laprise’s tomato seedlinggreenhouse where examples of seedling trayshad been grown especially for this time of theseason for the delegates to see. Similarly thestop at Walt Brown’s farm allowed delegates tosee “how it is done in Ontario” with Waltshowing and talking about his field operation.The delegates were treated with the showing ofadditional equipment such as an automatedtransplanting unit, which has yet to be adoptedto any extent by Ontario growers yet all wantedto see and touch “what’s new” for their future.The second day of touring included a localtomato greenhouse operation and then on toview research plots at the University of GuelphRidgetown Campus. All was not learned at justthe scheduled stops. The four hour travel timebetween Leamington and Toronto was filled

Poster session.

Tomato seedling tray showing the uniformi-ty and growth of plants just prior to ship-ping to the field.

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 39

CCONTACTONTACT

Dr. Ron Pitblado, Weather INnovations Inc., 21Wilhelmena Way, Chatham, Ontario, N7M6M3, Canada, Phone: (519) 352-5334 ext.225, email: rpitblado@weatherinnovations.com

Ms. Janisse Routledge, Ontario Food ProcessorsAssociation, 7660 Mill Road, Guelph, Ontario,N1H 6J1, Canada, Phone: (519) 767-5594,email: ofpa@sentex.net

with commentary and discussions amongst thedelegates.

The conveners would like to acknowledge thespeakers and participants, along with all spon-sors, for making the Symposium a success. Theproceeding of the Symposium will be publishedin Acta Horticulturae in 2009 and will be avai-lable from ISHS.

Ron Pitblado and Janisse Routledge

Section Vegetables – CommissionLandscape and Urban Horticulture –Commission Plant Substrates and SoillessCulture – Commission Protected Cultivation

Int’l Symposium on Soilless Culture andHydroponics

The Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina,through its Centro de Investigación deHidroponía y Nutrición Mineral, under the aegis

of the International Society for HorticulturalScience (ISHS), organized from August 25 to28, 2008 for the first time in South America

Participants of the Symposium.

(Lima, Peru) an International Symposium onSoilless Culture and Hydroponics. TheSymposium was attended by 130 people,

ISHS • 40

Visit to Hydrponic Module of theUniversidad Nacional Agraria La Molina.

Visit to Landa Produce SAC greenhouseswith lettuce production on floating system.

Scientific Committee, from left to right: Omer Verdonck, former Chair ISHS Commission PlantSubstrates and Soilless Culture (Belgium), Wilfried Schnitzler, Chair ISHS Commission PlantSubstrates and Soilless Culture (Germany), Alfredo Rodríguez-Delfín, Director of the Centro deInvestigación de Hidroponía y Nutrción Mineral of the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molinaand Symposium Convener (Peru), Gloria Samperio (Mexico), Fritz Schroeder (Germany) and Erikvan Os, Chair ISHS Working Group on Hydroponics (The Netherlands).

CCONTACTONTACT

Prof. Alfredo Rodríguez-Delfín, UniversidadNacional Agraria La Molina, Centro deInvestigación de Hidroponía y NutriciónMineral, Av. La Molina s/n, La Molina, Lima 12,Peru, email: delfin@lamolina.edu.pe

including ISHS members, non-members, stu-dents, and companies related to Hydroponicsand Soilless Culture as well as the generalpublic.

This event highlighted most recent researchfindings of hydroponics and soilless culture withall the potentials and advantages. It was a plat-form for exchange of experiences amongresearch institutes, institutions, universities,researchers, farmers, students and companiesrelated to this industry of soilless culture. TheSymposium provided a gathering of representa-tives from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil,Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador,Germany, Korea, Iran, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New

Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Romania,South Africa, Spain, The Netherlands, theUnited States of America and Venezuela.Three keynote speakers were invited with twoexperts from Germany and one from Brazil.Prof. Dr. Wilfried Schnitzler, Chairman of theISHS Commission Plant Substrates and SoillessCulture, opened the Symposium with his lec-ture on “Good Agricultural Practices for QualityAssurance of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables inSoilless Culture”. Oral presentations followedaccording to the Symposium topics: CropPhysiology, Growing Techniques, GrowingMedia and Interdisciplinary Topics. The secondinvited lecture on “Nutrient Management inSoilless Culture in the Conflict of Plant, Microorganism, Consumer, and EnvironmentalDemands” was given by Dr. Dietmar Schwarz,researcher at the Institute for Vegetable andOrnamental Crops (IGZ), Germany. Dr. PedroFurlani, retired researcher from InstitutoAgronómico de Campinas, Brazil, gave the thirdinvited lecture on “Citrus Nursery Production inSoilless Culture”.

Time allowed only a limited number of oral pre-sentations; many others had to be in posterform. There were 40 posters that attracted theattention of the participants. The topics includ-ed “Evaluation of Substrates for SoillessCulture”, “Plant Nutrition and Salinity”,“Oxygen Supply to the Root System”,“Circulation of the Nutrient Solutions”, “PlantPhysiological Topics”, “Culture Techniquesunder Soilless Conditions”, Root Diseases and

Disinfection”, “Organics, Hydroponics GreenForage Production”, “Aquaponics and GoodAgricultural Practices in Soilless Culture”. Therewere a total of 80 scientific papers presented,which will all be published in a future ActaHorticulturae volume.

One highlight was a field day on hydroponicswhere participants appreciated the hydroponictechnology applied in Peru and how, with low-tech but well handled, it is possible to use thistechnique for achieving production advantagesin terms of quality and productivity in Peru andother Latin American countries.

Peru has been the first Latin American countryto organize a Symposium on Soilless Cultureand Hydroponics in this region. The American,European and Asian communities wereimpressed by the developmental potential thatexists in research of hydroponics in LatinAmerican countries. The next Latin AmericanInternational Symposium on Soilless Cultureand Hydroponics is scheduled for 2011 inPuebla, Mexico.

Alfredo Rodríguez-Delfín

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 41

Section Vine and Berry Fruits – CommissionPlant Genetic Resources – CommissionIrrigation and Plant Water Relations

Ninth Int’l Vaccinium Symposium

Scientists and industry representatives fromaround the world gathered on the campus ofOregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis,Oregon on July 13-17, 2008 for the NinthInternational Vaccinium Symposium. The sym-posium was co-hosted by OSU and the U.S.Department of Agriculture-AgriculturalResearch Service (USDA-ARS) and sponsored byISHS and the North American blueberry indus-try.

Over 318 participants attended the Symposium,representing 35 countries. Scientists gave 137oral and poster presentations, which weredivided into five sections: Genetics and Germ-plasm; Pests and Diseases; Physiology andProduction Systems; Plant and Soil Nutri-tion/Irrigation; and Post-harvest, Fruit Quality,Health Benefits, and Marketing. Eleven invitedspeakers from Canada, Chile, and China, andfrom six production regions in the United States(New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, NorthCarolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin) did an excel-lent job of getting each section off to a greatstart. In addition to OSU and USDA-ARS admi-nistrators, we were welcomed to the confe-rence by Dr. Ben Ami Bravdo, Chair of the ISHSSection Vine and Berry Fruits. Two industryrepresentatives, Dave Brazelton and BobDonaldson, gave great overviews of the blue-berry and cranberry industries in North America,respectively. A special presentation and moment

of silence was held in memory of Dr. RupertoHepp (Chile) who had recently passed away andwho had done such a good job of organizingthe Seventh International Vaccinium Sympo-sium in Chile.

Authors were asked to have their manuscriptssubmitted three months prior to theSymposium. While this timeline is a stated pro-cedural goal in ISHS, it did surprise many thatwe strived to achieve this goal. However, weheard many positive comments, includingadvantages to authors associated with havingmanuscript reviewed and revised prior to theSymposium and a general feeling of being“done” after the meeting. We received 99% ofthe manuscripts prior to the Symposium and54% had been reviewed and revised by thetime the meeting began. Thanks to all theauthors and reviewers who responded so welland largely in a timely manner! We couldn’thave done this without our Editor-in-Chief Dr.Kim Hummer.

The Symposium had several themed eveningsthat helped build camaraderie among partici-pants and promoted a relaxed environment forpersonal relationships to develop or be renew-ed. Native American dancers, Northwest alba-core tuna, and local microbrewed beer andwines were the theme and food highlighted atthe opening dinner. A country folk band with a

western theme, including hats and bandanas,line dancing, and roasted hog had everyonemoving and laughing another evening. Theclosing banquet was a delightful mix of remem-

Co-conveners Bernadine C. Strik and ChadE. Finn at the closing banquet.

Participants of the Symposium.

ISHS • 42

brances, good food and wine, and dancing. Weare truly blessed with a group of colleagueswho have become good friends and with whomwe celebrate being with!

During the Symposium the attendees werehosted by Stahlbush Island Farms, a commercialgrower near Corvallis. Bill Chambers and thisteam put on a great show highlighting blueber-ry fields, irrigation technology, and equipment.The attendees then visited the National ClonalGermplasm Repository where Dr. Kim Hummer,the curator, and the research scientists gave agreat presentation of programs.

Informative and enjoyable tours of theVaccinium industry in Oregon also preceded theSymposium. The first day-long tour highlightedlingonberry production, first visiting the familyowned Faw Farms where the 30 participantswere invited to snack on lingonberry culinarydelights after touring the small lingonberry andblueberry farm. The group then traveled up thescenic Columbia River Gorge to the OSU-MidColumbia Research and Extension Center to seelingonberry research plots.

The second, four-day tour highlighted blueber-ry and cranberry production in the WillametteValley and the southern Oregon coast, respec-tively. About 120 participants first toured theOSU-North Willamette Research and ExtensionCenter to view research plots. The tour groupthen visited the diverse E&S Farms (Stan Dansky)to see not only blueberry, but commercial

Tour 2, Scott Faber describing his cranberry production system.Tour 2, Pan American Berry Growers tour with Littau Harvester on dis-play

Tour 1, Faw Farm’s lingonberries.

CCONTACTONTACT

Dr. Chad E. Finn, Co-Convener, USDA ARS, Hort.Crops Lab., 3420 NW Orchard Ave., Corvallis,OR 97330, USA, email: finnc@hort.oregonstate.edu

Prof. Dr. Bernadine C. Strik, Co-Convener,Department of Horticulture, Oregon StateUniversity, 4017 ALS, Corvallis, OR 97331-7304,USA, email: strikb@hort.oregonstate.edu

strawberry, blackberry, and hardy kiwifruitfields. Lunch and a fantastic tour took place atPan American Berry Growers where many beau-tiful new blueberry plantings were just startingto hit their stride, the packing facility was high-lighted, and Littau harvesters were on display.The evening concluded with a delightful dinnerat a Willamette Valley Vineyards and Wineryoverlooking the Valley.

The second day began at Fall Creek Farm andNursery with an excellent and impressive over-view of the world’s largest blueberry nursery.The final stop at the southern end of theWillamette Valley was at Norris Farms whereeveryone was treated to a tour of an operationthat is primarily focused on high-end fresh mar-ket production of ‘Duke’, some of which aremachine harvested. Norris Farms laid out aselection of homemade blueberry treats whosequality and high sugar content led to a lot ofsleeping folks on the bus as we drove to theOregon Coast. Still, all left the bus at a scenicrest stop near Reedsport to see a large herd ofmagnificent elk feeding in the meadow. Nearthe end of the day, the group spent time atFaber Farms to see large cranberry beds and agreat presentation of historical and moderncranberry equipment.

The tour participants stayed in hotels by thebeach with many lucky enough to have roomsdirectly above the crashing waves of the PacificOcean. The next day many enjoyed walks in thesmall, scenic town of Bandon or on the beachprior to a tour of Sea Wind cranberry farm nearSixes. Sea Wind is a very large cranberry opera-tion with fields in all stages – from newly esta-blished to those being ‘renovated’ and manybeautiful fields in between. After lunch, thetour group was off to a team building jet boatride up the Wild and Scenic Rogue River. Whileit was about 7-10°C on the coast, it was about35°C just a few miles upstream. This dramatictemperature shift led to a lot of layers of cloth-ing being stripped off until there were none lefton some as folks swam in the river. All enjoyedthe adventurous whitewater jet boat trip. Thelast day of the tour included a meandering driveup the Oregon Coast with its fantastic sceneryand a walking tour and lunch stop in Newport,before coming back to Corvallis to begin the

scientific portion of the Symposium. We’d liketo especially thank the tour organizers, Dr. WeiYang, Ms. Linda White, and Mr. RossPenhallegon, for their valuable help in planningsuch great stops and events.

We were fortunate to have many industry spon-sors of this Symposium. We would like to espe-cially thank Fall Creek Farm & Nursery Inc.,Giumarra/Vital Berry Marketing InternationalBerry, Hortifrut North America, Naturipe Foods,the US Highbush Blueberry Council, Driscoll’sStrawberry Associates Inc./Reiter AffiliatedCompanies, Hurst’s Berry Farms, SakumaBrothers Farms, SunnyRidge Farm Inc., and theOregon Blueberry Commission for the financialsupport that made it possible to have a highquality program and good food and entertain-ment. We’d also like to thank the team at OSUConference Services and all the members of ourOrganizing Committee for their assistancethroughout.

In late June, 2012, the X InternationalVaccinium Symposium will return to the site ofthe first Vaccinium Symposium, held in 1967,The Netherlands. While The Netherlands will bethe primary host for the Tenth InternationalVaccinium Symposium, organizers plan to workwith colleagues in neighboring countries to givea full rounded experience. For details pleasecontact the convener, Mr. John Bal, ZLTO(john.bal@zlto.nl). As the blueberry industrycontinues its rapid expansion, we look forwardto seeing everyone in The Netherlands and tosetting new attendance records!

Chad E. Finn and Bernadine C. Strik

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 43

The 6th International Symposium on In VitroCulture and Horticultural Breeding, which washeld from 24th to 28th of August in Brisbane,Australia, was highly inspiring and motivating.Based on the number of positive commentsfrom the delegates during and since the sympo-sium, it was a highly successful internationalevent, which brought together about 200 en-thusiastic delegates from 43 countries and everycontinent. The Chair of the Symposium wasProfessor Acram Taji from the Faculty of Scienceat Queensland University of Technology (QUT)in Brisbane. The theme of the conference wasthe 2020 vision for in vitro horticultural breed-ing. At the opening session on Sunday 24th ofAugust the delegates and guests were wel-comed to the Symposium by Professor AcramTaji (Chair of the Symposium), Professor RodDrew (Chair of ISHS Commission Biotechnologyand Molecular Biology), Professor AdrianHerington (Executive Dean of the Faculty ofScience at QUT) and Mr. Robert Setter (the

Commission Biotechnology andMolecular Biology

Sixth Int’l Symposium on In Vitro Cultureand Horticultural Breeding

Director General of Queensland Department ofPrimary Industries and Fisheries). An indigenousAustralian musician playing the didgeridoo thenentertained the delegates and guests. This wasfollowed by Dr. Simon Robinson’s (ChiefPrincipal Scientist from Plant Industry Division ofCSIRO in Adelaide, Australia) plenary lectureentitled “Gene technology - new tools for inno-vation in horticultural crop”. He concluded thatthe combination of “smart breeding” technolo-gies, including the conventional and in vitrobreeding techniques, coupled with gene tech-nology, would lead to production of improvedvarieties in many horticultural crops in years tocome. Dr. Robinson’s excellent talk set the scenefor the next four days of this symposium. Themain sessions of the symposium led by excellentkeynote speakers covered recent advances inplant tissue culture, molecular plant breeding,emerging techniques, in vitro plant breeding,embryogenesis, germplasm conservation, and

micropropagation. Members of the local orga-nising committee, as well as the national andinternational advisory committees, participatedin the symposium and presented keynote lec-tures, oral & poster presentations and chaired orco-chaired sessions. It was a jam-packedSymposium with 58 oral presentations and 80posters presented in four days.

The Symposium organisers were delighted bythe high participation of students. Generally ina symposium of this nature 10% of delegatesare students. In this symposium, more than20% were students. The Chair of theSymposium, Professor Taji, emphasised in heropening address that the contribution from stu-dents is important because students are thepowerhouses of research, and the future lea-ders in many areas of horticultural science andtechnology. Professor Richard Williams (memberof the Local Organising Committee andFoundation Professor of Horticulture at

Delegates who attended Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens field trip.

ISHS • 44

Attentive audience

Professor Acram Taji, Chair of theSymposium, and Ehsan Tavakkoli, one ofthe student participants in the Symposium.

CCONTACTONTACT

Professor Acram Taji, Chair of SymposiumOrganising Committee, Faculty of Science,Queensland University of Technology, 2 GeorgeStreet, Brisbane, 4000, Australia, Phone: +61-7-3138 6800, Fax: +61-7-3138 1508, email:acram.taji@qut.edu.au

University of Queensland) chaired the students’awards committee. Twelve oral and 25 posterpresentations were those of students. At theend of the Symposium two awards for best oraland two for best posters were presented to thefollowing students:

� Barbara RAFFEINER from University ofApplied Sciences Weihenstephan inGermany – first prize (oral)

� Sunaina SINGH from National Bureau ofPlant Genetic Resources in India – secondprize (oral)

� Yukiko KASHIHARA from HokkaidoUniversity in Japan – first prize (poster)

� Milina TRIFUNOVIC from Institute forBiological Research in Serbia – second prize(poster)

Professor Richard Williams and his team did agreat job in judging the presentations and pro-

www.actahort.orgwww.actahort.org+42,000 articles on-line

viding good feedback to students for futureconferences they will be attending.Interestingly, all winners were young womenand all from outside Australia.

The conference field trip was to Mt Coot-thaBotanic Gardens, which provided a respite fordelegates from the busy symposium scheduleand gave them a chance to see some beautifulAustralian native flora. The conference dinnerwas memorable, with an indigenous dancegroup introducing a little bit of Australian cul-ture to the international delegates.

All in all a great conference with excellent pre-sentations helping us to learn about the latestdevelopments in the field of in vitro breeding, agreat opportunity for catching up with old col-leagues and meeting new ones.

Financial support for the Symposium was grate-fully received from Horticulture Australia

Limited (HAL), Lowes T.C. Pty, Ltd., University ofNew England, Queensland University ofTechnology, Department of Primary Industriesand Fisheries - Queensland, BSES Limited, SugarCRC and ISHS.

Acram Taji

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 45

FROM THE SECRETARIAT

New ISHS MembersISHS is pleased to welcome the followingnew members:

NEW INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS:

Argentina: Mr. Carlos Gaston de la Vega;Australia: Prof. Dr. Nanjappa Ashwath, Mr.Christopher Banton, Mr. David Deacon, Mr.Daniel Fyffe, Dr. Longbin Huang, Dr. ChristineKing, Ms. Tamara Large, Ms. Patricia Pratt, Dr.Steven Underhill; Bahamas: Mr. TimothyHauber; Barbados: Dr. Francis Lopez; Belgium:Ms. Chantal Smeets; Benin: Mr. Alain C. Soglo;Canada: Ms. Gail Cameron, Mr. HuguesJoannis, Mithila Jugulum, Mr. John Klop, MaryAnne Robeson, Mr. Radoslav Veljovic; Chile: Mr.Enrique Acevedo; China: Prof. Dr. Tao Chen;Croatia: Diana Jankovic; Denmark: LiseChristina Deleuran, Ms. Gitte HallengreenJoergensen, Mr. Finn Myllerup; Egypt: RebeccaSavoie; France: Bertrand Gassier; Germany: Dr.Katleen Deckers, Dr. Fritz Jungnickel; Greece:Mr. Antonios Dimou, Dr. Ioannis Papadakis;India: Mr. Devendra Agarwal, Mr. Rajesh Dake,

Ms. Janarthani Dhandapani, Mr. Vinod ReddyGaddam, Mr. Saurabh Gupta, Mr. CSivasankaran; Israel: Mr. Daniel Kalina, Mr.Yossi Shahar; Italy: Dr. Elzbieta Ceglarska,Lorenzo Ceroni, Prof. Claudio Di Vaio, Dr. CarloSchettini, Dr. Flaminia Ventura, Mr. MatteoZavarise; Japan: Dr. Katsuya Ichinose, Mr.Kenichi Kohno; Kenya: Dr. Mercy Mwaniki;Malaysia: Mr. Kum Yong Hoh, Dr. HakimiIbrahim, Mr. Felix Miller, Mr. Aik Beng Tan;Mexico: Mr. Miguel Gonzalez, Damaris Ojeda;Netherlands: Mr. Timothy A’Court, Mr. MichelSmit, Dr. Wouter G. van Doorn; New Zealand:Mr. Ram Kumar Atwal, Mr. David Leonard;Nigeria: Sadia Babalola; Pakistan: Mr. ShaukatAli; Peru: Mr. Hermann Baumann, Mr. RubenChale Huaman Uribe; Philippines: Gregorio Jr.Bungcasan, Mr. Reynold Sioson; Portugal: JoaoCarvalho; Slovenia: Ales Avsic; South Africa:Pieter Naude; Spain: Mr. Jaime González;Sweden: Jeroen Ehlen, Mr. Bengt Hkansson,Jan Larsson, Mr. Henrik Stille; Taiwan: Dr.Ching-Cheng Chen; Thailand: Mr. Phadet Asai;Turkey: Assist. Prof. Murat Deveci; United

Kingdom: Mr. Stephen Amoah, Mr. PierreCarion, Ms. Fiona Charge, Mr. Alfred Darkwa,Ms. Claudia Doncks-Noppens, Ms. ClaireDonkin, Ms. Sally Flanagan, Mr. Simon Harlow,Barbara Henson, Mr. Les Lane, Mr. williamSibley, Ms. Erin Taylor; United States ofAmerica: Cathy Ader, Dr. Amein Alsuezi, Mr.Neil Anderson, John Atkinson, Michael Bauer,Michael Biltonen, Radus Bray, Celeste Conklin,Mr. Ron Cramer, Guido Daniels, Mr. BlaineDiffendaffer, Joel Florian, James George, Mr.Barry Griffin, Mr. Douglas Hartel, Mr. BrianHaschemeyer, Tammy Ingersoll, Greg Kessler,Sage LaCroix, Mr. Myles Lewis, Ms. AmandaLovelady, Prof. William J. Manning, Ms. TatianaMorin, Dr. Rod Musselman, Jessica Norton, Mr.Manuel Rivera, Ms. Sarah Selig, Philip Sheridan,Dr. Keith Striegler, Mr. Asare Twum-Barima, Dr.Michael Uchneat, Dr. Robert Van Steenwyk,Vincent Versagli, Dr. Laixin Wang, EthanWeston, Rebecca Wilson; Venezuela: Prof. Dr.Hugo Ramirez; West Indies: Mr. Keith Phillip

In Memoriam

IR. HEIKO H. VAN DER BORG(1925-2008) -ISHS SECRETARY GENERAL(1982-1994)

Suddenly and unexpectedly ir. Heiko van derBorg passed away on 12 September 2008 at theage of 82. During his many years as SecretaryGeneral of ISHS (1982-1994) the seeds weresown for the richly developed Society that theISHS is today: a highly respected and influentialinternational organization caring for the horti-cultural science profession. He was instrumentalin the establishment of various ISHS Sections,Commissions and Working Groups, and createdlinks with related organizations such as ISTRC,

ICMAP and many others still fostered within theSociety. Acta Horticulturae, the flagship publica-tion of ISHS, was initiated under his leadership.

A constant driver of Heiko’s professional activi-ties was his dedication to the scientific qualityand societal impact of agricultural sciences ingeneral and horticultural sciences in particular.In his view, international understanding andcooperation was the key factor. He dedicatedthe whole of his career to the stimulation andfacilitation of international exchange andcooperation in research and development.

Apart from his commitment to ISHS, Heiko suc-cessfully founded the OECD CooperativeResearch Program on Sustainable Resources forwhich he served for more than 10 years as Chairof the Management Committee. In addition, heinitiated the German-Dutch Cooperative GeneBank on Potato which he supported for manyyears. For this achievement Germany honoredhim in 1989 with the ‘Bundesverdienstkreuz 1.Klasse’. From its establishment in 1975, he wasfor many years an active and stimulating repre-sentative of The Netherlands on the EUStanding Committee on Agricultural Research(SCAR). All these activities were an articulationof van der Borg’s main affiliation: Director of

International Relations of the AgriculturalResearch Organization of the Dutch Ministry ofAgriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries(DLO), one of the constituents of the presentWageningen University and Research Centre(WUR). In this position van der Borg was anenergetic and perseverant proponent of theinternational outreach of the Dutch AgriculturalResearch system until his retirement in 1990.The high regard that Dutch agricultural know-ledge enjoys worldwide is undoubtedly owed toa significant extent to the vision and effort ofHeiko van der Borg.

Heiko was a very strong personality: straightfor-ward, effective, hard working and demandingas a colleague; empathic, helpful and loyal as afriend; responsive and committed as a citizen.Above all he was a caring and beloved husbandfor his wife José and father and grandfather forhis daughters and grandchildren. We mournthe loss of a prominent and great person. Manyin the ISHS will remember Heiko and miss andrespect him for what he valued, representedand accomplished.

Fons Werrij, The Netherlands

Heiko H. van der Borg

ISHS • 46

PROFESSOR DR. GÜNTERSTAUDT (1926-2008)

The opening lecture of the 6th InternationalStrawberry Symposium in Huelva, Spain, inMarch 2008 was delivered by Günter Staudt on“Strawberry Biogeography, Genetics andSystematics.” He presented decades ofresearch, passion and summarized knowledgeabout the genus Fragaria. He demonstrated theimportance of taxonomy and phylogeneticunderstanding for breeding of this importantfruit. Günter Staudt died on May 22, 2008 nearhis home town Merzhausen, Germany.Throughout his whole life he retained a loveand loyalty to the strawberries.

Günter Staudt’s scientific relationship tostrawberries began in 1946 when he was intro-duced to the Berlin Fragaria collection ofElisabeth Schiemann who was a scholar of thefamous geneticist Erwin Baur. Already in 1918,Baur had initiated cross-breeding betweenFragaria vesca and octoploid cultivars to trans-fer the rich fruit aroma of wood strawberries tocultivars. On this basis, Schiemann developed awhole research program about species devel-opment and sex expression. Stimulated bythese ideas, Günter Staudt became a world-wide expert in Fragaria taxonomy and genetics.

Günter Staudt was born on August 10, 1926 inBerlin. After his university studies in Berlin heworked at the Max-Planck-Institute in Cologne.In Berlin, he habilitated at the TechnicalUniversity on “Genetics and Evolution ofHeteroecy in Genus Fragaria” in 1966. From1967 to 1974 he was Head of the Departmentof Genetics and Cytology at the “Institute forGrapevine Breeding” Geilweilerhof inSiebeldingen, Germany. From 1974 till his re-tirement in 1991 he was the Director of the“State Institute for Viticulture and Enology” inFreiburg, Germany. His fields of scientific activi-ty ranged from strawberries to cereals andgrapes, which shows his wide interest andexpertise in plant science.

Günter Staudt’s early interest in crossability inFragaria and his passion for the fruit itselfexplains his focus on horticultural developmentand breeding of strawberries. Over many years,his studies were supported by the famousstrawberry breeder Reinhold von Sengbuschwho produced the famous ‘Senga Sengana’.Later, Günter Staudt was involved in strawber-ry research ranging from molecular and cytolo-gical studies to extensive breeding programs inthe USA, France and Germany working withRoyce Bringhurst, Philippe Roudeillac, andKlaus Olbricht. His collection of Fragaria speciesis maintained in different places worldwide,thereby, promoting the conservation of germ-plasm. The scientific work with Günter Staudt’splant material and his ideas is being continuedworldwide, in particular in the USA, France, theUK and Germany.

Günter Staudt and his private Fragaria collection in Merzhausen,Germany, 2006.

A milestone in Fragaria taxonomy is GünterStaudt’s book “Systematics and GeographicDistribution of the American StrawberrySpecies” (University of California Publications inBotany, 1999). The taxonomic description andorder of three American Fragaria species, eachwith four subspecies and two hybrid specieshave become the basis of Fragaria taxonomy inthe Americas.

During the last years, Günter Staudt workedmainly on a botanical systematics of the AsianFragaria species and their relationship toEuropean and American species. Günter Staudtwas the first to describe Fragaria iturupensis(1973), the only octoploid Fragaria species out-side the two Americas. A number of scientificpapers on Asian species has been publishedrecently. His work on Fragaria nipponica andFragaria iturupensis is currently in print. Until hisdeath, Günter Staudt worked on descriptionkeys for the Asian species in order to bring cla-rification into the mass of synonyms and inexactdescriptions that have been existing so far forthis part of the genus. Fortunately, he sharedthese ideas so that we are able to continue hiswork in a responsible manner.

Günter Staudt’s most valuable herbarium collec-tion of specimens will be transferred to theBotanical Garden of Berlin. It was his wish thathis scientific collection and his private plant col-

lection shall be transferred to Dresden,Germany, being preserved there by one of theauthors (K. Olbricht).

In his opening lecture in Huelva Günter Staudtpublically thanked his colleagues, plant collec-tors and travellers who supplied him over theyears with wild-growing strawberry speciesfrom all over the world. “These accessions,” hesaid, “are the material from which I made mydecisions in combination with the studies ofherbarium specimens of the main herbaria.Similar to Duchesne, my home garden was andstill is full of strawberries.”

We thank Günter Staudt for sharing ideas,doubts, and cognition. We will never forget hisenthusiasm, his strong will and his constantsearch for scientific truth. We remember all ourhours together in strawberry fields and workingon papers and books such as Duchesne’s “Ledessin d´A.N. Duchesne pour son Histoire natu-relle des fraisiers”.

Günter Staudt’s scientific achievements allowus to understand the genus Fragaria moredeeply as ever before. He will always remain inour hearts and minds as colleague and friend.Strawberry plants will grow on his grave.

Klaus Olbricht, Dresden, Germany andPhilippe Roudeillac, Bordeaux, France

DR. CLAIRE DORÉ(1948-2008)

Dr. Claire Doré was born on September 30,1948 in Paris. After studying plant biology, mor-phogenesis and cytology, she entered INRAplant breeding Department in 1972 to preparea thesis at the Orsay University.

Her first scientific contribution was to establishthe methods of production of all-male F1hybrids in Asparagus officinalis through antherculture and in vitro micro-propagation, whichled to the first commercial development in theworld of this kind of varieties in 1989.

She developed doubled haploid production inBrassica oleracea L. ssp. capitata, Allium cepa,Linum usitatissimum, Cichorium intybus by dif-

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Claire Doré

ferent methods such as anther culture or gyno-genesis after pollen irradiation or interspecificcrosses and ovary culture.

She had the responsibility of the vegetableworking group at INRA and was the Frenchcorrespondent of the ISHS from 1993 to 2008.She was co-editor of the volume of ActaHorticulturae on “Genetic Improvement ofHorticultural Crops by Biotechnology” (Kyoto1994) and co-organized with F. Dosba and C.Baril the first International Symposium on“Molecular Markers for CharacterizingGenotypes and Identifying Cultivars inHorticulture” in March 2000 in Montpellier. Shewas also co- editor of Acta Horticulturae 546 -“Proceedings of the International Symposiumon Molecular Markers for CharacterizingGenotypes and Identifying Cultivars inHorticulture”.

In spite of a long and incurable illness, she con-tinued to work for the preservation of geneticresources of orphan crops, and the public infor-mation on the recent history of plant breeding.In 2006, she published with F. Varoquaux“Histoire et Amélioration de cinquante Plantescultivées”.

She died on June 11, 2008 and left the memo-ry of a passionate botanist with a high generalculture, and who devoted her life to theimprovement of horticultural plants.

Françoise Dosba, INRA Montpellier, France andGeorges Pelletier, INRA Versailles, France

ROGER ROLAND WESTWELLFOLLEY (1912-2008)

Dr. Roger Roland Westwell Folley, ISHSHonorary Member since 1982, passed away onAugust 16, 2008.

MRS. JUDIT SVAB(1923-2008)

Mrs. Judit Svab passed away in August 2008.She was a markant personality of Hungarianmedicinal and aromatic plant research and pro-duction.

CONRAD B. LINK(1912-2008)

Dr. Conrad B. Link, Professor Emeritus of theUniversity of Maryland, ASHS’ firstArchivist/Historian and ISHS member since1963, passed away Friday, September 12,2008. Dr. Link celebrated his 75th year of ASHSMembership this year, a record for the Society.His lifelong service to ASHS and horticulturewas featured in the July 2008 issue of the ASHSNewsletter, and he will be sorely missed by allwho knew him.

For updates and more logon to www.ishs.org/calendar. To claimthe reduced registration for ISHS members make sure your ISHSmembership is current and mention your membership numberwhen registering. See www.ishs.org/directory/ if in doubt regar-ding your ISHS membership status.

YEAR 2008

� December 7-11, 2008, Chiang Mai (Thailand): XVI InternationalSymposium on Horticultural Economics and Management. Info:Peter J. Batt, Horticulture, Curtin University of Technology, GPO boxU1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. Phone: (61)8 9266 7596, Fax:(61)8 9266 3063, E-mail: p.batt@curtin.edu.au or Prof. Dr. Peter P.Oppenheim, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, 336Glenferrie Road, Malvern, VIC 3144, Australia. Phone: (61)3 92445549, Fax: (61)3 9244 5040 Web:http://www.muresk.curtin.edu.au/conference/ishsem

� December 7-11, 2008, Chiang Mai (Thailand): V InternationalSymposium on Horticultural Research, Training and Extension.Info: Peter J. Batt, Horticulture, Curtin University of Technology, GPObox U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. Phone: (61)8 9266 7596,Fax: (61)8 9266 3063, E-mail: p.batt@curtin.edu.au or AssociateProfessor Dr. David Aldous, University of Melbourne, Burnley College,Swan Street, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia.Phone: (61)0392506800, Fax: (61)0392506885Web: http://www.muresk.curtin.edu.au/conference/ishset

Calendar of ISHS Events� December 8-12, 2008, Bangalore (India): IV International

Symposium on Acclimatization and Establishment ofMicropropagated Plants. Info: Dr. Jitendra Prakash, In VitroInternational Pvt. Ltd., #12/44, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Bommanahalli,Bangalore 560 068, India. Phone: (91)80 41109273, Fax: (91)8025727030, E-mail: invitro@bgl.vsnl.net.in Web: http://www.int-tis-suecultureconf.org/

� December 9-12, 2008, Madurai, Tamil Nadu (India): II InternationalSymposium on Papaya. Info: Dr. N. Kumar, Department of FruitCrops, Horticultural College & Research Institute, Priyakulam, 625604, India. Phone: (91)4546231726, Fax: (91)4546231726, E-mail:kumarhort@yahoo.com Web: http://www.ishs-papaya2008.com/

YEAR 2009

� February 25-27, 2009, Melbourne (Australia): VI InternationalWalnut Symposium. Info: Mr. Bryan Goble, Walnut Producer, 222Kerang-Koondrook Rd, Koondrook, VIC 3580, Australia. E-mail:btgoble@westnet.com.au or Dr. Leigh Titmus, PO Box 417,Devonport, TAS 7310, Australia. Phone: (61)364283539, E-mail:leigh.titmus@websterltd.com.au Web:http://www.walnut.net.au/symposium_2009.htm

� March 26-28, 2009, Jerba (Tunisia): III International Symposiumon Medicinal and Aromatic Plants SIPAM2009. Info: Dr.Mohamed Neffati, Institut des Regions Arides (IRA), 4119 Medenine,

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Tunisia. Phone: (216)75633839, Fax: (216)75633006, E-mail: nef-fati.mohamed@ira.rnrt.tn E-mail symposium: SIPAM2009@ira.rnrt.tnWeb: http://www.sipam.ira.rnrt.tn/

� April 4-7, 2009, Antalya (Turkey): X International Controlled andModified Atmosphere Research Conference. Info: Dr. MustafaErkan, Dep. of Horticulture, Fac. of Agric. Akdeniz Univ., 07058Antalya, Turkey. Phone: (90) 242 3102428, Fax: (90) 242 2274564,E-mail: erkan@akdeniz.edu.tr Web: http://www.cama2009.com/

� April 5-8, 2009, Leuven (Belgium): I International Symposium onCryopreservation in Horticultural Species. Info: Dr. Bart Panis,Kasteelpark Arenberg 13, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Phone: (32)16-321690, Fax: (32)16-321993, E-mail: bart.panis@biw.kuleuven.be orProf. Rony Swennen, Lab. Tropische Plantenteelt, KasteelparkArenberg 13, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Phone: (32)16321421, Fax:(32)16321993 E-mail symposium: ISHSPlantCryo@biw.kuleuven.beWeb: http://www.agr.kuleuven.ac.be/dtp/tro/ISHSplantcryo/index.htm

� April 8-12, 2009, Antalya (Turkey): VI International PostharvestSymposium. Info: Dr. Mustafa Erkan, Dep. of Horticulture, Fac. ofAgric. Akdeniz Univ., 07058 Antalya, Turkey. Phone: (90) 2423102428, Fax: (90) 242 2274564, E-mail: erkan@akdeniz.edu.trWeb: http://www.postharvest2009.com/

� May 20-24, 2009, Krokos, Kozani (Greece): III InternationalSymposium on Saffron Biology and Technology: ForthcomingChallenges in Cultivation, Research and Economics. Info: Dr.Maria Tsimidou, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, ChemistryDepartment, Lab. FD Chemical Technology, 54124 Thessaloniki,Greece. Phone: (30)2310997796, Fax: (30)2310997779, E-mail:tsimidou@chem.auth.gr

� May 24-29, 2009, Gifu (Japan): V International Symposium onRose Research and Cultivation. Info: Prof. Yoshihiro Ueda, GifuInternational Academy of Horticulture, 1094-8 Shio, Kani-shi, GifuPref., Japan. Phone: (81)574605547, Fax: (81)574605547, E-mail:ueda-yoshihiro@horticulture.ac.jp E-mail symposium:rose2009@jecs.org Web: http://www1.gifu-u.ac.jp/~rose/index.html

� June 1-5, 2009, Charlotte, NC (United States of America): IIInternational Symposium on Growing Media and Composting.Info: William C Fonteno III, North Carolina State University, Dept. ofHorticultural Science, Box 7609 - 152 Kilgore Hall, Raleigh, NC27695-7609, United States of America. E-mail:bill_fonteno@ncsu.edu

� June 8-11, 2009, Lleida (Spain): VII International PeachSymposium. Info: Dr. Joan Girona, Centre UdL-IRTA, Rovira Roure,177, 25198 Lleida, Spain. Phone: (34)973 702587, Fax: (34)973238301, E-mail: joan.girona@irta.es

� June 9-13, 2009, Bologna (Italy): II Conference on Landscape andUrban Horticulture. Info: Prof. Dr. Giorgio Prosdocimi Gianquinto,Dip. Scienze e Tecnologie Agroambientali , DISTA, Università degliStudi di Bologna, Viale Fanin, 44 - 40127 Bologna , Italy. Phone: (39)0512096641, Fax: (39) 0512096245 , E-mail:giorgio.gianquinto@unibo.it or Prof. Dr. Alessandro Chiusoli, Dept.DCA, via Fanin 46, 40127 Bologna, Italy. Phone: (39)051 2096446,Fax: (39)051 2096450, E-mail: alessandro.chiusoli@unibo.it E-mailsymposium: dista.luh2009@unibo.it Web: http://www.luh2009.org

� June 14-19, 2009, Quebec City (Canada): InternationalConference on Sustainable Greenhouse Systems -Greensys2009. Info: Prof. André Gosselin, Université Laval, PavillonENVIROTRON, Ste-Foy (Quebec), G1K 7P4, Canada. Phone:(1)4186562131ext2068, Fax: (1)4186567871, E-mail: andre.gos-selin@crh.ulaval.ca or Ms. Martine Dorais, Horticultural ResearchCenter , Laval University, Envirotron Bldg, Room 2120, Quebec G1K7P4, Canada. Phone: (1)418-6562131, Fax: (1)418-6567871, E-mail:doraisma@agr.gc.ca E-mail symposium: info@greensys2009.comWeb: http://www.greensys2009.com/

� June 16-19, 2009, Saint-Pol de Léon (France): VII InternationalSymposium on Artichoke, Cardoon and their Wild Relatives.Info: Christophe Bazinet, Bretagne Biotechnologie Végétale (BBV),Pen Ar Prat., 29250 Saint-Pol de Leon, Brittany, France. Phone:(33)298290644, Fax: (33)298692426, E-mail: bazinet@bbv.fr E-mailsymposium: contact@bbv.fr Web: http://www.vegenov.com/arti-choke_symposium/

� June 17-21, 2009, Ljubljana (Slovenia): IV InternationalSymposium on Breeding Research in Medicinal and AromaticPlants. Biodiversity conservation and use of genetic resources.Info: Prof. Dr. Dea Baricevic, University of Ljubljana, BiotechnicalFaculty, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Phone:(386)41776653, Fax: (386)14231088, E-mail: dea.baricevic@bf.uni-lj.si

� July 29 - August 1, 2009, Corvallis, Oregon (United States ofAmerica): International Symposium on Molecular Markers inHorticultural Species. Info: Dr. Nahla V. Bassil, Plant Geneticist,Nat’l Clone Germplasm Repository, 33447 Peoria Road, Corvallis, OR97331-23521, United States of America. Phone: (1)5417384214,Fax: (1)5417384205, E-mail: nahla.bassil@ars.usda.gov E-mail sym-posium: conferences@oregonstate.edu Web:http://oregonstate.edu/conferences/molecularmarkers2009/

� August 3-5, 2009, Bangkok (Thailand): Southeast Asia Symposiumon Quality and Safety of Fresh and Fresh Cut Produce. Info: Dr.Sirichai Kanlayanarat, King Mongkut's University of Technology,Thonburi, Division of Postharvest Technology, Thungkru, Bangkok10140, Thailand. Phone: (66)2 470 7720, Fax: (66)2 452 3750, E-mail: sirichai.kan@kmutt.ac.th

� August 31 - September 4, 2009, Wageningen (Netherlands): XXIIIEucarpia Symposium on Ornamentals - Colorful Breeding andGenetics. Info: Dr. J.M. Van Tuyl, Plantbreeding, WageningenUniversity & Research Center, Droevendaalse steeg 1, 6708 PBWageningen, Netherlands. Phone: (31)317477329, Fax:(31)317418094, E-mail: jaap.vantuyl@wur.nl Web: http://www.orna-mentalbreeding.nl/

� September 8-11, 2009, Balsgard (Sweden): II International RoseHip Conference. Info: Prof. Hilde Nybom, Balsgard-Dept. CropScience, Swedish Univ. Of Agric. Sci., Balsgard Fjalkestadsvagen 459,S-291 94 Kristianstad, Sweden. Phone: (46)44265802, Fax:(46)44265830, E-mail: hilde.nybom@ltj.slu.se

� September 14-18, 2009, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China):International ISHS-ProMusa Symposium: Global Perspectiveson Asian Challenges. Info: Prof. Dr. Ganjun Yi, Fruit Tree ResearchInstitute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wushan,Guangzhou Guangdong 510640, China. Phone: (86)2038765869 or13302200898, Fax: (86)2038765626, E-mail: yiganjun@vip.163.comor Dr. Augustin B. Molina, Bioversity Asia & The Pacific, 3rd Floor,Collaborator Centre, c/o IRRI Khush Hall, Los Baños, Laguna 4031,Philippines. Phone: (63)495360532, Fax: (63)495360532, E-mail:a.molina@cgiar.org or Dr. Inge Van den Bergh, BioversityInternational, 1990 Boulevard de la Lironde, Parc ScientifiqueAgropolis II, 34397 Montpellier, France. Phone: (33)4-67611302,Fax: (33)4-67610334, E-mail: i.vandenbergh@cgiar.org Web:http://www.promusa.org/symposium_2009/home.html

� September 20-24, 2009, Bologna (Italy): XI InternationalSymposium on Plant Bioregulators in Fruit Production. Info:Prof. Guglielmo Costa, Ordinario di Arboricoltura Generale,Dipartimento di Colture Arboree, Via G. Fanin 46, 40127 Bologna,Italy. Phone: (39)051 20 9 6443, Fax: (39)051 20 9 6401, E-mail:guglielmo.costa@unibo.it E-mail symposium:scientific@bologna2009.it Web: http://www.ishs.pbr.bologna2009.it/

� September 21-26, 2009, Changsha, Hunan (China): IV Interna-tional Cucurbit Symposium. Info: Prof. Xiaowu Sun, No.587,Dongda Road, Shaoyang City, Hunan, 422001, China. Phone:

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(86)739-5050618, Fax: (86)739-5050652 E-mail symposium: cucur-bit2009@188.com Web: http://www.cucurbit2009.org

� September 27 - October 1, 2009, Murcia (Spain): V InternationalSymposium on Seed , Transplant and Stand Establishment:Integrating Methods for Producing More with Less. Info: Dr.Francisco Perez-Alfocea, Dept. Of Irrigation and Salinity, CEBAS -CSIC, PO Box 4195, 30080 Murcia, Spain. Phone: (34)968396200,Fax: (34)968396213, E-mail: alfocea@cebas.csic.es or Dr. Jose A.Pascual Valero, CEBAS-CSIS, Campus Univ. De Espinardo s/n, 30100Murcia, Spain. Phone: (34)968396200, Fax: (39)968396213,E-mail: jpascual@cebas.csic.es E-mail symposium: info@sest2009.comWeb: http://www.sest2009.com

� September 29 - October 3, 2009, Meknes (Morocco): IV Interna-tional Symposium on Fig. Info: Prof. Dr. Messaoudi Zerhoune,Dept. Arboriculture-Viticulture, Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture deMeknes, B.P. S/40, 50000 Meknes, Morocco. Phone: (212)61353653,Fax: (212)35300238, E-mail: messaoudiz@yahoo.fr

� October 5-8, 2009, Tbilisi (Georgia): International Symposium onCurrent and Potential Uses of Nut Trees Wild Relatives. Info: Dr.Zviad Bobokashvili, Georgian Res. Inst. Of Horticulture, Dept. Fruitand Vine Crop Germplasm Inv., Gelovani Street #6, Tbilisi 0115,Georgia. Phone: (995)93335793, E-mail: bobokashvili@hotmail.comor Dr. Maya Marghania, Kostava 41, Tbilisi, Georgia. Phone:(995)99905076, E-mail: mmarghania@hotmail.com Web:http://www.nutssymposium2008.ge/

� October 13-16, 2009, Cuneo (Italy): I European Congress onChestnut - Castanea 2009. Food, Timber, Biomass and Energy.Info: Prof. Dr. Giancarlo Bounous, Dipartimento di Colture Arboree,Università degli studi di Torino, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, 10095Grugliasco, TO, Italy. Phone: (39)0116708653, Fax: (39)0116708658,E-mail: giancarlo.bounous@unito.it E-mail symposium: cas-tanea2009.dca@unito.it Web: http://www.arboree.unito.it/cas-tanea2009

� October 13-17, 2009, Sanliurfa (Turkey): V InternationalSymposium on Pistachios and Almonds. Info: Prof. Dr. Bekir ErolAk, University of Harran, Faculty of Agriculture, 63200 Sanliurfa,Turkey. Phone: (90)4142470384 2319, Fax: (90)4142470384, E-mail:beak@harran.edu.tr

� October 18-21, 2009, Murcia (Spain): V International Symposiumon Seed , Transplant and Stand Establishment. Info: Dr.Francisco Perez-Alfocea, Dept. Of Irrigation and Salinity, CEBAS -CSIC, PO Box 4195, 30080 Murcia, Spain. Phone: (34)968396200,Fax: (34)968396213, E-mail: alfocea@cebas.csic.es or Dr. Jose A.Pascual Valero, CEBAS-CSIS, Campus Univ. De Espinardo s/n, 30100Murcia, Spain. Phone: (34)968396200, Fax: (39)968396213

� October 27-29, 2009, Nasser City, Cairo (Egypt): XIII InternationalConference and Exhibition: Medicinal and Aromatic Plants -Challenges and Opportunities. Info: Prof. Dr. Ismail Abdel-Galil,Desert Research Center, 1, Mothaf El-Matariya, Cairo, Egypt. Phone:(20)226374800 or 26332846, Fax: (20)226357858, E-mail:ismaill@brainy1.ie-eg.com or Dr. Farouk El-Shobaki, ESMAP, 6, Dr.Farouk El-Shobaki Street, El-Koum El-Akhdar, Pyramids, Giza, Egypt.Phone: (20)233869898, Fax: (20)233841120, E-mail:drfarouk@elshobaki.com

� October 29 - November 1, 2009, Lima (Peru): XII InternationalAsparagus Symposium. Info: Prof. Andres V. Casas Diaz, Dept. OfHorticulture, Univ. Nac. Agraria - La Molina, Apdo. 12-056, Lima 12,Peru. Phone: (51)13485796, Fax: (51)13481660, E-mail: cda@lamoli-na.edu.pe

� November 2-6, 2009, Viña del Mar (Chile): VI InternationalSymposium on Irrigation of Horticultural Crops. Info: Dr. SamuelOrtega-Farias, Casilla 747, Talca, Chile. Phone: (56)71200214, Fax:(56)71200214, E-mail: sortega@utalca.cl or Gabriel Selles, Inst. De

Invest. Agro., Santa Rosa 11610, Santiago, Chile. Phone:(56)27575105, E-mail: gselles@inia.cl or Nelson Pereira Muñoz,National Irrigation Commission, Alameda B. O’Higgins 1449, Piso 4°,Santiago, Chile. Phone: (56)024257914, Fax: (56)024257901, E-mail:nelson.pereira@cnr.gob.cl E-mail symposium: information@irriga-tion2009.cl Web: http://www.irrigation2009.cl/

� November 15-19, 2009, Tsukuba (Japan): VI InternationalSymposium on Light in Horticulture. Info: Eiji Goto, ChibaUniversity, 648 Matsudo, Chiba 271-8510, Japan. Phone: (81)47-308-8841, Fax: (81)47-308-8842, E-mail: goto@faculty.chiba-u.jp E-mail symposium: info@lightsym2009.jp Web: http://www.light-sym2009.jp

� November 15-20, 2009, Santiago (Chile): VI International CherrySymposium. Info: Dr. Marlene Ayala, Departamento de Fruticulturay Enología, Facultad de Agronomía e Ingeniería Forestal, Casilla 306Correo 22, Santiago, Chile. Phone: (56)6864159 , Fax: (56)5534130,E-mail: mayalaz@uc.cl or Prof. Juan Pablo Zoffoli, Av VicunaMackenna 4860, Dept. Fruticultura y Enologia, Santiago 30622,Chile. Phone: (56)2 686 4159, Fax: (56)2 5534130, E-mail:zoffolij@uc.cl

� November 25-27, 2009, New Delhi (India): II InternationalSymposium on Medicinal and Nutraceutical Plants. Info: Dr.Sushil Chandra Mahapatra, All India Institute for Medical Sciences,Nutrition&Phytomed. Lab, - Dept. Physiology, Ansari Nagar, NewDelhi 110 608, India. Phone: (91)1126594812, Fax:(91)1126588641, E-mail: scmahapatra@gmail.com

� November 30 - December 4, 2009, Campinas (Brazil): InternationalSymposium on Genetic Research of Bamboos and Palms. Info:Dr. Antonio Fernando Tombolato, Instituto Agronomico, AvenidaBarão de Itapura 1481, Caixa Postal 28, 13012-970 Campinas SP,Brazil. Phone: (55)1932415188, Fax: (55)1932417570, E-mail:tombolat@iac.sp.gov.br or Prof. Kathia Pivetta, Rodovia CarlosTonanni, Km 5, Departamento de Horticultura, 14870-000Jaboticabal, Brazil. Phone: (55)163232500, Fax: (55)163224275,E-mail: kathia@fcav.unesp.br

YEAR 2010

� January 12-15, 2010, Taichung (Taiwan): I International OrchidSymposium. Info: Dr. Yung-I Lee, Botany Department, NationalMuseum of Natural Science, N0 1, Kuan-Chien Rd., Taichung 404,Taiwan. Phone: (886)-4-23226940-153, Fax: (886)-4-23285320,E-mail: leeyungi@hotmail.com or Assist. Prof. Erik Runkle, A240-CPlant & Soil Sci. Bldg., Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI48824, United States of America. Phone: (1)517.355.5191 x350,Fax: (1)517.353.0890, E-mail: runkleer@msu.edu

� May 3-6, 2010, Antakya-Hatay (Turkey): III InternationalSymposium on Loquat. Info: Prof.Dr. A. Aytekin Polat, MustafaKemal University, Faculty of Agriculture, Dept. of Horticulture,Antakya Hatay, 31034, Turkey. Phone: (90)6232455605, Fax:(90)3262455832, E-mail: apolat@mku.edu.tr

� June 15-19, 2010, (Turkey): I International Mulberry Symposium.Info: Prof. Dr. Sezai Ercisli, Ataturk University Agricultural Faculty,Department of Horticulture, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey. Phone: (90)442-2312599, Fax: (90) 442 2360958, E-mail: sercisli@atauni.edu.trE-mail symposium: sercisli@hotmail.com

� July 6-8, 2010, Guildford and Wisley (United Kingdom):I International Ornamental Plant Trials Conference. Info: Dr.Simon P. Thornton-Wood, Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley,Woking, Surrey GU23 6QB, United Kingdom. Phone:(44)1483224234, Fax: (44)1483211750 E-mail symposium: orna-mentals2010@rhs.org.uk

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Subject Index

Book Reviews

Bellini, E. (ed.), Le Specie legnose da Frutto: Liste dei Caratteri descrittivi(The Fruit Woody Species: Descriptor List), 48(4):23

Bengtsson, B.M.I., Agricultural Research at the Crossroads: RevisitedResource-poor Farmers and the Millennium Development Goals,48(2):30

Hummer, K.E. (ed.), Global Conservation Strategy for Fragaria(Strawberry), 48(3):31

Janick, J. (ed.), Proteaceous Ornamentals: Banksia, Leucadendron,Leucospermum and Protea, 48(1):27

Janick, J. and Paull, R.E. (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Fruit & Nuts, 48(3):30

Kays, S.J. and Nottingham, S.F., Biology and Chemistry of JerusalemArtichoke: Helianthus tuberosus L., 48(1):26

Lee, J.-M., Choi, G.-W. and Janick, J. (eds.), Horticulture in Korea,48(2):30

Loebenstein, G. and Thottappilly, G. (eds.), Agricultural ResearchManagement, 48(2):29-30

Mitcham, E.J. and Elkins, R.B. (technical eds.), Pear Production andHandling Manual, 48(3):31

Sansavini, S. (ed.), Nuove Frontiere dell’Arboricoltura Italiana (NewFrontiers of Italian Tree Crops), 48(3):30-31

Schwartz, H.F. and Krishna Mohan, S. (eds.), Compendium of Onion andGarlic Diseases and Pests, 48(4):23-24

Seeram, N.P., Schulman, R.N. and Heber, D. (eds.), Pomegranates:Ancient Roots to Modern Medicine, 48(1):26-27

History

The Founding and Founders of the Royal Horticultural Society, 48(1):17-19

Horticultural Science Focus

Caldo Verde: A Story of Portuguese Brassicas, 48(1):9-11

Onion as a Nutraceutical and Functional Food, 48(2):8-14

Plug Technology: Horticultural Revolution, 48(4):7-10

The Pomegranate: New Interest in an Ancient Fruit, 48(3):12-15

Horticultural Science News

AVRDC Appoints New Director General, 48(2):19

Carnivorous Plants: New Ornamentals, 48(4):11-14

FAO Launches Photo Contest for Year of Potato, 48(2):20

Fiddlehead Fronds: Nutrient Rich Delicacy, 48(1):12-15

Floricultural Boom in India, 48(2):14-19

Giant Pumpkins: Genetic and Cultural Breakthroughs, 48(3):16-17

Gilding the Lilies: Rainbow Roses and Confetti Poinsettia, 48(1):16

Opium Poppy: Societal Blessing and Curse, 48(3):18-23

Issues

Electronic Fruits and Other Sensors, 48(4):4-6

Orchard Tourism in China, 48(2):4-7

Project-Based Learning in Horticulture: Composting in Egypt, 48(1):6-8

The Future of Irrigation in Horticulture, 48(3):9-11

Letter to the Editor

Arcimboldo’s Summer, 48(1):5

Index to Volume 48 of Chronica HorticulturaeNews from the Board

Alphabet Soup: Acronyms Associated with Horticulture, 48(3):5-8

Climate Change and Horticulture, 48(1):3-4

Embrapa and ISHS Sign Memorandum of Understanding, 48(1):4-5

Horticulture and the World Food Crisis, 48(4):3

ISHS Board, Executive Committee and Council Meeting, 2008, 48(3):3-4

The Tyranny of the Impact Factor, 48(2):3-4

Symposia and Workshops

Eight Int’l Symposium on Temperate Zone Fruits in the Tropics andSubtropics, 48(2):34-35

Eleventh Int’l Symposium on the Processing Tomato, 48(4):38-39

Eleventh Int’l Workshop on Fire Blight, 48(1):32-34

Europe-Asia Symposium on Quality Management in Postharvest Systems,48(2):41-42

FAV HEALTH 2007 - Int’l Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruitsand Vegetables, 48(2):40-41

Fifth Int’l Symposium on Edible Alliaceae, 48(2):37-38

Fifth Int’l Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants, 48(1):42-43

First Balkan Symposium on Fruit Growing, 48(1):29-30

First Int’l Symposium on Application of Precision Agriculture for Fruitsand Vegetables, 48(2):32-33

First Symposium on Horticulture in Europe, 48(2):31-32

Fourteenth Int’l Symposium on Apricot Breeding and Culture, 48(4):32-33

Int’l Conference on Quality Management in Supply Chains ofOrnamentals, 48(1):31-32

Int’l Conference on Ripening Regulation and Postharvest Fruit Quality,48(1):35-36

Int’l Symposium on Improving the Performance of Supply Chains in theTransitional Economies, 48(1):40-41

Int'l Symposium on Soilless Culture and Hydroponics, 48(4):39-40

Int’l Symposium on Strategies towards Sustainability of ProtectedCultivation in Mild Winter Climate, 48(3):42-43

Int’l Symposium on the Socio-Economic Impact of Modern VegetableProduction Technology in Tropical Asia, 48(2):39-40

Int’l Symposium on Underutilized Plants for Food, Nutrition, Income andSustainable Development, 48(2):35-37

Int’l Workshop on Chestnut Management in Mediterranean Countries:Problems and Prospects, 48(1):28

Model-IT 2008, Better Equipped for Life…, 48(3):44-45

Ninth Int’l Symposium on Plum and Prune Genetics, Breeding andPomology, 48(4):34-35

Ninth Int’l Symposium on Post Harvest Physiology of Ornamental Plants,48(4):29-30

Ninth Int’l Vaccinium Symposium, 48(4):41-42

Second Int’l Humulus Symposium, 48(4):25-26

Second Int’l Symposium on Tomato Diseases, 48(1):39-40

Seventh Int’l Congress on Hazelnut, 48(4):27-28

Sixth Int’l Congress on Cactus Pear and Cochineal, 48(3):33

Sixth Int’l Pineapple Symposium, 48(1):37-38

Sixth Int’l Strawberry Symposium, 48(3):40-41

Sixth Int’l Symposium on In Vitro Culture and Horticultural Breeding,48(4):43-44

CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 48 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 • 51

Sixth Int’l Symposium on Mineral Nutrition of Fruit Crops, 48(3):36-37

Tenth Int’l Symposium on Flower Bulbs and Herbaceous Perennials,48(4):31

Third Int’l Late Blight Conference, 48(3):38-39

Third Int’l Symposium on Longan, Lychee and Other Fruit Trees inSapindaceae Family, 48(4):36-37

Twelfth Int’l Symposium on Virus Diseases of Ornamental Plants,48(3):34-35

The World of Horticulture

Bourbon Vanilla: Natural Flavour with a Future, 48(2):23-29

Durian: Southeast Asia’s King of Fruits, 48(4):19-22

Fruit Genetic Resources of Albania, 48(2):20-23

Fruit Trees for the Sudano-Sahel Region of West Africa, 48(3):24-29

Traditional Vegetables of Sicily, 48(1):20-25

Vegetable Crop Production in Iran, 48(4):15-18

Author IndexAbdoussalam, Saidou, 48(3):24-29Albrigo, L. Gene, 48(2):32-33Arana, Ignacio, 48(4):4-6Arazuri, Silvia, 48(4):4-6Barreiro Elorza, Pilar, 48(3):44-45Bar-Ya’akov, Irit, 48(3):12-15Batt, Peter J., 48(1):40-41; 48(2):39-40Bedlan, Gerhard, 48(2):31-32Besse, Pascale, 48(2):23-29Bogers, Robert J., 48(3):3-4Branca, Ferdinando, 48(1):20-25Cantliffe, Daniel J., 48(4):7-10Chen, Xiao-yan, 48(2):4-7Correia, Pedro José, 48(3):36-37Cristofori, Valerio, 48(4):27-28Daunay, Marie-Christine, 48(1):5De Keukeleire, Denis, 48(4):25-26DeLong, John M., 48(1):12-15Derks, Toon, 48(3):34-35Desjardins, Yves, 48(2):8-14Dixon, Geoffrey R., 48(1):6-8Dubeux, Jr., José Carlos B., 48(3):33Eason, Jocelyn, 48(1):31-32Ehsani, Reza, 48(2):32-33Fatondji, Dougbedji, 48(3):24-29Fereres, Elias, 48(3):9-11Finetto, Giuliano, 48(3):18-23Finn, Chad E., 48(4):41-42Forbes, Greg, 48(3):38-39Franco, Silvio, 48(4):27-28Galmarini, Claudio R., 48(2):37-38Grisoni, Michel, 48(2):23-29Gül, Ayse, 48(3):42-43Haarhuis, J.H.J., 48(2):37-38

Hegazi, Abdelal Hassan, 48(1):6-8Herter, Flávio, 48(2):34-35Hertog, Maarten, 48(3):44-45Hewett, Errol, 48(2):41-42Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard, 48(2):35-37Holland, Doron, 48(3):12-15Inglese, Paolo, 48(2):31-32Jaenicke, Hannah, 48(2):35-37Janick, Jules, 48(1):5; 48(1):16; 48(1):17-19;

48(2):3-4; 48(3):16-17Jarén, Carmen, 48(4):4-6Javanpour, Roghayeh, 48(4):15-18Johnson, Christen, 48(2):32-33Johnson, Kenneth, 48(1):32-34Kahane, Rémi, 48(2):23-29Kanlayanarat, Sirichai, 48(1):31-32; 48(2):41-42Kullaj, Endrit, 48(2):20-23La Malfa, Giuseppe, 48(1):20-25Le Bellec, Fabrice, 48(2):23-29Lee, Cheol Hee, 48(4):11-14Looney, Norman E., 48(1):4-5, 48(4):3López Medina, José, 48(3):40-41Lopez, Roberto, 48(1):16Maynard, Donald, 48(1):5McCormick, Roy, 48(1):35-36Monteiro, António A., 48(1):9-11; 48(1):16Ndjeunga, Jupiter, 48(3):24-29Nikiema, Albert, 48(3):24-29Odoux, Eric, 48(2):23-29Ottosen, Carl-Otto, 48(4):29-30Pan, Dongming, 48(4):36-37Pancino, Barbara, 48(4):27-28Pasternak, Dov, 48(3):24-29Patil, Bhimanagouda S., 48(2):40-41

Pestana, Maribela, 48(3):36-37Pinto da Cunha, Getúlio Augusto, 48(1):37-38Pitblado, Ron, 48(4):38-39Prange, Robert K., 48(1):12-15Qiu, Dongliang, 48(4):36-37Reinhardt, Domingo Haroldo, 48(1):37-38Rodríguez-Delfín, Alfredo, 48(4):39-40Rosa, Eduardo, 48(1):9-11Routledge, Janisse, 48(4):38-39Roy, R.K., 48(2):14-19Salehi, Reza, 48(4):15-18Saygili, Hikmet, 48(1):39-40Senbeto, Debesaye, 48(3):24-29Somsri, Songpol, 48(4):19-22Sottile, Francesco, 48(4):34-35Soylu, Arif, 48(1):28Stockwell, Virginia O., 48(1):32-34Streif, Josef, 48(1):35-36Strik, Bernadine C., 48(4):41-42Taji, Acram, 48(4):43-44

Tüzel, I. Hakkı, 48(3):42-43

Tüzel, Yüksel, 48(3):42-43

van den Berg, R.G., 48(1):42-43

van den Ende, Ernst, 48(4):31

Warrington, Ian J., 48(1):3-4

Woltering, Lennart, 48(3):24-29

Wongs-Aree, Chalermchai, 48(2):41-42

Xiloyannis, Cristos, 48(4):32-33

Zhivondov, Argir, 48(1):29-30

Zhou, Wu-zhong, 48(2):4-7

The Journal of Horticultural ScienceThe Journal of Horticultural Science& Biotechnology& Biotechnology

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Available numbers of Acta Horticulturae (in print for-mat). These as well as all other titles are also availablein ActaHort CD-rom format. For detailed informationon price and availability, including tables of content, orto download an Acta Horticulturae order form, pleasecheck out the ‘publications’ page at www.ishs.org orgo to www.ishs.org/acta

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800 X International Pear Symposium 225799 V International Symposium on the Taxonomy of

Cultivated Plants 60798 III International Symposium on Fig 84797 International Workshop on Greenhouse Environmental

Control and Crop Production in Semi-Arid Regions 106796 International Conference on Ripening Regulation and

Postharvest Fruit Quality 67795 V International Cherry Symposium 197794 II International Symposium on Improving the Performance

of Supply Chains in the Transitional Economies 84793 XI International Workshop on Fire Blight 116792 V International Symposium on Irrigation of Horticultural

Crops 146791 V International Symposium on Olive Growing 157790 VIII International People-Plant Symposium on Exploring

Therapeutic Powers of Flowers, Greenery and Nature 75789 XV Meeting of the EUCARPIA Tomato Working Group 80788 International Workshop on Ornamental Plants 58787 International Workshop on Tropical and Subtropical Fruits 93786 International Workshop on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants 76785 International Symposium on Grape Production and

Processing 112784 II Iberian Congress on Chestnut 65783 II International Conference on Turfgrass Science and

Management for Sports Fields 125780 XI Internatinal Symposium on Small Fruit Virus Diseases 35779 International Symposium on Growing Media 146778 II International Symposium on Natural Preservatives in

Food, Feed, and Cosmetics 47777 IX International Rubus and Ribes Symposium 115776 XI International Asparagus Symposium 110774 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:

International Symposium on Endogenous and ExogenousPlant Bioregulators 100

773 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Citrus and Other Tropical andSubtropical Fruit Crops 76

772 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Enhancing Economic andEnvironmental Sustainability of Fruit Production in a GlobalEconomy 112

771 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Seed Enhancement andSeedling Production Technology 67

770 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Cultivation and Utilization ofAsian, Sub-tropical, and Underutilized Horticultural Crops 61

769 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Asian Plants with UniqueHorticultural Potential 112

768 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on The Role of PostharvestTechnology in the Globalisation of Horticulture 125

765 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Plants as Food and Medicine:The Utilization and Development of Horticultural Plantsfor Human Health 84

764 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Plant Biotechnology: FromBench to Commercialization 83

763 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Structural and FunctionalGenomics of Horticultural Plants 79

762 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Horticultural Plants in Urbanand Peri-Urban Life 100

761 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:International Symposium on Advances in EnvironmentalControl, Automation and Cultivation Systems forSustainable, High-Quality Crop Production underProtected Cultivation 134

760 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:II International Symposium on Plant Genetic Resources ofHorticultural Crops 141

759 XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006:Global Horticulture: Diversity and Harmony, an Introductionto IHC2006 59

758 X International Symposium on the Processing Tomato 84754 International Workshop on Advances in Grapevine and

Wine Research 119752 I International Conference on Indigenous Vegetables and

Legumes. Prospectus for Fighting Poverty, Hunger andMalnutrition 130

751 IV International Symposium on Rose Research andCultivation 108

750 II International Symposium on Loquat 107747 VIII International Symposium on Protected Cultivation in

Mild Winter Climates: Advances in Soil and SoillessCultivation under Protected Environment 123

745 VI International Solanaceae Conference: Genomics MeetsBiodiversity 119

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