Change in Licence Policy for CAAS Journals

We would like to inform you that the journals published by the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) will change their licence policy. All articles submitted to CAAS journals from 2026 will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).

The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0) allows broad reuse, distribution, and adaptation of published articles, provided that appropriate credit to the original authors is given.

Articles submitted by 2025 are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC 4.0) license.


Impact factor (WoS):

2025: 1.2
Q4 – Horticulture
5-Year Impact Factor: 1.4

SCImago Journal Rank (SCOPUS):

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Horticultural Science

  • ISSN 0862-867X (Print)
  • ISSN 1805-9333 (On-line)

An international open access peer-reviewed journal published by the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences and financed by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic. Published since 1976 (by 1999 under the title Zahradnictví)

  Journal leaflet   Horticultural Science - Call for Papers

Aims & Scope

The journal publishes results of basic and applied research from all areas of horticulture – fruit growing, orcharding, viticulture, vegetable growing, floriculture, ornamental gardening, mushroom growing, medicinal plants, garden, and landscape architecture. Original scientific papers, short communications, and review articles are published in the journal. Articles are published in English (British spelling).


Current issue

Plums: Their potential in cultivation, breeding, and useReview

Lukáš Maryška, Lubor Zelený

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):169-181 | DOI: 10.17221/213/2024-HORTSCI  

Plums are one of the most important and most overlooked fruits. Their nutritional value, composition, antioxidant potential, and vitamin content place them at the forefront of the food industry. Their potential is so great that plums are one of the fruits being considered for space travel. Prunes are not just a hot topic for astronauts. The possibility of growing plums in a cultivation box at reduced or zero gravity has also been studied. The sharka virus (Plum pox virus) is responsible for the major economic losses worldwide. Efforts are being made to develop the most effective way to control the spread of the virus between trees, as there...

Effect of pre-harvest chemical treatments on post-harvest disease control and quality enhancement in banana fruitsOriginal Paper

Murugan Loganathan, Raman Thangavelu, Kalimuthu Muthubharathi, Subramanian Bagavathi, Karur Nallappagounder Shiva, Govindasamy Prabhu, Banerjee Kaushik, Hingmire Sandip, Arumugam Mohanasundram, Ramasamy Selvarajan

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):182-192 | DOI: 10.17221/100/2025-HORTSCI  

Bananas, as climacteric fruits, are highly prone to rapid deterioration caused by fungal pathogens, resulting in considerable post-harvest losses. These pathogens typically infect the fruit during field growth, resulting in latent infections that develop into disease after harvest. Generally, several rounds of fungicides such as Carbendazim, Mancozeb + Carbendazim, Trifloxystrobin + Tebuconazole, and Propiconazole are applied to manage fungal diseases like Fusarium wilt and leaf spot in the field. This study assessed the effectiveness of these chemicals on post-harvest diseases, fruit quality and residual toxicity. All four fungicides recorded...

Effects of nitrogen on the hydraulic characteristics and biomass allocation in Notopterygium franchetii in the Qinghai-Tibet PlateauOriginal Paper

Shengrong Xu, Lili Pei, Honghong Zhou, Yijin Hu, Li Tong, Ruili Ma

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):193-203 | DOI: 10.17221/53/2025-HORTSCI  

Nitrogen fertiliser changes the soil environment, regulates the water balance of plants, and directly affects nitrogen and water use efficiency. In order to identify the adaptation mechanism and water regulation strategy of Notopterygium franchetii to the soil nitrogen environment, this study was conducted. Two-year-old Notopterygium franchetii plants grown in farmland were used as the test material. The hydraulic characteristics, natural dehydration, water capacitance and biomass allocation were investigated at three nitrogen application levels (0, 40, 80 kg/ha) and four growth periods (seedling, jointing, flowering and harvesting...

Comparative evaluation of IBA and NAA effects on rhizogenesis and shoot morphogenesis in rose stem cuttingsOriginal Paper

Wagdi Saber Soliman, Khaled Saad-Eldeen, Ahmed M. Abbas, Mohammed O. lshaharni, Abd-Allah Gahory

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):204-212 | DOI: 10.17221/192/2024-HORTSCI  

This study was conducted at the Floriculture Nursery, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt, during the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 growing seasons. The experiment aimed to evaluate the effects of two plant growth regulators (PGRs), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), on the root and shoot development of rose, a species known for its poor rooting ability. A split-plot arrangement within a randomised complete block design was used, with PGR type assigned to the main plots and concentrations (control, 500, 1 000, 1 500, and 2 000 ppm) allocated to the sub-plots. Both IBA and NAA significantly...

Identification of essential oils of Mentha rotundifolia from north-east Jijel region and their antifungal potential against Botrytis cinereaOriginal Paper

Zehaira Bouziane, Hind Sebti

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):213-226 | DOI: 10.17221/33/2025-HORTSCI  

The objective of the present research is to determine the main essential oils of Mentha rotundifolia and to clarify the antifungal effect of these oils against Botrytis cinerea isolated from strawberries. The essential oils were obtained from hydrodistillation of fresh leaves, and the composition was determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The results show that the essential oils yield is in the order of 1.37%, and the main components were identified as pulegone 39.21%, ß-cubebene 11.72%, caryophyllene 9.18%, D-limonene 4.7%, ß-ocimene 2.39%, myrcene 2.21%, myrtenol 2.1%, ß-farnesene 2.03%, respectively. The essential...

Impact of thinning level and timing on yield, maturity, and quality of Merlot grapevines under the Big T trellis systemOriginal Paper

Ilknur Korkutal, Elman Bahar, Gamze Uysal Seckin, Derya Akinci

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):227-234 | DOI: 10.17221/109/2025-HORTSCI  

This study evaluated the effects of cluster thinning on yield and quality of 12-year-old Merlot/41B grapevines over the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 growing seasons. Six phenological stages-before flowering, setting, bunch closure, veraison, half maturity, and before maturity-and three thinning levels (0%, 25%, and 50%) were assessed. Key parameters included total soluble solids (TSS), total acidity (TA), pH, sugar accumulation, maturity indices (TSS/TA, pH2 × °Brix), secondary metabolites (total anthocyanins, total tannins, total phenolic content, total polyphenol index), and yield. Cluster thinning significantly enhanced most...

The effect of exogenous salicylic acid on the germination and seedling growth of sweet melon (Cucumis melo L.) seeds under NaCl stressOriginal Paper

Chun Liu, Lingyue Wang, Jinjin Li, Yupeng Fang

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):235-248 | DOI: 10.17221/78/2025-HORTSCI  

The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of different concentrations of salicylic acid (SA) on seed germination and seedling growth physiology of sweet melon under NaCl stress. Under salt stress, low concentrations of 0.25–0.5 mmol/L SA treatment can effectively alleviate plant salt damage and promote the germination rate of sweet melon seeds. Simultaneously, high concentrations of SA had a significant inhibitory effect on the root length, root fresh weight, and root : shoot ratio of sweet melon, but using medium concentrations (1.0 mmol/L) of SA can increase the root length and root : shoot ratio of seedlings. In addition,...

Determination of LD50 and GR50 for gamma irradiation in dragon fruit (Hylocereus spp.): Comparative study of red and white cultivarsOriginal Paper

Ganesan Karunakaran, Gopavaram Pavithra, Vangala Sivaramakrishna, Thandavarajan Sakthivel, Manivannan Arivalagan, Duraisamy Kalaivanan, Anbazhagan Thirugnanavel, Thimmarayappa Ruchitha, Kumarswamy Abhilash

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2026, 53(3):249-258 | DOI: 10.17221/108/2024-HORTSCI  

Dragon fruit (Hylocereus spp.), an exotic vine cactus valued for its vitamin C and antioxidant content, shows limited genetic improvement through conventional breeding, making mutation breeding a promising alternative. The present study assessed the radiosensitivity of two cultivars (‘Red’ and ‘White’) using cobalt-60 gamma irradiation at 100–1 000 Gy. Seeds were pre-soaked, irradiated, and evaluated for germination, survival, and growth parameters. Linear regression analysis revealed lethal dose (LD50) values of 674.28 Gy (‘Red’) and 731.06 Gy (‘White’), while growth reduction...