ISHS Acta Horticulturae 594: International Symposium on Foliar Nutrition of Perennial Fruit Plants
PREFACE |
| Authors: | M. Tagliavini, W. Drahorad, J. Dalla Via |
| Abstract:
The International Symposium on Foliar Nutrition of Perennial Fruit Plants was held in Meran (Italy) from 10-15 September 2001, under the aegis of the ISHS Working Group on “Mineral Nutrition of Deciduous Fruit Crops”. The Symposium event was organized as a joint efforts of three institutions, the University of Bologna’s Department of “Colture Arboree”, the South-Tyrol Advisory Service for Fruit and Wine Growing and the Laimburg Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry. We are very pleased at the fine turn-out, which also included a balanced presence of researchers, extension officers from public and private services, and representatives of the world’s main fertilizer companies. The idea for the “Foliar Nutrition Symposium” occurred in summer 1998 when we started considering that foliar fertilization had become a widespread management tool in important fruit growing areas, often as complementary practice to soil nutrition supply and sometimes even as an alternative to the latter. The manufacturers of foliar fertilizers have been rapidly expanding the list of compounds available to growers, who have often been advised to apply a number of products over the season. We agreed that often there was no scientific rationale behind the suggestions for foliar fertilizer applications and at the same time we realized that this technique, if properly applied, had an interesting and partially unexploited potential for manipulating yield and fruit quality, with relatively low costs and low environmental impact. So the time was ripe to bring foliar fertilization to the fore as a science-based technique, and we are pleased we did given the response to the Symposium. That this was also the feeling of most world specialists in this discipline, who kindly decided to join us to discuss the many aspects related to foliar nutrition under the singularly scenic locale of Meran, a picturesque medieval town famous for its culture and surrounded by orchards, vineyards and the South Tyrol’s Dolomite mountains. We are in debt to a number of people who helped us to achieve our aims and we would here like to thank all of them: the co-organizer public institutions, the private-secotr sponsors, the members of the Scientific Committee and its Secretary, the editors and members of the Editorial Board, and the colleagues of our institutions on the Local Organizing Committee. The 121 presentations, including 13 keynote lectures, and the discussion of the issues raised have helped to clarify the mechanisms of leaf and fruit penetration of nutrients, the internal and external conditions affecting their successful application, the nutrient forms best suited for supply. It was stressed the need for specific legislation about foliar fertilizers and for more fundamental research on foliar nutrition, including the use of advanced analytical technology like stable isotopes and electron microscope. This is especially true for research in the field of stimulants, organics and adjuvants, where often applications and experimentation are not based on biological or physical principles. Foliar fertilization can thus no longer be viewed as merely the fertilizer treatment of last resort. Our hope for the future it is that this volume of Acta Horticulturae containing the full papers of contributions and keynote lectures, accepted after a review process by the editorial board, will contribute to making the best use of the foliar fertilization while avoiding unnecessary applications of useless or pollutant chemicals. October 31, 2002 The Organizing Committee Massimo Tagliavini Wolfgang Drahorad Joseph Dalla Via ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This volume of Acta Horticulturae is the Proceedings of the “International Symposium on Foliar Nutrition of Perennial Fruit Plants”. Invited and keynote speakers and selected authors of offered oral papers and posters had the opportunity to submit their manuscripts for publication in this volume of the series Acta Horticulturae. Submitted manuscripts were reviewed by the Editors and members of the Editorial Board and amended according to the referee suggestions prior to acceptance. The ISHS acknowledges the cooperation received from the Editors and Editorial Board on reviewing the manuscripts which was a significant contribution to the overall quality of the publication. The ISHS Board of Directors | |
