Harnessing Beneficial Microbes: Enhancing Nutrient Uptake and Growth in Horticultural Crops
A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2026 | Viewed by 99
Special Issue Editors
Interests: crop protection; plant pathology; horticulture; plant production; phytonematodes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: pomology; plant physiology; plant abiotic stress; beneficial microorganisms; stress adaptation mechanisms in trees; precision agriculture; biostimulants; plant responses; climate change; agricultural sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Growing environmental constraints and the progressive tightening of agrochemical regulation demand a fundamental reconceptualisation of nutrient management in horticultural systems, one in which the plant-associated microbiome occupies a central and operationally deployable role.
In horticultural systems, where productivity and quality are strongly influenced by nutrient efficiency and crop health, the use of microbial inoculants and microbiome-based approaches presents a promising alternative to intensive chemical inputs. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, nitrogen-fixing endophytes, and phosphate-solubilising consortia function as versatile agents of nutrient mobilisation, root architecture modulation, and stress tolerance induction across vegetable, fruit, ornamental, and controlled-environment crops.
The ecology of rhizosphere microbiome assembly, encompassing host genotype interactions, inter-kingdom signalling, and multi-organism co-inoculation synergies, alongside microbial community performance under drought, salinity, thermal stress, and soil contamination, constitutes a core scientific focus.
The applied dimension encompasses inoculant formulation, consortia design, and the integration of biostimulant protocols within reduced-input regimes, integrated crop management, and precision agriculture frameworks, critically addressing the reproducibility gap between proof-of-concept studies and consistent field-scale performance.
Collectively, this body of work advances a microbiome-informed, input-efficient, and climate-adaptive foundation for horticultural production, offering theoretical insights and translational frameworks of direct relevance to plant microbiologists, soil ecologists, horticultural scientists, and agronomists engaged with the ecological intensification agenda. This Special Issue, aims to bring together cutting-edge research and critical reviews on the roles of plant-beneficial microbes in horticultural production.
Dr. Stefanos Leontopoulos
Dr. Helen Kalorizou
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2200 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
- plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR)
- arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)
- biological nitrogen fixation and phosphate solubilisation
- rhizosphere microbiome
- sustainable horticulture
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