Horticultural Science, 2020 (vol. 47), issue 1

Sustainable alternatives to chemicals for weed control in the orchard - a ReviewReview

Md Jebu Mia, Francesca Massetani, Giorgio Murri, Davide Neri

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):1-12 | DOI: 10.17221/29/2019-HORTSCI  

This review is designed to address various alternative weed-control practices and their possibilities in the fruit orchard in terms of sustainability. Correct weed management and maintenance of adequate orchard biodiversity are crucial for sustainable orchard soil management. The key is to practice an alternative weed-management approach (single or integrated) rather than to use possibly harmful chemicals only. Integration of modern equipment with a shallow tillage system can provide effective weed control in tree rows, including optimised tree performance and soil biodiversity. Living mulch suppresses weeds and enhances orchard biodiversity, while...

Long-term evaluation of rootstock effects on cropping and tree parameters of selected sweet cherry cultivarsOriginal Paper

Jitka Blažková, Adéla Skřivanová, Pavol Suran, Lubor Zelený, František Paprštein

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):13-20 | DOI: 10.17221/39/2018-HORTSCI  

The cropping of six sweet cherry cultivars that originated in the Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology at Holovousy, and a standard one, 'Burlat', were evaluated on three rootstocks in the period of 2007-2017. Trees planted in a spacing of 1.5 m × 5.0 m were trained as tall spindle axes utilising their natural tendency to develop a central leader. On the standard rootstock, P-TU-2, 'Tim' was the most productive with a mean total harvest of 47.6 kg per tree. 'Sandra' yielded the most on the PHLC rootstock with 56.2 kg per tree and 'Helga' yielded the most on Gisela 5 with a mean total harvest of 55.9 kg per tree. The mean impact of the rootstock...

Evaluation of genetic fidelity of in vitro-propagated blackberry plants using RAPD and SRAP molecular markersOriginal Paper

Orsolya Borsai, Monica Hârța, Katalin Szabo, Cristina-Daniela Kelemen, Flavia Andreea Andrecan, Maria-Maruni Codrea, Doina Clapa

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):21-27 | DOI: 10.17221/20/2019-HORTSCI  

The aim of this research was to evaluate the genetic uniformity of blackberry plants (Rubus fruticosus L. 'Loch Ness' and 'Chester Thornless') obtained by micropropagation. Genetic uniformity was analysed by using RAPD and SRAP markers. For the in vitro multiplication, the slightly modified Murashige and Skoog (1962) basal medium was used, supplemented with 0.5 mg/l 6-Benzyladenine (BA), prepared with tap water and 50 g/l wheat starch as the gelling agent. This culture medium ensured the regeneration of well-developed plantlets, with multiplication rates of more than 42 for both cultivars. The in vitro multiplication was carried out in 30 months including...

Minimal morphoagronomic descriptors for Cuban pineapple germplasm characterisationOriginal Paper

Daymara Rodríguez-Alfonso, Miriam Isidrón-Pérez, Odalys Barrios, Zoila Fundora, José Ignacio Hormaza, María José Grajal-Martín, Lisset Herrera-Isidrón

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):28-35 | DOI: 10.17221/27/2019-HORTSCI  

A set of minimum descriptors allow for the rapid characterisation of germplasm facilitating the conservation and use of plant material. The objective of this work was to establish a list of minimum descriptors to facilitate the morphological characterisation of the ex situ pineapple collection in Cuba. Therefore, 48 pineapple accessions were characterised according to the morphoagronomic descriptors established by the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). The data were processed by Multivariate Analysis, where a Multiple Principal Components Analysis was used for the qualitative and quantitative traits. A list with 14 minimum descriptors...

Effect of partial root-zone drying on grafted tomato in commercial greenhouseOriginal Paper

Branimir Urlić, Marko Runjić, Katja Žanić, Marija Mandušić, Gabriela Vuletin Selak, Igor Pasković, Gvozden Dumičić

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):36-44 | DOI: 10.17221/130/2018-HORTSCI  

For two years, the tomatoes (cv. 'Belle' and 'Clarabella'), ungrafted, self-grafted and grafted onto the 'He-man' rootstock, were grown under two irrigation regimes, i.e., partial-root zone drying (PRD) and fully irrigated (FI), to investigate whether grafting can alleviate drought stress and promote water-use efficiency (WUE). The grafted plants under the FI regime had the highest vegetative growth, which was the result of more leaves and greater leaf area and were only significantly different from the PRD grown ungrafted plants. The grafted plants had the highest yield as a result of the greater number of larger fruits and the yield did not differ...

Effect of plant density on stem and flower quality of single-stem ornamental sunflower genotypesOriginal Paper

Emina Mladenović, Sandra Cvejić, Siniša Jocić, Nemanja Ćuk, Jelena Čukanović, Milan Jocković, Ana Marjanović Jeromela

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):45-52 | DOI: 10.17221/10/2019-HORTSCI  

The aim of this research was to determine the optimum planting density for the production of high-quality cut flowers with desirable characteristics. 25 single-stem ornamental sunflower genotypes were planted at different densities and evaluated for flowering time, flower diameter, and stem circumference and length over a two-year production cycle. Three spacing patterns were used: 25 × 25 cm, 30 × 30 cm, and 70 × 30 cm, which led to the planting densities of 160 000, 90 000, and 60 000 plants/ha, respectively. The plant density had the most important effect on the stem circumference, flower diameter, and stem length (total variation 52, 60, and 58%,...

Alleviation of allelochemical stress-induced growth inhibition and oxidative damage in lettuce under closed hydroponics through electro-degradationOriginal Paper

Md. Raihan Talukder, Md. Asaduzzaman, Makoto Ueno, Hideyuki Tanaka, Toshiki Asao

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):53-68 | DOI: 10.17221/32/2019-HORTSCI  

Successive lettuce cultivation in closed hydroponics using the same nutrient solution causes the excess production and accumulation of allelochemicals. The accumulated allelochemicals induce oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation in plants leading to growth inhibition. In this study, we investigated the allelochemicals that induced oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation in lettuce grown in a once used non-renewed nutrient solution (1NR) and a twice used non-renewed nutrient solution (2NR) obtained from the successive cultivation and the alleviation of these damages through electro-degradation (ED). The 1NR solution was used for six weeks for a one-time...

Molecular characterisation of apple accessions with respect to aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase gene (ACS1) polymorphismOriginal Paper

Khethani Give Mhelembe, Johan Hendrik Kriel, Cecilia Bester, Rouvay Roodt-Wilding, Esmé Denise Louw, Kenneth Richard Tobutt

Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2020, 47(1):69-79 | DOI: 10.17221/83/2018-HORTSCI  

The ARC apple gene bank collection was genotyped for the fruit expressed gene ACS1, in which a short-interspersed element (SINE) in the promoter is known, when homozygous, to correlate with the delayed ethylene production. Primers were designed amplifying products less than 500 bp and 224 cultivars of domestic apple were analysed, 169 not previously genotyped. Of these, 82 were aa (homozygous for the high ethylene allele at 202 bp), 73 were ab and 14 bb (homozygous for the low ethylene allele, with the SINE, at 339 bp). The difference between the allele sizes, 137 bp, observed in the current study is consistent with the indel of 138 bp originally described,...