Plant Nutrition

The Plant Nutrition Section publishes original manuscripts of diverse types related to the plant nutrition of horticultural crops including vegetables, fruit trees, spices and aromatic plants, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants in open field and protected cultivation as well as in soilless culture.

Mineral nutrients are essential for plants as building blocks, co-factors of enzymes, and for maintaining ion homeostasis. The availability of several minerals, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous, is frequently a factor limiting plant growth. High productivity of horticultural crops cannot be achieved without a sufficient nutrient supply. However, overfertilization might reduce plant growth, cause accumulation of critical compounds in vegetables and fruits, and have adverse effects on the environment. In addition, some mineral resources are experiencing shortages, particularly phosphorous, highlighting the importance of measures for need-based and resource-efficient fertilization in the future.

To tackle these issues, a detailed understanding of the responses of plants to nutrients and nutrient deficiency at the physiological, metabolic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic levels is essential. In addition, improved understanding of nutrient cycling and the role of mycorrhizal symbiosis for uptake of nutrients is required.

Thus, the Plant Nutrition Section welcomes manuscripts of basic and applied studies on topics including but not limited to:

• Impact of plant nutrition on growth performance, yield, crop quality, and resistance to pests
• Measures for need-based and resource-efficient fertilization
• Shortage of mineral resources and strategies for recovering these minerals from alternative sources
• Novel and improved methods for quantification of nutrients and their metabolites in substrates and plants
• Impact of the supply of minerals on fruit quality
• Regulation of secondary plant metabolism, for instance, biosynthesis of phenolic compounds, pigments, and alkaloids, in response to minerals
• Responses of plants to nutrients and nutrient deficiency at the physiological, metabolic, and transcriptomic levels
• Chromatin modifications in response to plant nutrition
• Uptake mechanisms of minerals
• Nutrient exchange in symbiosis
• Metabolization and metabolic fluxes of nutrients
• Re-localization of nutrients from senescent leaves to young tissues

In particular, Plant Nutrition welcomes contributions by early career researchers and propositions for research topics. In addition, we invite senior scientists to initiate and serve as Guest Editors of new Special Issues on a single and particular theme.

• plant nutrition
• fertilization
• macronutrients
• micronutrients
• nitrogen
• phosphorous
• potassium
• sulfur
• magnesium
• calcium
• iron
• fruit and vegetable quality
• primary and secondary metabolism
• chromatin modifications
• hydroponics
• protected cultivation
• vegetables
• ornamentals
• nutrient use efficiency
• uptake of minerals
• mycorrhizal symbiosis