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Advances in Biostimulant Use on Horticultural Crops
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Advances in Biostimulant Use on Horticultural Crops

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural Science and Ornamental Plants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 3171

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mason MacDonald

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Guest Editor
Department Plant Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Bible Hill, Halifax, NS B2N5E3, Canada
Interests: environmental stress; ecophysiology; plant physiology; biostimulants; horticulture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Lord Abbey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department Plant Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dal-housie University, Bible Hill, NS B2N5E3, Canada
Interests: horticulture; biostimulants; compost; abiotic stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Raphael Ofoe

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department Plant Food, and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Bible Hill, Halifax, NS B2N5E3, Canada
Interests: biostimulants; horticulture; molecular plant physiology; plant pathology and Abiotic stresses

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biostimulants are an invaluable tool for horticulture, applied to plants with the goal of enhancing certain desirable characteristics regardless of their nutrient content. Specific formulations of biostimulants have the capacity to modify physiological processes that benefit growth, development, and/or stress tolerance. Since the definition focuses on function versus form, many compounds can be classified as biostimulants. Researchers have identified biostimulatory properties from humic substances, composts, natural extracts, peptides, antioxidants, and many other types of compounds. As society faces global threats such as climate change and food insecurity, the role of biostimulants in horticulture is arguably more important now than ever before. The goal of this Special Issue is to consolidate some of the most recent research in horticultural biostimulants. We welcome original research or review papers that discuss the discovery of new biostimulants, the physiological mechanisms of established biostimulants, and the effects of biostimulants on previously untested crops.

Dr. Mason MacDonald
Dr. Lord Abbey
Dr. Raphael Ofoe
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • antioxidants
  • biostimulants
  • fruit production
  • hormones
  • horticulture
  • plant growth regulators
  • vegetable production

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3320 KiB  
Article
Mitigation of Salt Stress in Lactuca sativa L. var. Gentile Rossa Using Microalgae as Priming Agents
by Ornella Francioso, Michela Schiavon, Serenella Nardi, Davide Castellani, Erika Ferrari, Maria Teresa Rodriguez Estrada, Maria Cristina della Lucia, Veronica Zuffi and Andrea Ertani
Plants 2024, 13(23), 3311; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13233311 - 26 Nov 2024
Viewed by 95
Abstract
Using renewable biomass in agriculture, particularly microalgae as a biostimulant, offers economic and environmental sustainability benefits by reducing costs, improving nutrient cycling, and enhancing water use efficiency. Microalgae contain bioactive compounds that boost crop tolerance to environmental stresses, including salinity. Saline soils, characterized [...] Read more.
Using renewable biomass in agriculture, particularly microalgae as a biostimulant, offers economic and environmental sustainability benefits by reducing costs, improving nutrient cycling, and enhancing water use efficiency. Microalgae contain bioactive compounds that boost crop tolerance to environmental stresses, including salinity. Saline soils, characterized by elevated sodium chloride (NaCl) levels, negatively impact many crops, resulting in low productivity and high remediation costs. Therefore, this study evaluates the biostimulant properties of a microalgae-based commercial preparation (MR) on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) plants grown hydroponically and exposed to saline stress. The extract was chemically characterized through elemental analysis, lipid composition (gas chromatography with flame ionization detector—GC-FID), the determination of functional groups (Fourier Transformed Infrared—FT-IR), structure (1H,13C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance—NMR), with their hormone-like activity also assessed. Lettuce plants were treated with or without the microalgae blend, in combination with 0, 50 mM, or 100 mM NaCl. The contents of nutrients, soluble proteins, chlorophylls, and phenols, as well as the lipid peroxidation, antioxidants and root traits of lettuce plants, were estimated. The microalgae applied to salt-stressed plants resulted in a significant increase in biomass, protein, and chlorophyll contents. Additionally, significant effects on the secondary metabolism and mitigation of salinity stress were observed in terms of increased phenol content and the activity of antioxidant enzymes, as well as decreased lipid peroxidation. The potassium (K+) content was increased significantly in plants treated with 100 mM NaCl after addition of microalgae, while the content of sodium (Na+) was concurrently reduced. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that using microalgae can be a potent approach for improving the cultivation of Lactuca sativa L. under saline stress conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biostimulant Use on Horticultural Crops)
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16 pages, 4405 KiB  
Article
Single or Blended Application of Non-Microbial Plant-Based Biostimulants and Trichoderma atroviride as a New Strategy to Enhance Greenhouse Cherry Tomato Performance
by Lorena Vultaggio, Michele Ciriello, Emanuela Campana, Pietro Bellitto, Beppe Benedetto Consentino, Youssef Rouphael, Giuseppe Colla, Fabiana Mancuso, Salvatore La Bella, Simona Napoli and Leo Sabatino
Plants 2024, 13(21), 3048; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13213048 - 31 Oct 2024
Viewed by 627
Abstract
The need to increase yield and enhance the sustainability of crop production systems has led to the development and employment of natural products, such as plant biostimulants. In recent years, a number of reports have researched the effects of biostimulants on plant performance; [...] Read more.
The need to increase yield and enhance the sustainability of crop production systems has led to the development and employment of natural products, such as plant biostimulants. In recent years, a number of reports have researched the effects of biostimulants on plant performance; however, few studies have focused on the mutual application of microbial and/or non-microbial biostimulants. This research, conducted in the framework of the SO.MI.PR.O.N regional project, aimed to investigate the single or mutual application of three biostimulants, a tropical plant extract (PE), a vegetal protein hydrolysate (PH), and Trichoderma atroviride, on ‘Creativo’ F1 cherry tomato plants cultivated during two growing cycles (2022–2023 and 2023–2024). Our results showed that plants treated with the combination Tricho + PE + PH had statistically significant higher fresh shoot biomass (+64.2%, 1647.0 g plant−1), total fruit production (+37.9%, 1902.5 g plant−1), marketable fruit production (+52.9%, 1778.5 g plant−1), and average weight of marketable fruits (+53.1%, 17.0 g) compared to control plants (untreated plants). Furthermore, biostimulant treatments, especially T. atroviride, variably enhanced cherry tomato fruits’ qualitative traits, such as firmness, total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, lycopene, and total polyphenols compared to control plants. Overall, the best combinations to increase tomato fruit qualitative features were PE + PH, Tricho + PE, and Tricho + PH. From an economic point of view, the best treatment for achieving the highest net return was PE. This study underlines that biostimulant features (yield, qualitative aspects, and economic profitability) can be supported through the application of specific biostimulant combinations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biostimulant Use on Horticultural Crops)
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14 pages, 1010 KiB  
Article
Wood Distillate Promotes the Tolerance of Lettuce in Extreme Salt Stress Conditions
by Riccardo Fedeli, Silvia Celletti and Stefano Loppi
Plants 2024, 13(10), 1335; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13101335 - 12 May 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1879
Abstract
Soil salinization is an adverse phenomenon in agriculture that severely affects crop growth and yield. The use of natural products, such as wood distillate (WD, derived from the pyrolysis of woody biomass), could be a sustainable approach to enhance the tolerance of plants [...] Read more.
Soil salinization is an adverse phenomenon in agriculture that severely affects crop growth and yield. The use of natural products, such as wood distillate (WD, derived from the pyrolysis of woody biomass), could be a sustainable approach to enhance the tolerance of plants cultivated in the saline soils. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the potential of WD, a foliar sprayed at 0.2% (v/v), in lettuce plants subjected to grow under both moderate and high soil sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations (ranging from 0 to 300 mM). The changes in the physiological and biochemical responses of these plants to the varying salt stress conditions allowed the identification of a maximum tolerance threshold (100 mM NaCl), specific to lettuce. Beyond this threshold, levels related to plant defense antioxidant power (antiradical activity) were lowered, while those indicative of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde content and electrolyte leakage) were raised, causing significant losses in leaf fresh biomass. On the other hand, WD significantly improved plant growth, enabling plants to survive high salt conditions >200 mM NaCl. Collectively, these observations highlight that treatments with WD could be of paramount importance in coping with current environmental challenges to have better yields under soil conditions of high salt concentrations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biostimulant Use on Horticultural Crops)
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