PREFACE

Because of these reasons the Section for Vegetables particularly welcomes the organizing of a Symposium and the setting up of a working group on problems of nutrition and fertilization of vegetable crops. The section is grateful to Polish colleagues for taking care of this problem. Our sincere gratitude goes to the Minister of Agriculture, to the Polish Academy of Sciences, to the President of the ISHS Prof. Dr. Szczepan A.Pieniazek, and to all institutions involved in organizing the Symposium. At the head of these our honoured colleague Prof. Dr. Emil Chroboczek ought to be mentioned who has been actively working in the Section for Vegetables for many years. We count ourselves happy that we can profit by his valuable advice and his rich experience. We are also very grateful to the Secretary of the Symposium Dr. Olgierd Nowosielski and all the staff members.

The generous hospitality and the friendly atmosphere just as the scientific lectures helped to make the Symposium successful. The visit at the Research Institute of Vegetable Crops at Skierniewice the excursion to vegetable growers with field production and protected cultivation to an establishment of fruit and vegetable processing (Hortex), to the Castle of Wilanów, the opportunity of attending the concert at Chopin's birth place and an opera performance, sight seeing tours and a farewell-dinner will remain in the participants mind. The main occasion for this Symposium was the 50th anniversary of the Research Institute of Vegetable Crops at Skierniewice. Consequently, it will also be best remembered. We would like to congratulate this Institute at the same time. Many valuable scientific findings have come from Skierniewice. We feel sure that this place will also be a name in vegetable research in the future. So, I wish the Institute further development and progress. With this Symposium the new working group on “Nutrition and Fertilization of Vegetable Crops” started its work under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. E. Chroboczek and with Prof. Dr. O. Nowosielski as the Secretary. A working group does not only need a chairman and a secretary, but members actively collaborating and prepared to contribute to the existence of the working group with their ideas and results of scientific work and who do not wait for others to go on ahead. This Symposium also gave the young colleagues the opportunity of getting to know each other and preparing further collaboration beyond political borders. Due to the small number of specialists working in the wide and comprehensive field of vegetable research in each single country, there is an urgent need of international co-operation - whether concerned with methodical problems and standardization of soil and leaf analysis; with critical values of nutrients; with optimum values of fertilization or its effect on the external and internal quality components of the plant. It is an objective of the ISHS to start co-operation in every field of horticultural research.

The Symposium attended by about 100 persons from 12 countries was a good begining for successful work of the group “Nutrition and Fertilization of Vegetable Crops”.

Prof. Dr. DIETRICH FRITZ

Chairman of the Section for Vegetables
of the ISHS


OPENING ADDRESS

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is my great pleasure to welcome you in Poland on behalf of the International Society for Horticultural Science.

The Symposium that we start today is in a way a preparation for the 19th International Horticultural Congress that is going to convene in September 1974 in Warsaw. I hope I will be able to welcome all of you three years hence.

I take also this opportunity to welcome you on behalf of the Agriculture and Forestry Department of the Polish Academy of Sciences. For us, in the Polish Academy of Sciences, this Symposium is a sign of a vigorous development of research in vegetable crops in Poland, and especially at the Research Institute of Vegetable Crops at Skierniewice.

It so happens that in a few months, on January 1972, the vegetable crops research team at Skierniewice will celebrate its 50th anniversary. On January 1, 1922, the Vegetable Crops Department was created at the Warsaw Agricultural University and was located at Skierniewice. Dr. Felix Kotowski was appointed the head of the Department and started at Skierniewice the first modern horticultural research work of the country.

After the untimely death of this young man in 1929 E. Chroboczek was designated his successor. He was sent to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, for graduate work. Upon presenting his brilliant still classical piece of work on the effect of vernalization on beets, he was granted his Ph.D. degree. He returned to Poland in 1932, almost exactly 40 years ago, and was appointed the head of the Vegetable Crops Department. Since that date research in vegetable crops in Poland is closely linked with his name. He started to work almost single handed and developed Skierniewice as the center of Polish vegetable crops research, one of the most important centers of this field in Europe. The Research Institute of Vegetable Crops that he organized is a living memorial to his devotion to scientific foundations of vegetable production in Poland.

Our vegetable crops production, excluding potatoes, amounts to about 100 kg per capita. Fourty years ago Poland imported onions on a large scale. She is an important exporter of onions on a large scale. She is an important exporter of onions at the present time. We used to import seeds of early cabbage varieties, today we produce enough of them for our needs. These are only some of the developments in Polish vegetable crops production that we owe to the research of Professor Chroboczek directly or to his group of students. Horticulture longer in Poland that in some other countries remained the field of artisans rather than scientists. Professor Chroboczek built firm scientific foundations for research and higher education in Polish horticulture. I was working with Professor Chroboczek for the last 25 years on different committees concerning the organization of higher education and research activities in Poland. I know therefore how important were his contributions.

Professor Chroboczek's contributions to education and research in Poland were well apprecited. He served as a Dean of Horticulture at the Warsaw Agricultural University. He was given the task of organizing the Research Institute of Vegetable Crops at Skierniewice. He was elected a Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The high standard of his work also won recognition abroad. He was elected a foreign Member of the German Academy of Agricultural Science in Berlin, and was awarded a doctorate honoris causa by the Humboldt University in Berlin and by the Hungarian Horticultural University in Budapest.

On behalf of the Agriculture and Forestry Department of the Polish Academy of Sciences I wish to pay this tribute to Professor E. Chroboczek. I wish to congratulate him on his anniversary and wish him great satisfaction from the results of his own work and from the results of large and important group of students. I wish also the participants of the Symposium on Nutrition and Fertilization of Vegetable Crops fruitful deliberations.


OPENING ADDRESS

As the Secretary General of the ISHS I would like to add a few words on behalf of the Secretariat, to the speech given by the President of our International Society for Horticultural Science. In the first place, I would like to wholeheartedly thank the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Agriculture for the support given to the organizer of this Symposium, Prof. Dr. E. Chroboczek. We all know that Prof. S.A. Pieniazek the Secretary of the Agriculture and Forestry Department of the Academy has played an important part in the decision.

Furthermore, I would also like to express my great appreciation and gratitude to Prof. E. Chroboczek, the father of scientific vegetable crops research in Poland.

Let me stress in particular the important role of Prof. E. Chroboczek in the international field. He represented Polish vegetable crop science to all International Horticulture Congresses and Symposium and gave there several important lectures and brought Polish research work clearly to an international level. He had an open mind for the importance of encouraging international relations clearly shown by the fact that he sent many of his students abroad for graduate work.

From the start he was one of the most active members of the vegetable section of the ISHS. He contributed much to its activities and took important initiatives. The best evidence of this fact is the Symposium of today.

In the last place I take the opportunity to express my hope and expectation that the success of this Symposium may contribute to the further development of the ISHS I call especially on participantes from the Eastern European countries, to take a more active part in the activities at the only true International Society in the field of Horticultural Research by becomming an individual member of this Society.

I wish you all, organizers, lecturers, and participants much success at this Symposium.


OPENING ADDRESS

Mr. President, Doctor G. de Bakker, Minister H. Burczyk,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

As a Chairman of the Organizing Committee of this Symposium I would like to thank all the speakers who honoured us by taking part the opening of our meeting.

We are very well aware of the honour as well as of the responsibilities which the choice of Warsaw as a meeting place of the Symposium bestowes on us. Even more so because this is the first scientific conference of the Section of “Nutrition and Fertilization of Vegetable Crops” of the ISHS.

This Section came into being due to the efforts and the initiative of the Chairman of the Vegetable Crop Commission of ISHS, Professor Dietrich Fritz. It is a particular pleasure for me to have the opportunity to welcome Professor D. Fritz here. Professor D. Fritz chose not to address us here, at the formal opening, but his presence at the Symposium will undoubtedly be as important to us as his advice and the unceasing help during the year preceding the Symposium. Also, on behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to welcome most cordially all the participants of the Symposium and particularly those from abroad: It is our sincere hope that our friends from abroad will have a pleasant stay in our country. We have tried to do our best to ensure this, but undoubtedly our wishes surpass existing means. Here I owe a word of thanks to the Congress of the Travel Bureau “Orbis” who helped us much in the organization of extracurricular activities.

I also wish to welcome here representatives of the press. We are very aware of the help of the press in the popularization of horticultural sciences and their role - not always recognized - in creating a sound foundation for nutrition of the population. As Minister H.Burczyk has already mentioned in his speech, the research work on specialized vegetable problems dates the establishment of the Chair of Vegetable Crops at Skierniewice in 1922. However, more extensive work on vegetable problems in various regions of Poland has become possible after the creation of the Institute of Vegetable Crops at Skierniewice in 1964. Having more scientific equipment at hand a larger number of trained specialists, we could start tackling more complex problems on a larger scale. Among these were the problems of vegetable nutrition and fertilization.

The task we face trying to understand the problems of plant nutrition is indeed enormous and we realize only too well how small our achievements are, and how much there is still to be done. This seems to be a universal situation. I don't think the problems of vegetable nutrition have been ultimately solved anywhere, if not because of particular local problems, then because of new demands, which create still new requirements for plant production.

In this situation the initiation of the international collaboration is particularly valuable. That is why the Section of ISHS “Nutrition and Fertilization of Vegetable Crops” has been created. It is an old and known truth scientists can understand each other much better than politicians and perhaps in our hands lies the unification of the world. The exchange of experiences will not only enable us to avoid working on the same problem in several countries but also can, and will be stimulating in horticultural sciences. It would be superfluous to list here all the benefits of international collaboration for all participating nations. These benefits are numerous. And they will become more apparent in the course of this meeting.

We have been organizing this Symposium with all these goals in mind. We shall discuss here various problems dealing with vegetable nutrition and fertilization. We tried to emphasize certain problems which we believe are important for vegetable production and science. We hope we made a right choice. We shall show you what has been done here in the field of vegetable nutrition. We also hope that the presented talks and private discussions will help us in our own work and will facilitate the solution of our research problems. I hope that the spirit of international collaboration will always be with us during this Symposium as it has always been in all the activities of the International Society of Horticultural Sciences.


OPENING ADDRESS

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I consider it a most pleasant duty to welcome participants from our country and from abroad to the Symposium organized by the International Society for Horticultural Sciences on “Nutrition and Fertilizing of Vegetables”.

At first, I would like to express our joy that Warsaw, the heroic capital of Poland, has been chosen as the seat for discussions on these most interesting problems, so important for our country. We take the decision of the Executive of the International Society for Horticulture as a recognition of the modest but evident contribution of Polish science to the worldwide knowledge of horticulture. Although horticultural sciences have been in existence for 50 years as a seperate branch of knowledge in Poland it was only after the Second World War that great development opportunities for these disciplines in the new, changed socio-political conditions came into being. An evident manifestation of this development is, among other things - the calling into being, and development of an Institute of Vegetable Crops attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, with its seat at Skierniewice.

The Institute of Vegetable Crops, in spite of its short, only 7-year activity, shows considerable research achievementes and has a sufficiently trained scientific staff to influence growth of vegetable production in our country.

An expression of the activities of the Institute's works is also the organization of this International Symposium which should expand the already existing cooperation with foreign specialists and facilitate the establishing of new contacts.

One of the essential tasks for the coming future in our country is a systematic increase of vegetable production. The land area covered by vegetable cultivation in Poland amounts to about 230 thousand ha with average crops in the last 5 years amounting to about 3800 thousand tons yearly, which is over 100 kg per one inhabitant. On the other hand, vegetable consumption amounts to about 90 kg per person and places our country among European countries on a fairly high consumption level, except, of course, the leading conturies in this respect, such as France or Italy. However, the achieved vegetable consumption level cannot be considered as satisfactory, taking into account a very irregular supply during the year and a shortage of fruit, the production of which amounts to 40 kg per inhabitant yearly.

The structure of the cultivated varieties, among which cabbage plants prevail, is not satisfactory either. There is also a shortage of tomatoes, cucumbers, additive flavouring vegetables and the like.

An important item in our vegetable production are onions which gained a high evaluation on the international market and which therefore has been exported for a number of years. The development programme of vegetable production in Poland up to 1975 envisages a further growth to 4600 thousand tons, which is to about 130 kg vegetables per one inhabitant yearly.

The implementation of these tasks will require a number of organization improvements aiming at yield increase per one surface unit, lowering production costs and the systematic improvement of vegetable quality.

A great number of small vegetable producers hampers productional organization, progress and mechanization as well as managing the commodity supply.

To reduce negative results of farm diminution, vegetable production is organized in the so-called production bases, where cultivation of single varieties is being concentrated. These bases supported by specialist farms will be promoted and developed so as to satisfy the needs of home and export markets besides vegetable production in socialized enterprises.

We plan to achieve the assumed growth of vegetable commodity quantity primarily through production intensification, without involving additional land which would be designated for orher cultivations of economic significance.

The essential part in this intensification should be played by the rational fertilization of vegetables on a scientific basis considering soil conditions and the requirements of single species, and in the future, even of varieties.

At present, there are in Poland no difficulties in supplying horticulture and agriculture with mineral fertilizers. On the other hand, however the problem of their proper aplication both in respect to response of single fertilizer assortments and to the amount and proportion of introduced nutritive components has not been finally solved.

Horticultural practice expects from science concrete recommendations as to fertilizing single varieties of vegetables in determined conditions and ecological schemes. Some of the problems calling for urgent solutions are the following:

1. Research into the influence of single forms of mineral fertilizers on the growth of vegetables and on their quality, with the indication of most favourable assortments for defined varieties.
2. Investigating the antagonistic properties of some nutrition components and their influence on the nutritive value of vegetable products.
3. Establishing the adequate proportions of macro- and microelements according to the contents of organic substance in the soil and to additional plant irrigation.
4. Elaboration of fertilizing and supplementary nutrition of vegetables cultivated on peatbogs.
5. Establishing both from productive and economic view-points, favourable bases for hotbed vegetable cultivation with mineral fertilizations.

Naturally, the above few examples do not cover all the problems of vegetable fertilizing which will be the subject of this Symposium. I am deeply convinced that both the exchange of experiences and of opinions and the results of the discussions will contribute to enrich the science in new cognitive values, and the conclusions will also facilitate the solution of a number of problems occurring in Polish horticulture.

Let me then wish all participants of the Symposium fruitful and creative discussions, a pleasant stay in Warsaw and especially our distinguished guests from abroad, unforgettable. impressions from our country.